Innovative Curatorial Projects – Paris / SingaporeJyoti Mistry
*1970 Durban, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Jyoti Mistry’s creative practice moves between filmmaking and installation art. Her filmography includes films, documentaries and film installations. She is Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in the Wits School of Arts. Her research areas include cultural policy, questions of identity and multiculturalism. She has held fellowships at the Whitney Independent study Program (ISP) in NYC, at the IWM (Institute for Human Sciences) in Vienna and been an artist in residences at NIROX Foundation in Johannesburg and SACATAR Foundation in Brazil. After a degree in comparative literature at Wits University, Mistry completed a Masters and PhD at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts in the Cinema Studies program and achieved an MFA from Wits University. She has taught at New York University, University of Vienna, Arcada University of Applied Science Polytechnic in Helsinki and California College of Arts. Mistry has also worked as a photography and film curator.
Itchy City [with Kgafela oa Magogodi] / South Africa / 2006 / 5’37 / 4:3
Itchy City is a poem by Johannesburg‐based author and spoken word artist Kgafela oa Magogodi. It is part of a larger project, titled I Mike What I like: a play adapted for the screen by Magogodi and filmmaker Jyoti Mistry. The film melds sequences from a live performance of the poem with filmed and painted images of Johannesburg, resulting in a powerful commentary on the complexities and the absurdities of everyday life in South Africa's economic capital.