Ink Rats
Current Events
Performance
L’Orfeo
October 30 – November 14, 2026
Greek National Opera
Stavros Niarchos Hall, Athens
Forthcoming Events
Performance
The Head & the Load
November 12 – 15, 2026
Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, Oakland
Performance
Sibyl
December 12 – 13, 2026
De Singel International Arts Centre
Grootschalig Theater, Antwerp
A sporadic record of what happens in the studio, in video, words and images
📣 OPENING NEXT WEEK 📣
The Head & the Load
Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts
Oakland, California
12 - 15 November, 2026
Booking now open on www.calperformances.org
Concept, Director
William Kentridge
Composer
Philip Miller
Choreography
Gregory Maqoma
Music Director, Co-Composer
Thuthuka Sibisi
Projection Design
Catherine Meyburgh
Costume Design
Greta Goiris
Set Design
Sabine Theunissen
Lighting Design
Urs Schönebaum
Sound Design
Mark Grey, Michele Greco
Video Editing and Compositing
Janus Fouché, Žana Marović, Catherine Meyburgh
Associate Director
Luc De Wit
Studio Technical Director
Chris Waldo de Wet
Cinematography
Duško Marović
Orchestration
Michael Atkinson, Philip Miller
Created and performed by
Actors: Hamilton Dlamini, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Katlego Letsholonyana, Luc De Wit, [In memoriam Mncedisi Shabangu)
Featured vocalists & performers: Joanna Dudley, Ann Masina, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Bham Ntabeni, Sipho Seroto, Dana Lyn (viola), N’Faly Kouyate (kora), Vincenzo Pasquariello (piano), Tlale Makhene (percussion)
Dancers: Otto Nhlapo, Julia Zenzie Burnham, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Thulani Chauke, Xolani Dlamini
Ensemble vocalists: Mhlaba Buthelezi, Ayanda Eleki, Nokuthula Magubane, Ncokwane Lydia Manyama, Tshegofatso Moeng, Mapule Moloi, Xolisile Bongwana, Motho Oa Batho, Bulelani Madondile, Siphiwe Nkabinde, Lubabalo Velebayi
Musicians: Dilon Bryan, Shane Cooper, Kendra Grittani, Richard Harris, Sam Jones, Andrew Kershaw, Nathan Koci, Shoto Otaguro, Myles Roberts, Benny Vernon, Khelsey Zarraga
Additional orchestration: Nathan Koci
Executive producer: @theofficearts
📣 BOOK LAUNCH TOMORROW 📣
William Kentridge
DOCTRINES OF AFFECTION FROM STUDIO TO STAGE
Saturday, 31 October, 2026 at 12h00
Auditorium, 2-4 Sina Street , Athens
William Kentridge in conversation with the editor of the Greek edition, Elizabeth Plessa
A book signing by the author will follow.
Published by @kapa_ekdotiki
Book design by @oliverbarstow
Edited by Elizabeth Plessa
📣 OPENING TOMORROW 📣
William Kentridge
Imitate the Sleep of Stones
Hellenic National Archaeological Museum, Athens
30 October 2026 – 24 January 2027
The exhibition “Imitate the Sleep of Stones” places contemporary work by the artist William Kentridge in dialogue with artefacts from the collections of the Hellenic National Archaeological Museum. It draws inspiration from the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus’s descent into the underworld to bring his beloved Eurydice back to life.
Curator: @burcufikretoglu
Exhibition design: @sabine.theunissen
Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.
William Kentridge
Imitate the Sleep of Stones:
Orpheus, Eurydice, Transformation and Return
Hellenic National Archaeological Museum, Athens
30 October 2026 – 24 January 2027
The solo exhibition “Imitate the Sleep of Stones: Orpheus, Eurydice, Transformation and Return” brings William Kentridge’s work into dialogue with the collection of the Hellenic National Archaeological Museum. The exhibition coincides with the Greek premiere of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo directed by William Kentridge at the Greek National Opera. Taking the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as its point of departure, the exhibition brings together works the artist has created around the opera alongside others from his wider practice.
Curator: @burcufikretoglu
Exhibition design: @sabine.theunissen
Featured here “Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.”, a diorama with dual channel video and scenography
William Kentridge
Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes
2026
Editor & Technical Designer
Joshua Trappler
Additional Editing & Motion Capture
Janus Fouché
Performers
William Harding
Taryn Buccellato
Roseline Wilkens
Thulani Chauke
Music
Claudio Monteverdi – L’Orfeo: Favola in musica
Claudio Monteverdi – Songs of Love and Loss
Luigi Dallapiccola – Quaderno musicale di Annalibera
Libretto from
Rainer Maria Rilke – Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.
Set Construction
Damon Garstang
Claire Zinn
Diorama Construction
Digital Fabric
Video of diorama: Alisdair Kitchen
A lifetime of enthusiasm...
William Kentridge
I am not me, the horse is not mine
Bozar, Brussels
Until 7 March, 2027
Curator: Tarek Abou El Fetouh
Exhibition designer: Sabine Theunissen
Video: Excerpt from “A Lifetime of Enthusiasm”, one of the eight channels of the installation with which the exhibition shares its title
“I am not me, the horse is not mine”, 2008
Installation of 8 film fragments
DVcam and HDV transferred to DVD
6 minutes
Directing, animation and photography
William Kentridge
Editing
Catherine Meyburgh
Composer
Philip Miller
Animation assistants
Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk and Catherine Walker
Galop
Music Composition
Philip Miller
Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami
Musical arrangement
Philip Miller
Music and lyrics
Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana
“Oh the trumpets we used to blow”
The studio during the making of the new film “A Nicely Built City”, the walls covered with drawings used to make the film, many of which are included in the current exhibition of same title at @goodman_gallery in London.
William Kentridge
A Nicely Built City
Goodman Gallery, London
24 September to 7 November, 2026
Music by @philipmillermusic
Idiosyncratic lines of enquiry into particular aspects of studio practice or bodies of work
William Kentridge: Creative Machines
William Kentridge puts to use a diversity of ‘creative machines’ in making work. He methodologically rethinks drawing, as an unfinished process, a means of collecting and generating iconography, with the aim of maximizing narrative amplitude that goes beyond the limits of graphic representation by resorting to sound and cinematography.
Stumbling to Utopia
“Why continue with these gestures, with these drawings, these words, in the face of their imminent failure? Because without some idea of utopia, of a rescued world implicit not just in these gestures but in the act of making a drawing, a performance, a speech – without this we feel a gap, a hollow.” WK, 2016
Listening to the Trees
An anecdotal account of the making of the book “Waiting for the Sibyl” and a consideration of Kentridge’s ongoing series of tree drawings, by book designer Oliver Barstow
9 WORDS and one more
Making art is a uniquely human endeavour and an artist, the maker of art, is someone who distills what they feel and think about the world and expresses this visually. This requires one to read, to see, to listen, to feel, to question and be curious; to know, and yet to doubt; to have humility and to be brave.
All so different from what you expected
Things which are obvious in studio practice, like uncertainty, doubt, provisionality, are not about the COVID pandemic. They are themes I have worked on for many years – but these themes in the outside world have become much more present in these months.
Cursive
Cursive is the third set in a series of small bronze glyphs, following “Lexicon” (2017) and “Paragraph II” (2018). The glyphs started as a collection of ink drawings and paper cut-outs, each on a single page from a dictionary.
