Lerato Shadi studied Fine Arts at the University of Johannesburg and obtained an M.A. in Spatial Strategies at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. She was awarded the Alumni Dignitas Award by the University of Johannesburg in 2016 and the Villa Romana Prize in Florence in 2018. Her works can be seen in exhibitions worldwide, including: at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris; at the Musée d’art moderne de Paris (2021); in solo exhibitions at KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin; at the Kunstverein in Hamburg (2020); 14th Curitiba Biennial in Brazil, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2019); Kunsthal Amersfoort in Holland, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town (2018) and in the program The Parliament of Bodies at documenta 14 in Kassel (2017). Her video work Mabogo Dinku was shown in the AFI program 2020 at the Whitechapel Gallery London and in numerous art institutes around the globe. Her monograph will be published by Archive Books, Berlin, in spring 2022.
Lerato’s work at Ballhaus Naunynstraße began with the dramaturgy of Carving Out Community (2021) as part of the akademie der autodidakten. Since then, she has been dramaturgically involved in the spoken word evening Even at the Risk (2022), the staged reading Of free men (2023) and the revival of the Porträtperformance TRVΛNIΛ (2019). And finally, she was responsible for the dramaturgy of Lois Alexander’s first solo work at Ballhaus Naunynstraße Eventually Causing the Shake (2023) and Porträtperformance Ashley Temba (2025). Unfolding the Sky is Lerato Shadi’s first solo performance at Ballhaus Naunynstraße.