Johan Thom
Title: Ruin
Medium: Single Channel Video Loop (4K)
Length: 4min 15 sec
Date: 2026

This video artwork seeks to explore issues of memory, home, loss and the body. Some histories and memories are doomed to be irrevocably lost to human knowledge. In this work the artist seeks to signal the possibility that spaces and objects of loss may be thought as opportunities for quiet resistance, unexpected growth and other forms of knowledge about the world and our place therein.

The film production involved three sites leading to three different ‘Movements’ that comprise the artwork as a whole.
For Movement 1 I loaned a number of bird skins (European Bee Eaters) from the Ditsong Natural History Museum in Pretoria. These where lightly attached to my outstretched arm becoming wing-like in the process.
In Movement 2 I documented an abandoned colony of birds nests in a space in Mamelodi Pretoria run by the Mothong African Heritage Trust (overseen by a well-known traditional healer, Dr Mabena). These nests once belonged to European Bee Eaters. Today the site is considered sacred although it has a varied history – from once being a rubbish dump to being a space where anti-apartheid activists were routinely tortured. Today it is a nursery for plants with a variety of healing properties and a large community garden.
For Movement 3 I shot an aerial view of a near unknown, archaeological site in the Cradle of Humankind dated circa 1450-1850AD. The site is attributed to the Tswana peoples generally but but very little is currently known about it, with only one cursory academic article currently published in relation thereto. Many locals fear and revere the site in equal measure.

Production Credits:

Artwork: Johan Thom
Cinematography/ Camera: Johan Thom, Garreth Fradgley, Ntate Phakela
Editing & Sound: Johan Thom

Ruin: Movement 1
was made possible by the generous support of the
Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria

Ruin: Movements 2 and 3 were respectively shot on site at
The Mothong African Heritage Trust, Mamelodi Pretoria
and The Driefontein Settlement, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

Ruin was produced through the generous support of Pixelache Helsinki as part of the group exhibition ‘Another story 2026: Who Goes Hunting Does Not Cough’ curated by Kisito Assangni.

Special thanks:

Benji Liebmann & NIROX Foundation & Sculpture Park

Mpho Malematja (Curator: Ornithology, National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria South Africa)
Ditsong Museums of South Africa.
https://ditsong.org.za

Dr Cebisa Mabena
The Mothong African Heritage Trust
https://ancientwisdom.africa/mothong-african-heritage/

Farmhouse58, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa
https://www.farmhouse58.co/

The University of Pretoria, South Africa
https://www.up.ac.za

Martin Giebler