Staff from Uganda’s Umoja Art Gallery were forced to cancel their attendance at the Africa Basel art fair in Switzerland after their visa applications were denied. Gallery representative John Hillary Balyejusa and a colleague spent two months preparing their applications, traveling to the Swiss embassy in Nairobi, only to receive a rejection letter less than a week before departure. The gallery’s empty booth at the fair bears a sign stating that their participation remains impossible due to the visa denial, serving as a reminder of the barriers faced by artists from the Global South. Meanwhile, Zimbabwean artist Richard Mudariki, who was denied a visa for the same fair last year, is present in Basel this year with his Art World Passport project, which explores issues of migration and inequality in the art world.
This incident highlights the persistent administrative and physical barriers that prevent artists and galleries from the Global South from participating in international art events, despite the rhetoric of a global art ecosystem. The denial of visas—exacerbated by factors like Uganda’s recent Ebola outbreak—undermines efforts to diversify the voices represented at major art fairs and raises questions about equity and access in the art world. Mudariki’s Art World Passport project directly addresses these inequalities, using the fair as a platform to provoke discussion about migration, border controls, and who gets to be present in the global art conversation.