South African curator Kamogelo Walaza, founder of Walaza’s Practice, is currently undertaking a residency at Balmoral Schloss Artist in Germany, where she has organized an exhibition titled "Remnants of alchemy and trials and tribulations." The show features unfinished, unresolved, or still-in-progress works from artists across Brazil, Canada, Botswana, Iran, Germany, and South Africa. Rather than presenting polished outcomes, Walaza focuses on the traces of making—discarded materials, abandoned experiments, and half-formed thoughts—challenging the conventional exhibition format that prioritizes completion.
This approach matters because it pushes back against the contemporary art world's emphasis on speed, production, and sales. Walaza's curatorial practice, known for its commitment to research, pedagogy, and process, asks audiences to slow down and consider the thinking that precedes the final object. By centering experimentation and artistic possibility over certainty, the exhibition redefines what a show can be, treating unfinished works not as failures but as evidence of how artists think, hesitate, and revise.