For one month only, Spier Wine Farm will transform into a glowing landscape of light and art. From 21 March to 21 April 2025, the Spier Light Art exhibition returns, offering visitors a free, immersive experience after dark.
Now in its seventh year, the annual showcase brings together 16 site-specific installations by artists and designers who explore the creative and conceptual possibilities of light. The works range from interactive sculptures and video projections to thought-provoking pieces examining surveillance, history, and personal safety.
This year’s edition also brings an international perspective, with Swiss artists Sophie Guyot and Florian Bach joining the lineup. Guyot, a returning artist, will lead a collaborative workshop with Spier’s agricultural team, producing a text-based light work reflecting on the future of farming. Bach’s installation uses floodlights—normally associated with security and control—to question the politics of visibility and power.
Curators Vaughn Sadie and Jay Pather highlight three key themes shaping the 2025 exhibition:
• The farm as a site of colonial memory and shifting relationships to land and labour, as seen in works by Gina-Rose Bolligello, Hashim Tarmahomed & Joshil Naran, Paul Castles & Nicole Brady, Sophie Guyot, and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum.
• Light as infrastructure, raising questions around access, surveillance, and security. Artists engaging with this theme include Florian Bach, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Stephanie Briers & Andrew Earl (LightUp Collective), and a collaboration between Sue Clark, Ross Juterbock & Carla Prins.
• Playfulness and materiality, using light to evoke joy while responding to contemporary realities. Works by Jessica Bothma, Karla Nixon, Elgin Rust & Jane Appleby, Zakiyyah Haffejee, Mmakhotso Lamola, Zahraa Essa & TK Mbadi, Antoine Schmitt, Berco Wilsenach, and Dean Hutton fall under this category.
With no fixed route or prescribed way to experience the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to explore freely, crafting their own journey through the artworks scattered across the farm. Some installations invite deep reflection, while others celebrate light’s ability to transform space and mood.
Spier Light Art is free and open to the public from 18:30 each evening. Guided tours run on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 19:30, departing from the info kiosk.
For more information, visit www.spier.co.za.
