Jo Ractliffe. En ces lieux

From January 30 to May 24, 2026, the Jeu de Paume devotes a retrospective to South African photographer Jo Ractliffe. “Jo Ractliffe. In These Places” unfolds four decades of creation through twelve chronological sections. Born in Cape Town in 1961, the artist probes landscapes shaped by apartheid, regional wars, and forced relocations. Her black and white images reveal what the territory retains when the violence is no longer visible.

From South African roads of the 1980s to today’s community gardens, the “Jo Ractliffe. In These Places” journey at the Jeu de Paume guides visitors from early photographs of 1982 to the most recent series. This chronological passage reveals the patient construction of a singular gaze on South African territory and its margins. The first rooms gather images taken on the country’s roads during the 1980s. The Nadir series (1986, 1988) marks a break. The artist composes photomontages reproduced as lithographs, populated by stray dogs, police control instruments as much as figures of anarchic freedom. The oppressive atmosphere of apartheid permeates each image without violence appearing directly. Jo Ractliffe, Nadir 14, 1988, photographic silkscreen lithograph. With reShooting Diana (1990, 1999), Jo Ractliffe travels secondary roads using a plastic toy camera. Blurs and light leaks transform the outskirts into enigmatic territories. The journey continues in Angola. Terreno Ocupado (2007) plunges into the chaos of Luanda, a city energized by post-war hopes. As Terras do Fim do Mundo (2009, 2010) explores the south of the country alongside former soldiers. Mass graves at Cassinga, mined roads, empty countryside: silence reigns. The Borderlands (2011, 2013) extends this investigation to Riemvasmaak, Pomfret, and Schmidtsdrift, abandoned garrison sites. Recent series Landscaping (2022, 2024) and The Garden (2024, 2026) conclude the journey. One scrutinizes industrial scars on South Africa’s coast. The other documents gardens created by residents, acts of resistance and rooting.

When absence becomes the central motif of a visual archeology At the heart of the exhibition lies a conviction: landscape is never neutral. It carries the memory of past violence and forced displacements. Jo Ractliffe transforms territory into a living archive where the past persists as barely perceptible traces. Absence is the central motif of this approach. Her images do not show war or repression head-on. They capture what remains once the event is over: a vacant lot, an abandoned mine, a road that leads nowhere. The visitor mentally reconstructs what is missing. Meaning emerges from the void and silence. Jo Ractliffe, On the road to Cuito Cuanavale IV, 2010, vintage gelatin silver print. This photograph belongs to the series As Terras do Fim do Mundo (2009, 2010), made when Jo Ractliffe followed former soldiers on roads of the Angolan civil war and South African “Border War.” Cuito Cuanavale was the site, in 1987 and 1988, of one of Africa’s largest tank battles. Angolan government forces, supported by Cuba, faced UNITA rebels backed by the South African army. Here Ractliffe explores what she calls “landscape as pathology”: how past violence manifests in present territory. Her photographs reveal ghostly echoes of trauma in landscapes where apparently nothing betrays the noise of the past. From this dialogue between image and territory comes a singular visual archeology. The artist does not seek documentary proof but resonance: what persists in the soil and paths once players have disappeared.

Forty years of formal research serving meaning Jo Ractliffe adopts a sober, distanced aesthetic throughout the exhibition. Black and white dominates, from Nadir’s photomontages to the baryta digital prints of Landscaping. This monochromy removes color to better reveal textures, volumes, and contrasts of the landscape. It strengthens a sense of strangeness and suspended temporality. Techniques vary over decades. Lithographs and composite montages for Nadir. Plastic Diana camera, with its embraced limitations, for reShooting Diana. Vintage gelatin silver prints for the Angolan series. Baryta digital prints for Landscaping. This diversity of methods reflects a constant search for a language adapted to each explored territory. The medium choice participates in meaning: Diana’s blur embodies democratic transition instability, while silver prints’ precision anchors Angolan landscapes in documentary reality. The minimalist spatial design lets each image breathe. The series follow without visual overload. The visitor must approach to spot discrete clues, a shadow, a ground mark, an abandoned object, revealing a larger story. Texts by the artist accompany each group, offering personal commentary on creative process and shooting context, avoiding didactic explanation in favor of confiding. This formal sobriety contrasts with the emotional density of subjects. It creates a fertile tension between restraint and intensity. Curated by Pia Viewing, this retrospective turns distance into an understanding tool. Jo Ractliffe, Donkey, Pomfret, 2011, gelatin silver print.