Thato Toeba's 'Everyone Can Be Lucifer' at Arles: Archive as Battlefield

At the Rencontres photographiques d'Arles, Lesotho-born artist Thato Toeba presents an installation titled 'Tout le monde peut être Lucifer' ('Everyone Can Be Lucifer'), responding to the recent deaths of dozens of clandestine miners, many from Lesotho, in a South African mine. The work, on view until October 4, uses collage, glass, and wood, as seen in his piece 'civilians I [civils I]' (2025), courtesy of the artist and Stevenson gallery in Cape Town/Amsterdam. Toeba discussed the installation with Elisabeth Lequeret, framing the archive as a battlefield. The exhibition is part of the broader Rencontres d'Arles program, which also features Katia Kameli's revisiting of Algeria's history. The artist's work draws on archival materials to address contemporary tragedies, highlighting the intersection of personal and collective memory.