0:00:02 > 0:00:05MUSIC: Nansi Imali by Ladysmith Black Mambazo
0:00:05 > 0:00:11This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:13 > 0:00:17William Kentridge is an artist of global stature,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21whose work is shown in museums and opera houses around the world.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27He was born in South Africa shortly after the imposition of apartheid,
0:00:27 > 0:00:29and his career has coincided
0:00:29 > 0:00:32with the most turbulent period in his country's history.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39The impulse behind Felix In Exile
0:00:39 > 0:00:42came from a whole lot of police photographs
0:00:42 > 0:00:45of bodies in the landscape,
0:00:45 > 0:00:46bodies in the veld.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50And the specific individual figures that are drawn
0:00:50 > 0:00:53are based very much on these police photographs
0:00:53 > 0:00:55of people who'd been killed -
0:00:55 > 0:00:58some of them in ordinary criminal violence,
0:00:58 > 0:00:59but a lot in political violence.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02This was a very difficult time, wasn't it?
0:01:02 > 0:01:03I mean, this is 1994.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07This is the period just before our first democratic election.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Which, at the time, was very much in doubt.
0:01:11 > 0:01:16That lead up to the election was mired in blood and deaths.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20And one of the questions I had was, after this is over,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22when we've got our transformed society,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26in what way is this remembered? Do these people still have a place?
0:01:26 > 0:01:28In what way will they disappear
0:01:28 > 0:01:32in the way the bodies disappear into the landscape?
0:01:32 > 0:01:34WOMAN SINGS
0:01:34 > 0:01:38GENTLE CLASSICAL MUSIC THROUGHOUT
0:02:09 > 0:02:12WOMAN SINGS
0:02:29 > 0:02:31RUNNING WATER
0:02:54 > 0:02:58RUMBLING
0:02:58 > 0:03:00CLACKING
0:03:12 > 0:03:14SCRATCHING
0:03:27 > 0:03:29WOMAN SINGS
0:03:59 > 0:04:01SQUEAKING
0:04:17 > 0:04:19RASPY SCRATCHES
0:04:54 > 0:04:56WOMAN SINGS
0:05:01 > 0:05:04CHATTERING
0:05:07 > 0:05:09CLACKING
0:05:56 > 0:05:58SCRATCHING
0:06:21 > 0:06:23TINKLING
0:06:31 > 0:06:33WOMAN SINGS
0:06:59 > 0:07:01TINKLING
0:07:04 > 0:07:06SCRATCHING
0:07:45 > 0:07:47RUMBLING
0:07:56 > 0:07:58WOMAN SINGS CLACKING
0:08:17 > 0:08:19HOWLING
0:08:24 > 0:08:26WOMAN SINGS
0:09:07 > 0:09:09BIRDSONG
0:09:12 > 0:09:14WOMAN SINGS
0:09:28 > 0:09:30CRICKETS CHIRP
0:09:32 > 0:09:35WIND BLOWS