What We've Done

WHAT
WE'VE
DONE

Since our inception in 2015, Wêreld has produced, curated and facilitated more than 200 projects, showcasing and connecting the work of South African artists in a wide range of contexts.

Here is an overview of some of our favourite projects.

Worldplay at Mogale Festival

The Worldplay shows create a space for spoken word poets and innovative musicians to collaborate and improvise in front of live audiences, in a game-show-esque structure. The names of poets and musicians are drawn by lots (sometimes with a spinning wheel, sometimes names in a hat), and then the chosen artists get onto the stage and create something together, unrehearsed and in the moment. These magical shows often carry on for more than 3 hours, to spellbound audiences in a wide range of contexts, from living rooms and bars to festival stages. The trick seems to hinge on curating a selection of poets and musicians from very different corners of the South African creative landscape, and then sitting back to enjoy the raw unscripted magic of witnessing different worlds playing together.

The Mogale Festival is based in Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa. It is one of Tshwane’s most exciting arts and culture festivals, started in 2021. Since the inaugural year, Wêreld has partnered with Mogale to produce a range of fantastic Worldplay experiences, showcasing some of Mzansi’s finest spoken word poets in combination with dynamic, experimental multi-instrumentalist musicians. Wêreld also collaborated with Hear My Voice in the curation of the poet lineups.

Photos by Brennian Labuschagne, Pierre van Vuuren, Twane Grobler and Phakama Botha.

Worldplay at Woordfees

Woordfees is one of the most prestigious arts and culture festivals in South Africa, set in Stellenbosch, with its 25th edition happening in 2025. In 2023 and 2024, Wêreld produced two memorable Worldplay shows at the magnificent Daisy Jones Bar. Wêreld partnered with Hear My Voice in the curation of the poet lineups. At the 2023 event, three filmmakers also had their names drawn from a third hat, and became part of the playing-with-worlds experience, filming each performance with hand-held shots when their names were drawn.

Photos by AB Jantjies.

Worldplay on Paper

For this event, which took place as part of the Mogale Festival 2024, Wêreld partnered with Hear My Voice, Open Window, Soft Serve and ATKV, to bring together 10 poets paired with 10 illustrators, who then created 10 beautiful limited edition illustrated poetry zines. The launch event at the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria included live readings by many of the poets, accompanied by Louwrens Ferreira on synthesizers, as well as an exhibition of the zines. Yet again the concept of the worlds-which-play-together was expanded beyond just poets and musicians, this time including illustrators and designers to create the zines. Photos by Gerrie Bezuidenhout and Herman Bosman.

Here is an overview of the project on the Soft Serve website.
You can view and purchase the zines HERE.

Worldplay at Ophelia Cafe

The Worldplay shows were kickstarted in 2019 by multi-disciplinary creatives Sydney Keeney and Japie Kruger, at a lovely coffee shop in Johannesburg called Ophelia. The first three Worldplay shows happened here, in which one spoken word poet and one musician were on each lineup. There was no collaboration or improvisation in these first Worldplay iterations, just two separate performances by the two artists at each event. Photos by Japie Kruger.

HERE is an overview of Sydney Keeney’s design work for the project.
HERE is a video of the first session with The Great Yawn & Puno Selesho made by Christopher Baker.

Worldplay at Hausbabadada

This magic event at a beautiful little house-theatre in Tshwane marked the start of a new phase of the Worldplay shows, in which the poets and musicians began to perform unrehearsed and improvised collaborative pieces together in front of a live audience. The first edition of this new phase of Worldplay shows featured Phomolo Sekamotho (aka Flex of He & I), Jaco van der Merwe, and multi-instrumentalist Louwrens Ferreira. Photos by Wikus de Wet.

This entire performance was captured in a podcast episode which you can listen to HERE.

Worldplay at Sowaar Bar

Yet another magical Worldplay event which brought artists from very different artistic and cultural backgrounds together, to play with worlds, in front of a live audience in one of Tshwane’s nicest bars which is set up for live performances.

Wêreld Records Showcases

From the acclaimed launch event held at Open Window Institute in September 2015, Wêreld quickly gained a reputation for curating and producing incredible showcases of South African musicians. The showcases often included live visuals accompanying the musical performances, and were mostly seated events, where audiences could connect very deeply with the live audiovisual experiences. For the first 5 years, Wêreld functioned largely as a collective platform for musicians, before organically expanding into a range of other disciplines and roles. Photographs by Bernard Brand, Henry Engelbrecht and Jurgens Burger.

HERE is a video of Hello Beautiful’s live set in 2016.
HERE is a video of Jacob Israel’s live performance of “How Wolves Change Rivers” at Wêreld’s launch event in 2015.
HERE is a video of Givan Lötz’s live performance of “Easy Now” at Wêreld’s launch event in 2015.
HERE is a video of A Skyline on Fire’s live performance of “Beware” at Wêreld’s launch event in 2015.
HERE is a video of Franx’s live performance of “Something About You” at Wêreld’s launch event in 2015.

Wêreld Livestream

In 2020, Wêreld curated and produced one of the most-watched livestream shows at Urban Sessions in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, which was arguably the best livestream concert facility in South Africa at the time. This event also marked Wêreld’s 5 year birthday. Wêreld’s unique creative direction approach to this show included a Brecht-inspired “breaking of the 4th wall”, in which the camera operators were placed on the stage, amongst the performers, and sometimes the performers themselves (those with camera training!) would use the cameras. The performers were all dressed as characters from the Tarot, and the stage was filled with mirrors to create unconventional angles and frames from which the viewers could experience the performances. Photographs by Henry Engelbrecht.

Ruk en Rym

In 2023, Wêreld partnered with Taalgenoot to produce a national battle-of-the-bands type competition, searching for emerging artists making alternative music in any genre, with Afrikaans lyrics. The 2023 and 2024 projects were hugely successful, discovering dozens of exciting new innovative artists from all over South Africa, and giving them a platform to showcase their work, and building a new collaborative community amongst the alumni of the project. Photographs by Andre Badenhorst and Ruben Botma.

HERE is the website of the Taalgenoot-Ruk en Rym project, the 2025 edition is currently underway.

Pendoring Awards

In 2022 and 2023, Wêreld was approached by Breinstorm Brand Architects to produce the Pendoring Awards shows. Jaco van der Merwe was the creative director for both productions. In 2022 the theme that Jaco chose for the awards show was “we’re all going to die” (which is a remarkably fun theme for an awards show!), and in 2023 the theme was “the game-show of dreams”, which included a big furry dice that was rolled to decide which category of awards would be presented next. Both shows included stellar casts of South African musicians, poets, actors, visual artists and comedians. Photographs by Alet Pretorius and Nathan Smith.

HERE is an aftermovie of the 2023 Pendoring Awards, made by Neil Human.

Horizons Project Choir

In 2019, Wêreld partnered with Pieter Bezuidenhout’s acclaimed Horizons Project Choir, to produce a beautiful show in which several musicians from the Wêreld collective had their songs arranged and sung by the incredible Horizons Project Choir. The musicians were also at the event, and performed their own compositions in their own way, followed in each case by the choral versions.

HERE is a video of Academie performing “Monochrome” with the Horizons Project Choir at this event. Film by Dizzy Khaki.

Klyntji Party+kies

Klyntji.co.za is one of South Africa’s leading art and culture online zines, and in 2023 they partnered with Wêreld to produce their first ever live event, named Klyntji Party+kie. Wêreld curated a lineup of poets and musicians who engaged in a classic Worldplay session at Breezeblock Cafe in Brixton, Johannesburg. In 2025, Klyntji and Wêreld partnered for Klyntji Party+kie 2.0, which took place at Railways Cafe in Tshwane, as part of the Mogale Festival, with another spectacularly curated lineup of artists that came through from five provinces for the show. Photographs by Johan Botha and Cherese de Gasperi.

HERE is a video of the first Klyntji Party+kie at Breezeblock, made by Tian du Preez.

Visual Conversations

In 2025, Wêreld partnered with Open Window Institute to produce an event called “Visual Conversations” at Mogale Festival, at the Wilge Theatre in Tshwane. Five South African short films and two feature films were screened, and a panel of invited speakers from various parts of the South African moving image industry chatted in front of the audience about the prospects of the South African filmmaking world. The event was like a 1-day film festival. Photographs by Johan Botha.

YNG MSTRS Workshops

In 2018 Wêreld produced and facilitated a series of workshops with four South African “Young Masters”, namely musician Jean-Louise Parker, stand-up comedian Schalk Bezuidenhout, poet-emcee Tumi Molekane aka Stogie T, and versatile entrepreneur in the creative sector Henk van der Schyf. The workshops were all held at Open Window Institute in Tshwane. All the design work was done by Sydney Keeney.

Mayday Sessions

In 2020, Wêreld curated a lineup of musicians from all over South Africa to produce a series of DIY-livestream shows hosted through Wêreld’s social media channels (sometimes streaming on instagram, Facebook and Youtube simultaneously). All the shows took place in the month of May, and a part of the income (generated by viewers who could make donations via a QR code), was donated to the Relief Fund, initiated by the SA government, to help people who worked in the entertainment industry. The design work was done by Sydney Keeney.

Art Auctions

In 2024, Wêreld partnered with Karen Zoid, No End Contemporary Art Space and Old Johannesburg Warehouse to facilitate two art auctions, as fund-raising events for our vision of developing artist retreat spaces and hosting artist residencies in South Africa. The auctions, one in Gauteng and one in the Western Cape, showcased fine art work by more than 80 South African artists.

HERE is our focused instagram account which outlines this project in more detail.

Woordfees Film Festival

In 2023, 2024 and 2025, Wêreld’s creative director Jaco van der Merwe was the coordinator of the Woordfees Film Festival. Over the three years’ programmes, Jaco curated more than 100 films from more than 25 countries, with a focus on short films and innovative storytelling, partnering with Silwerskerm Filmfees, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, AVIFF, Urucu Media, IFAS and Tigritudes amongst others.

THIS was the first teaser for Woordfees Film Festival 2023, compiled by Jaco van der Merwe.
THIS was the second teaser for Woordfees Film Festival 2023, compiled by Jaco van der Merwe.
THIS was the third teaser for Woordfees Film Festival 2023, compiled by Jaco van der Merwe.

High School Slam Poetry

In 2009 and 2010, Wêreld’s creative director Jaco van der Merwe hosted two high school slam poetry competitions in the North West province, where he was an educator at the time, partnering with the Department of Education. In 2023 and 2024, Wêreld facilitated two more high school slam competitions as part of the Woordfees, at the Daisy Jones venue, in partnership with Woorde Open Wêrelde, discovering emerging writers and voices, and giving many of the young poets their first chance to perform on a stage.

Winter & Wine Sessions

In 2016, Wêreld partnered with Pop Filter Studios in Tshwane to produce a series of intimate live concerts called “Winter & Wine”. The incredible posters were made by Nina Torr and Jan Pretorius. Photographs by Bernard Brand.

HERE is a video of Charlie (aka Hâlarth Brân) playing “Sometimes You Do” at a Winter & Wine session.

Live Soundtracks for Silent Films

In 2016, Wêreld produced a live soundtrack for the classic feature film “Tabu”, featuring live music performed by four artists from the Wêreld collective, as part of the iMPAC Festival at Open Window Institute in Tshwane. In 2023, ’24 and ’25, Wêreld also produced 3 live soundtracks for Buster Keaton silent short films from the 1920s, as part of the Woordfees Film Festival, in the Neelsie cinema in Stellenbosch.

South African Innovation Summit

In 2020, Wêreld was approached by the South African Innovation Summit (SAIS) to curate and produce a series of short videos by South African artists, to be screened during the SAIS programme, which was held online in 2020. Highlights on the lineup of artists included a comedy set by Schalk Bezuidenhout, and musical performances recorded in Berlin by Jean-Louise Parker and Adelle Nqeto, as well as a screen-captured illustration process-video by Seth Pimental aka African Ginger.

Wêreld Records Mixtapes

In 2015, Wêreld was launched as a collective of musicians and audiovisual artists, and we printed 1,000 copies of a mixtape which featured 16 tracks by artists in the collective. This Wêreld Records Vol. 1 mixtape was then sold and distributed by the artists in the collective at various shows and events over the next few years, and helped to solidify Wêreld’s reputation as a platform for emerging creatives in South Africa. The cover art was done by Maaike Bakker. A second mixtape, Wêreld Records Vol. 2, was also put together a few years later, but was only available as a digital download.

HERE is a secret download to the amazing Vol. 2 playlist, from 2017.

Retro Rabbit Events

In 2022, Wêreld was approached to curate a lineup of musicians for an in-house event hosted by software development company Retro Rabbit. The show was so fun that we’ve partnered a few more times over the years to curate lineups at Retro Rabbit events at their HQ in Tshwane.

Hunter-Gatherer Playlist

In September 2018, Wêreld’s creative director Jaco van der Merwe partnered with graphic designer Sydney Keeney to produce a series of 30 short videos, which showcased snippets of music made by artists in the Wêreld collective. One video was created and posted every day for 30 days in a row on Wêreld’s instagram account, encouraging listeners to go and “hunt down” the music of the artists on the sites where the music was hosted, like bandcamp and soundcloud and YouTube.

HERE is a feature on the H-G Playlist on Klyntji’s online zine.
HERE is an overview of Sydney Keeney’s design work for the project.
HERE was the first video post, explaining the context of the next 30 days’ posts.

Bittereinder Dualiteit

In 2022, Wêreld helped to produce and facilitate a filmed concert for electro-rap band Bittereinder, through funding from Concerts SA and the Norwegian Embassy. The concept of the show was “duality” – the first half was an acoustic set of songs, and the second half was the full electro audiovisual Bittereinder experience. Photos by Henno Kruger.

HERE is a video of the acoustic & electro versions of “Die Mes” as captured during the event, filmed and edited by ETG Media.
HERE is a video of a live performance of “The Ones” featuring Flex of He & I, filmed and edited by ETG Media.

Placeholder for Afrykamera

In 2020, Wêreld helped to produce and facilitate a show for Afrykamera, which is Europe’s largest film festival focusing on African cinema. In 2020 the Afrykamera festival was held online, so the festival-opening musical performance was filmed and recorded in South Africa, featuring a project band called “Placeholder”. BTS photos on set by Paseka Mahlangu, band portrait by Reabetswe Letsoalo.

HERE is the original livestreamed video on Afrykamera’s Facebook page (the filmed concert starts at 08:54), filmed and edited by ETG Media.

Bernard Brand Portraits

In 2015, acclaimed photographer Bernard Brand partnered with the first collective of Wêreld artists to produce an incredible range of portraits. In most cases the images were a result of a collaborative process with each artist, and the portraits also helped to establish Wêreld’s strong aesthetic presence in the South African creative landscape.