Local Art • 1982 • II
The Afrapix collective is founded in Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1982 • III
First anti-apartheid poster co-operatives are established in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Local Context • 1983 • I
The End Conscription Campaign begins.

Local Context • 1983 • II
The non-racial United Democratic Front (UDF) is launched.

Local Context • 1983 • III
The government introduces the 1983 constitution and the tricameral parliament. The offer is an empty concession and excludes black South Africans entirely – less than 20% of coloured and Indian voters bother to vote in the 1984 elections.

Local Context • 1983 • IV
Imprisoned after robbing nearly thirty banks, ex-cop André Stander escapes from prison together with fellow inmates Lee McCall and Allan Heyl. As The Stander Gang, the three men begin a two-year-long spate of bank robberies. Their story is made into a Hollywood movie in 2003 (directed by Bronwen Hughes).

Local Art • 1983
Possession Arts is founded in Johannesburg by John Nankin, Ivor Powell, Jeff Lok, Joachim Schönfeldt, Johan van Wyk, Nikos Konstandaras, Rina Sherman and Frank van Schaik, amongst others (circa 1983).

Global Art • 1983
The political arts collective Neue Slovenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art, NSK) is formed in Trbovlje, Slovenia, uniting cultural producers in various fields, including the industrial/techno music group Laibach and the artist collective Irwin.

Global Context • 1983
The Institut Pasteur in France identifies the HIV virus.

Local Context • 1984
South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Local Art • 1984
Inspired by the New York Triangle Workshop, Bill Ainslie and David Koloane organise Thupelo Workshop in Johannesburg. The success of Thupelo spawns a series of Triangle International Workshops held throughout Africa.

Local Context • 1985 • I
The Video News Service (VNS) is formed with the assistance of the liberation movement and overseas financial support. Short documentaries are created and distributed covertly across the country, exposing vigilante killings, the corrupt electoral process, human rights activism, and political resistance.

Local Context • 1985 • II
Trade unions merge to form the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

Local Context • 1985 • III
PW Botha declares a State of Emergency after continuous unrest and a spate of recent sabotage attacks by MK and other anti-government forces. Initially including 36 magisterial districts, it extends to include the entire country by 1986 and is only lifted in 1990.

Local Art • 1985 • I
Gallant House, a communal, multiracial, squat/studio complex, is established by artist and filmmaker Robert Weinek and musician Guillaume Rossouw in a vacant clothing factory in President Street, Johannesburg. Weinek and artist Wayne Barker lease the second floor for visual arts, while the third floor hosts musicians, including resident Allan Kwela. The space closes in 1986.

Local Art • 1985 • II
Johannesburg Art Gallery hosts Video Art, by all accounts the first-ever museum exhibition of (international) video art in South Africa. Two public lectures are delivered by Ivor Powell (Performance and Subversion) and Nina Romm (Imaging a new future: contemporary Video and Performance art as social catalyst).

Local Art • 1985 • III
Tributaries: A View of Contemporary South African Art opens in Johannesburg.

Global Art • 1985
Artists' collective the Guerrilla Girls launches a guerrilla media campaign in the US and subsequently worldwide to expose and stamp out gender inequality within the arts industry.

Local Art • 1986
Artist Neil Goedhals and actor Marcel van Heerden form the post-punk band KOOS. Joined by Gys de Villiers and Megan Kruskal, drummer Velile Nxazonke and aritst Kendell Geers, musical director Goedhals describes KOOS as "net a klomp geraas" (just a lot of noise).

Local Art • 1987
The Weekly Mail Film Festival supports the emergence of a new genre of short films as part of a critical South African film art. Over 200 fiction and non-fiction short films and videos are created and shown as part of this event between 1980 and 1995.

Local Art • 1988 • I
Freedom Square–Back of the Moon is co-directed by artist William Kentridge.

Local Art • 1988 • II
The Johannesburg Art Gallery hosts The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art (1930–1988), curated by Steven Sack.

Local Context • 1989 • I
PW Botha is forced to step down after suffering a stroke.

Local Context • 1989 • II
Newly elected South African president FW de Klerk announces his programme to reform the apartheid system.

Local Art • 1989 • I
Artists Wayne Barker and Morris la Mantia establish the Famous International Gallery (FIG).

Local Art • 1989 • II
The anti-conservative Afrikaner youth movement Voëlvry (feel free, free as a bird, outlaw, free love) movement begins with the Voëlvry tour kickoff gig at the inner-city Countdown club in Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1989 • III
Artists' Alliance is founded in Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1989 • IV
The Market Photography Workshop is founded in Johannesburg by David Goldblatt.

Global Art • 1989 • I
The first major museum exhibition dedicated to modern and contemporary art from Africa, Magiciens de la terre curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, opens at the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris.

Global Art • 1989 • II
Jean Pigozzi starts the Contemporary African Art Collection.

Global Context • 1989 • I
Soviet control of Eastern Europe ends, signalling the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Global Context • 1989 • II
Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau publish a proposal to build a 'hypertext project' called WorldWideWeb; the project is successfully launched in 1990.

Local Context • 1990 • I
FW de Klerk unbans more than thirty oppositional groups, including the ANC, the SACP and the PAC.

Local Context • 1990 • II
Nelson Mandela is released from prison after twenty-seven years in jail.

Local Context • 1990 • III
The ANC and the government enter into negotiations.

Local Context • 1990 • IV
Namibia becomes an independent state.

Local Art • 1990 • I
William Kentridge makes his first video work, T&I, in the FIG gallery, featuring Robert Hodgins as the cuckolded husband.

Local Art • 1990 • II
Barend de Wet wins the Volkskas Atelier.

Local Art • 1990 • III
The Fordsburg Artists Studios (also known as the Bag Factory) is opened by David Koloane.

Local Art • 1990 • IV
Albie Sachs publishes his controversial paper Preparing Ourselves for Freedom.

Local Art • 1990 • V
Neil Goedhals allegedly commits suicide. On the day of his death, the Johannesburg Art Gallery purchases several of his major works.

Global Art • 1990
Art from South Africa, curated David Elliot and co-curated by David Koloane, opens at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford.

Global Context • 1990 • I
Destruction of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany.

Global Context • 1990 • II
Iraq invades Kuwait. The UN Security Council resolution receives six hundred and sixty calls for full withdrawal.

Local Context • 1991 • I
The Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) begins negotiations on the formation of a multiracial transitional government and a new constitution at the World Trade Centre offices on Johannesburg's East Rand.

Local Context • 1991 • II
The UN General Assembly calls on the international community to resume academic and cultural links with democratic institutions in South Africa.

Local Art • 1991 • I
The last Cape Town Triennial is held at the South African National Gallery.

Local Art • 1991 • II
Ricky Burnett opens the Newton Galleries.

Local Art • 1991 • III
The Brenthurst Collection of traditional Southern African art is installed at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Global Art • 1991
The exhibition Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art opens at the Center for African Art, New York.

Global Context • 1991
Iraq refuses to withdraw from Kuwait and the Gulf War begins in January as a US-led coalition begins air strikes against Iraq.

Local Context • 1992 • I
EU lifts economic sanctions on South Africa.

Local Context • 1992 • II
Continued rivalry between the ANC and the IFP leads to increased violence – the Boipatong Massacre in June leaves 46 dead at the hands of hostile Zulu hostel dwellers.

Local Context • 1992 • III
CODESA negotiations are fraught. The ANC withdraws, then re-enters.

Local Context • 1992 • IV
De Klerk announces that multiracial elections are to take place in April 1994.

Local Context • 1992 • V
Mbongeni Ngema's popular musical Sarafina is produced as a film directed by Darrell James Roodt and staring Whoopi Goldberg.

Local Art • 1992
Sue Williamson is the first South African to receive an invitation to a post-apartheid biennale. She shows For thirty years next to his heart (1990) at the Havana Biennale.

Global Context • 1992
The Maastricht Treaty, creating the European Union, is signed.

Local Context • 1993 • I
Chris Hani is assassinated.

Local Context • 1993 • II
Multiparty negotiations resume.

Local Context • 1993 • III
On June 25, the AWB crashes an armoured vehicle through the doors of the World Trade Centre, where resumed multiparty negotiations are taking place.

Local Context • 1993 • IV
De Klerk and Mandela receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Local Art • 1993 • I
Neil Goedhals' first solo exhibition is mounted posthumously at the University of the Witwatersrand's Gertrude Posel Gallery, curated by Michelle Jersky and Rhoda Rosen. Goedhals receives a special award at the annual FNB Vita Art Now awards.

Local Art • 1993 • II
Siemon Allen, Thomas Barry and Ledelle Moe establish the FLAT Gallery (or flatinternational) in their flat in Durban. They host a range of experimental, multi-disciplinary events and exhibitions until the flat burns down in 1995.

Global Art • 1993
South Africa is represented on the 45th Venice Biennale after 27 years of absence with Incroci del Sud: Affinities – Contemporary South African Art.

Local Context • 1994 • I
On March 11, a convoy of AWB members open fire indiscriminately on civilians in Bophuthatswana. Three AWB members are shot at point-blank range by a local officer.

Local Context • 1994 • II
Ken Oosterbroek, a member of the Bang-Bang Club, is killed in the crossfire between militant ANC supporters and National Peacekeeping Force soldiers in the Tokoza township of Johannesburg. Another member, Kevin Carter, commits suicide in July.

Local Context • 1994 • III
Two car bombs explode in the week leading up to the election, leaving nine dead and 13 injured.

Local Context • 1994 • IV
The first democratic elections are held in April, with the ANC receiving 62.6% of votes. Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as president.

Local Art • 1994 • I
State of the Art at the Everard Read Contemporary juxtaposes work by young white artists (Kendell Geers, CJ Morkel, Alan Alborough, Belinda Blignaut) with that of black artists from Venda and Gazankulu (Johannes Maswanganyi, Freddy Ramabulana, Owen Ndou).

Local Art • 1994 • II
Art Ventilator, edited by art critic Ivor Powell, is launched by the South African Association of Arts. Despite an acclaimed response, the magazine folds after the first issue due to a lack of funding.

Local Art • 1994 • III
The Gencor collection is started with a series of commissions for their new headquarters. Kendell Geers is appointed curator of the collection.

Global Art • 1994 • I
Un art contemporain d'Afrique du Sud opens in Paris.

Global Art • 1994 • II
5th Havana Biennial features a large group of South African participants.

Global Art • 1994 • III
Siyawela: Love, Loss and Liberation in South African Art, curated by Pitika Ntuli and Colin Richards, opens in Johannesburg and later travels to London as part of the Africa '95 festival.

Global Art • 1994 • IV
On the Road: Works by 10 Southern African Artists takes place at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London.

Global Art • 1994 • V
Young Art from South Africa opens in Frankfurt.

Global Art • 1994 • VI
Displacements: South African Work on Paper 1964–1994 opens at Northwestern University in the US, curated by Jane Taylor and David Bunn.

Global Context • 1994 • I
Hutu extremists seize control of the Rwandan government in April, sparking a genocide that leaves roughly ten percent of the population dead, ninety percent of which are Tutsis.

Global Context • 1994 • II
Israel begins construction of a mile-high concrete wall that separates Palestinian and Israeli populations.

Local Context • 1995 • I
The Constitutional Court abolishes the death penalty.

Local Context • 1995 • II
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is established with Archbishop Desmond Tutu as its head.

Local Art • 1995 • I
Africus: The 1st Johannesburg Biennale runs from February to April under director Christopher Till and artistic director Lorna Ferguson. It is the first large-scale exhibition of South African and international art in the country.

Local Art • 1995 • II
Wayne Barker curates the fringe exhibition Laager using shipping containers as installation spaces. The exhibition travels to Chile as part of the exhibition Springtime in Chile, curated by Ernesto Munõz.

Local Art • 1995 • III
The first national gay and lesbian art exhibition, Gay Rights Rites Re-writes, curated by Joan Bellis and Wessel van Huyssteen opens in Cape Town and travels to Bloemfontein and Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1995 • IV
Scurvy, curated by Wayne Barker, opens at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town and later moves to the Newtown Galleries in Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1995 • V
Malcolm Payne represents South Africa at the 46th Venice Biennale in June with a piece that includes works by Brett Murray and Randolph Hartzenberg.

Local Art • 1995 • VI
The BAT (Bartel Arts Trust) Centre opens in Durban.

Global Art • 1995 • I
Neo-Dada: Redefining Art 1958–62, curated by Susan Hapgood, travels to five venues in the US.

Global Art • 1995 • II
Africa '95, a festival of African art in England, includes the work of several contemporary artists in exhibitions such as Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and Self Evident at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.

Local Art • 1996 • I
JAG purchases a 1968 edition of Marcel Duchamp's Boite en Valise.

Local Art • 1996 • II
The Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, hosts the exhibition Fault Lines: Inquiries into Truth and Reconciliation, curated by Jane Taylor.

Local Art • 1996 • III
Tumelo Musaka curates Youth Uprising: Point of No Return. The exhibition is shown within ten shipping containers in Soweto, borrowing the format of Barker's Laager exhibition from 1995.

Local Art • 1996 • IV
Scramble: Video Installations and Projections, the first video/new-media show in post-apartheid South Africa, curated by Clive Kellner, Marc Edwards and Stephen Hobbs, opens at the Johannesburg Civic Gallery.

Local Art • 1996 • V
Hitchhiker is curated by Clive Kellner at the Generator Art Space, Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1996 • VI
Unplugged, the first exhibition in a series of 'soft curating' shows initiated by Kendell Geers at the Rembrandt Van Rijn Gallery, opens in Johannesburg.

Local Art • 1996 • VII
Sue Williamson and Ashraf Jamal co-author Art in South Africa: The Future Present, published by David Phillip Publishers.

Local Art • 1996 • VIII
Africus Institute for Contemporary Art (AICA), linked to the structures of the Johannesburg Biennale, is launched under director Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa.

Local Art • 1996 • IX
Tumelo Mosaka and Zayd Minty curate Isintu, the first all-black exhibition in the South African National Gallery.

Global Art • 1996 • I
Don't mess with Mr In-Between, 15 artists from South Africa, curated by Ruth Rosengarten, opens in Lisbon.

Global Art • 1996 • II
Common and Uncommon Ground: South African Art to Atlanta, curated by Steven Sack, opens at City Gallery East in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US.

Local Art • 1997 • I
The 2nd Johannesburg Biennale is curated by Okwui Enwezor, with the theme Trade Routes: History and Geography.

Local Art • 1997 • II
The first issue of ArtThrob, a website dedicated to contemporary South African art, is launched by Sue Williamson at http://www.artthrob.co.za

Local Art • 1997 • III
Okwui Enwezor publishes his controversial essay Reframing the Black Subject: Ideology and Fantasy in Contemporary South African Art. The ensuing debate leads to the publication Grey Areas: Representation, Identity and Politics in Contemporary South African Art, edited by Candice Breitz and Brenda Atkinson and published in 1999.

Local Art • 1997 • IV
The National Arts Council (replacing the Foundation for Creative Arts) is launched.

Global Art • 1997
The Sensation exhibition of the collection of Charles Saatchi at the Royal Academy of Arts introduces 'Young British Art' to the public.

Local Art • 1998 • I
Robert Weinek releases The Processed Image I and II – a double anthology of experimental video art in South Africa. The release is followed up by Channel, an exhibition of video art hosted by the Association for Visual Arts in 1999.

Local Art • 1998 • II
Artist Steven Cohen intervenes in right-wing AWB celebrations at Fort Kapperkop in Pretoria and is removed by force by AWB members.

Local Art • 1998 • III
Suzy Bell initiates Red Eye at the Durban Art Gallery.

Global Context • 1998
Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-found Google.

Local Context • 1999
The ANC wins the country's second democratic election. Thabo Mbeki becomes president, succeeding Mandela.

Local Art • 1999 • I
Public Eye is established in Cape Town by a collection of Cape Town artists and cultural activists. Public Eye stages Sortserve, organised and curated by Sue Williamson and Andrew Putter at the National Gallery.

Local Art • 1999 • II
Zayd Minty forms BLAC (Black Artists Collective).

Global Art • 1999 • I
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin is presented at the Queens Museum of Art.

Global Art • 1999 • II
The Carnegie International in Pittsburgh includes the work of South African artists Kendell Geers and William Kentridge, and Bodys Isek Kingelez from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kentridge wins the Carnegie International Prize.

Local Art • 2000 • I
Rory Doepel curates Bones and Bytes: Healing and Revealing as part of the Urban Futures 2000 international conference, Johannesburg. This large-scale exhibition looks at the relationship between Western and indigenous knowledge systems, technology and the body. The larger exhibition programme includes the Downtown Video Focus, curated by Brad Hammond.

Local Art • 2000 • II
The National Gallery's Fresh residencies project hosts a series of local artists including Robin Rhode, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Tracey Rose, Berni Searle, Usha Seejarim, Moshekwa Langa and Senzeni Marasela.

Local Art • 2000 • III
The Trinity Session is formed in Johannesburg by Kathryn Smith, Stephen Hobbs and José Ferreira (replaced by Marcus Neustetter).

Local Art • 2000 • IV
The first TAXI Art Book, a series of monographs on important contemporary South African artists, is published by David Krut.

Global Art • 2000 • I
The Forum for African Arts is launched to promote African presence at the Venice Biennale.

Global Art • 2000 • II
Okwui Enwezor curates The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945–1994.

Global Context • 2000
The 'dot-com' bubble, a speculative frenzy of investment in Internet-related stocks, bursts as the NASDAQ exchange tumbles and hundreds of start-up companies fold.

Local Art • 2001 • I
Young Durban artists form Third Eye Vision.

Local Art • 2001 • II
Christo Coetzee dies.

Local Art • 2001 • III
As part of the Public Eye event Homeport, Barend de Wet claims a small section of unacknowledged land (reclaimed from the ocean by harbour authorities) as his homeland.

Local Art • 2001 • IV
The Premises gallery, administered by the Trinity Session, opens in the parking lot of the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.

Local Art • 2001 • V
The Insitute for Contemporary Art, Cape Town, is established by Thomas Mulcaire.

Local Art • 2001 • VI
The Market Theatre Galleries and the Johannesburg Art Foundation close.

Global Art • 2001 • I
The winter of 2001/2002 sees illegal occupation of the now-rundown Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich by dissident artists protesting its planned closure by the city. The artists, organised by Mark Divo, describe themselves as new-Dadaists. Over a period of three months, thousands of people from around Zürich take part in the experiment, which includes multi-disciplinary art events and performances.

Police evict the occupants in April 2002.

Global Art • 2001 • II
Authentic/Ex-Centric is curated by Salah Hassan and Olu Oguibe at the 49th Venice Biennale.

Global Context • 2001
Hijacked passenger airplanes crash into the World Trade Center in New York.

Local Context • 2002
The cultural quarterly publication Chimurenga (taking its name from the Shona term for 'struggle for freedom') is produced in Cape Town by Cameroonian-born Ntone Edjabe.

Local Art • 2002 • I
Beyond the Material: Conceptual Art from the Permanent Collection is curated by Emma Bedford at the Iziko South African National Gallery.

Local Art • 2002 • II
Art South Africa is launched by the Bell Roberts Gallery with Sophie Perryer as editor. She leaves to join Michael Stevenson Contemporary and is replaced by Sean O'Toole.

Local Art • 2003 • I
Galerie Puta is launched in Cape Town. The first exhibition takes place in artist Cameron Platter's bathroom.

Local Art • 2003 • II
The artists' residency programme 24.7 Art as Usual is launched by Christian Nerf at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Local Art • 2003 • III
Matthew Hindley installs Speak Naturally and Continuously.

Local Art • 2003 • IV
The Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) is launched.

Global Art • 2003 • I
Cabaret Voltaire relaunches in Zürich in September as an exhibition and performance space.

Global Art • 2003 • II
The New Museum for Contemporary Art presents The Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Kuti, a tribute exhibition to the Nigerian music legend. Works by South African artists Moshekwa Langa and Kendell Geers are included.

Global Context • 2003
A multinational force of US and British troops invade Iraq.

Local Art • 2004
The Durban Art Gallery hosts its 50th Red Eye event.

Global Art • 2004
Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of A Continent, curated by Simon Njami, opens in Germany and travels to London and Japan, eventually reaching Johannesburg in 2007.

Global Art • 2006
Fred de Vries publishes Club Risiko documenting '80s underground club culture in the Netherlands. South African band Koos is documented.

Local Art • 2007 • I
The Gugulective is formed in Gugulethu in Cape Town.

Local Art • 2007 • II
The SMAC gallery publishes Kathryn Smith's One Million and Forty-Four Years (and Sixty Three Days). The publication compiles emailed responses to Smith's question of whether or not the notion of the avant-garde is still viable, gathered over a four-week period in 2007.

Local Art • 2007 • III
Kevin Atkinson dies.

Local Context • 2008
Rising xenophobia within impoverished South African communities reaches a boiling point in May. A series of violent riots erupt around the country and thousands of African foreign nationals are forced to flee their homes.

Local Art • 2008
The Dematerialisation of the Art Object 1917–2004 is curated by Clive Kellner at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Local Context • 2009
Jacob Zuma succeeds Thabo Mbeki as the ANC president and subsequently as president of the country.

Global Context • 2009
Žižek, Badiou, Douzinas et al. host a conference on The Idea of Communism at Birkbeck College in the UK.

Local Context • 2010
Anni Dewani is murdered in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Her husband, Shrien, is later accused of constructing an elaborate fake hijacking that led to her death.

Local Art • 2010
Barend de Wet: Green opens at SMAC in Stellenbosch, coinciding with the launch of a monograph on the artist by Kathryn Smith.

Global Context • 2010 • I
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes and sinks, releasing as many as 40 000 barrels of oil into the ocean per day for 3 months. The US government holds BP responsible.

Global Context • 2010 • II
Tunisian national Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself alight after being fined and humiliated by a policewoman for selling vegetables from a cart without a license. Outrage over the event brings dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year rule to an end in just 10 days after Bouazizi's death in hospital.

Global Context • 2010 • III
Astronomers detect a habitable planet in the 'Goldilocks' zone of a star some 20 light years away. Gliese 581g has a surface temperature of 12–31 °C.

Local Art • 2011
Chimurenga plans to publish The Chimurenga Chronicle, a retrospective newspaper focusing on the day of xenophobic riots in May 2008.

Global Context • 2011 • I
In Egypt, National Police Day begins a mass uprising against Hosni Mubarak's regime; Mubarak is forced to step down by the 11th of February after a month of sustained protest.

Global Context • 2011 • II
Gaddafi's government clashes with rebel groups and protesters around Libya.