Ctrl + Z is the familiar keyboard shortcut for undoing an action and is effortless in the digital sphere. In lived reality, however, reversing errors is far more complex. Undoing the legacies of racism and patriarchy, repairing the consequences of extractive economies, or restoring ecosystems damaged by centuries of industrialisation cannot be achieved with a single command. Yet the desire to return, repair, undo or revert to a previous state remains a constant drive in cultural, political, social or pscyhic spheres. HEAT 2026’s theme foregrounds the tension between virtual and real spaces, asking how art and cultural expression might help us rethink, relearn, and ultimately rewire how we see, live, and act in the world.

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This theme aligns closely with the 2026 Slow Looking campaign, which encourages visitors to adopt a more reflective mode of engagement with the visual arts programme, a practice supported by the ten-day duration of the festival. Slow, sustained attention becomes a method of unlearning habitual ways of seeing and making space for deeper encounters.

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As 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, HEAT curator Voni Baloyi considers ‘undoing’ in the light of the constitutional project of reparative justice in South Africa.  Baloyi calls for an examination of what repair means beyond symbolic gestures or procedural justice. She is interested in substantive repair - forms of redress capable of making the recurrence of harm impossible.

 

Her approach foregrounds positionality and advocates for reparative curatorial practice.

“Reparative curating isn’t merely about restitution or representation; it’s about creating environments where harm is acknowledged, but more importantly, where deep repair can take root. By embracing this approach, we position curatorial practice as a form of activism that feels, heals,” writes Baloyi.

Reparative curation thus becomes both method and ethic, presenting a way of holding space for discomfort, witnessing, and rebuilding social relations.

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Festival founder Mary Corrigall extends the idea of ‘undoing’ to the environmental sphere, evoking the term rewilding, coined by Dave Foreman in 1992, suggesting it should counter a “world of wounds” caused by extractive industrial practices. Despite decades of awareness, society continues to grapple with how to ‘turn back the clock.’ Rewilding demands the restoration of our relationship with nature as well as systemic transformation across transport, energy, agriculture, and land use. In doing so, rewilding challenges consumerist culture, asking how we might value relationships, interdependence, and lived experience above accumulation.

 

Artists have long interrogated these concerns through their materials and practices - from reusing discarded objects to critiquing late capitalism’s extractive logic. Yet the arts are not immune to the pressures of neoliberalism.

Her framing positions rewilding as both ecological and cultural - an attempt to undo the norms that shape how creativity is produced, circulated, and valued.

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Returning, undoing, reverting to previous states, requires relooking at the past. HEAT curator Nkgopoleng Moloi suggests that doing so with a degree of curiosity, can awaken new insights and ultimately bring about change. 

“It is through curiosity that we begin to question what we think we already understand, opening up space for discovery in the most familiar of places,” writes Moloi.

In this way, curiosity becomes a tool for unknowing and re-knowing.

 

Entry Points for Artists and Curators

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Together, the three curatorial strands generated for the Ctrl + Z theme offer multiple conceptual footholds: 

• Questioning how social and political reparations have been enacted 

• Dismantling structural inequalities 

• Grappling with the notion of “deep repair” 

• Rewiring our relationship with nature 

• Imagining post-capitalist futures 

These entry points open an expansive frame for artistic exploration, inviting practitioners to consider how undoing, unlearning or rewilding might manifest within their own methods and imaginaries.