Archive: Issue No. 69, May 2003

01.05.03 Boetie in Bologna
01.05.03 Marlene Dumas in Venice
15.04.03 Sue Williamson's solo show opens in Brussels
01.10.02 South African Family Stories in Amsterdam

01.02.03 Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa
01.02.03 The World Moves - We Follow: Celebrating African Art in Tennessee
01.02.03 Human Rights Prints in Tennessee
01.02.03 Africa at Home: European Postcards 1890-1950

01.05.03 Kentridge, Mofokeng and Mthethwa in UAE Biennial 6

01.05.03 New works by Thomas Mulcaire

Conrad Botes, aka Konradski to fans of his deliriously irreverent Bitterkomix publication, is on show in Italy.

Commenting on his work in the catalogue accompanying 'In Fumo', a show hosted at the Bergamos's Galleria of Modern Art, the Italian curator Giacinto Pietrantonio stated: "The sharp lines of his figuration coupled with the bold strident colours, the juxtaposition of symbols and subjects, serve to amplify the contradictions and exigencies of South African culture and society. Racial conflict, economic and religious status symbols, false values and cultural mystifications are at the centre of Botes' crude, ironic, yet na�ve attacks."

Sue Williamson has also praised the artist's jagged graphic line, as well as his searingly acid, iconoclastic storylines, which cuts to the heart of the sacred cows of Afrikaner culture. Having recently viewed his new works on glass, before they left for Italy, ArtThrob can vouch for their strident character. Offering much more than simply a skewed perspective of 'boere politiek' (Botes is being touted as an artista sudafricano di origine boera by the organisers), the works showcased are testimony to an idiosyncratic mind. If Joseph Conrad made "the horror" uniquely endemic to the African culture, Botes at least proves that we can laugh about it.

Opens: April 12
Closes: May 18

Galleria L'ariete Arte Contemporanea
Via Marsili 7, 40124 Bologna, Italy
Tel/Fax: 051 331202
Email: patriziaraimondi@virgilio.it

Cape Town born Marlene Dumas has never held a solo exhibition in an Italian museum. 'Suspect' is therefore an important show by one of the most acclaimed painters of recent times.

Presented at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, and curated by Gianni Romano, 'Suspect' includes recent works as well as some new paintings realised specifically for this Venetian venue. The Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa is situated in the fascinating ambience of Palazzetto Tito, located in the historic artists' quarter called Dorsuduro. It is one of the liveliest areas in town, and quite close to the Art Academy, the Pinacoteca, the University of Venice and campo Santa Margherita.

Despite being heralded as an artist who anticipated the figurative trend, which has characterised so much painting and photography of the last decade, Dumas's images, as well as the texts she writes, refuse easy interpretation. The models in her paintings and drawings seem to refuse their traditional passive role by fostering a sort of role-playing with their audience. In her 'Suspect' works everything becomes suspicious, from the painted models to our own attitude as visitors.

Opens: June 12
Closes: September 25

Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa
Palazzetto Tito, Dorsoduro 2826, 30123 Venice, Italy
Tel. +39 041.5207797
Fax +39 041.5208955
Email: info@bevilacqualamasa.it

Sue Williamson has been a driving force in South African art since the early 1980s. This, her first solo show in Europe, is a focussed retrospective of the artist's work.

Included on the show is her recent From the Inside series, a project that traces its lineage back to July 2000. From the Inside offers a visual document of how Sue Williamson responded to an invitation to make work relevant to issues then being discussed at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban.

The initial result was a series of site-specific messages dealing with South Africa's AIDS crisis. Each of the graffiti messages in the series condenses into epigrammatic form the personal core of a belief or insight of an individual diagnosed HIV-positive. Presented as a series of double images, From the Inside consists of a black and white subject portrait accompanied by a colour landscape photograph of the subject's message inscribed in a public place.

Other works on show include: the interactive video installation piece Can't Forget, Can't Remember, first presented on 'Artery' at Joao Ferreira in 1999; her Truth Games wall pieces; as well as older works such as photographs of the installations Mementos of District Six and Out of the Ashes, and For Thirty Years Next to his Heart.

This exhibition also marks the launch of a new monograph on the artist, titled Sue Williamson: Selected Work, and jointly published by Centre d'Art Contemporain, the Goodman Gallery of Johannesburg, and Double Storey Books, in Cape Town, a division of Juta Books.

The Centre d'Art Contemporain, under the direction of Fabienne Dumont, has a programme of showing contemporary Belgian and international artists. Situated in an art deco style building in Brussels, it has a lobby and two floors of exhibition space, and a top floor devoted to an art library and documentation centre.

Opens: April 23
Closes: June 15

Centre d'Art Contemporain, 63 Avenue des Nerviens, Brussels 1040
Tel: +32 2 735 05 31
Fax: +32 2 735 51 90

The rich narrative history of nine South African families is revealed in a significant exhibition opening at the KIT Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

'South African Family Stories: A Group Portrait' describes the origins of South Africa through the experiences of nine individual families. Each family story unfolds across four or five generations, with one or two persons representing each generation. Some of the families selected for the exhibition include well-known public figures, such as Sol Plaatje, Marthinus Steyn and Dolly Rathebe, but in general most of the families claim no special public significance. The exhibition is presented as a multimedia presentation, using artwork, photography, film, sound, original documents and objects. A different team of South African artists, photographers, writers and designers was employed to produce each of the nine family stories.

Penny Siopis and photographer Ruth Motau worked on the Plaatje family, while Sam Nhlengethwa and photographer Mothlalefi Mahlabe present the family story of the singer Dolly Rathebe. David Goldblatt paired-up with Claudette Schreuder to profile the Steyn family, Berni Searle interpreting the experiences of the Manuel family from Simonstown. Andrew Verster worked on the Juggernath family from India, while photographer Paul Weinberg and artist Langa Magwa focussed on the family of Zonkezizwe Mthethwa, a respected sangoma living near Ngudwini. The overall composition of the families selected aims to be representative of the social, cultural and geographical variety of people in South Africa.

The exhibition is complemented by a 240-page publication featuring the output of nine writers-researchers interpreting the major moments in the respective families' lives. Each contribution is illustrated with the individual artworks and photographs commissioned for the project. The book also features an introductory essay by Cape Town University's Njabulo Ndebele.

In an effort to offer audiences as comprehensive a portrait as possible of South Africa, the exhibition includes an independent exhibit known as 'the archive'. The installation, supervised by Penny Siopis, offers visitors a chance to browse through a variety of books, magazines and audio-visual material, the hope being that the archive will offer a contemplative space for visitors wishing to answer questions raised during the exhibition. South African Family Stories: A Group Portrait appears at KIT Tropenmuseum from October 4, 2002. After is closure in September 2003, the show will travel to South Africa where it will run at Johannesburg's Museum Africa from January 2004.

Opens: October 4, 2002
Closes: September 21, 2003

KIT Tropenmuseum, Linnaeusstraat 2, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Website: www.zuidafrika.tropenmuseum.nl
Hours: Daily from 10a.m - 5p.m

One often underestimates the difficulty of presenting South Africa internationally, more particularly contemporary South African art. This is amply borne out by this cursory overview of the press release to a new show at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. 'Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa' is a show which presents contemporary art from South Africa, "where artists have played a significant role in redefining the social and political identity of the region. This show promises art that reflects both Third World history and First World influence on this area, challenging African and Western notions of art."

Quoting further: " 'Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa' presents a wide range of creative activity in the young nation. South African policymakers have recognized the value of art and artists in the social, economic and educational development of their young nation. In the decade since the abolition of apartheid in 1990 art in South Africa has shifted from resistance art to art committed to the social transformation of the country.

"The works in 'Coexistence' represent the various ways in which the categories of "European" and "indigenous" arts are coexisting and mutually influencing each other. Six major works from the South African National Gallery (SANG) collection, all from 1995, form the exhibition's core. As a group, they contrast the vastly different spaces of the suburb, the township, the rural village, and the central city, and the racial and economic divisions that they mark. With one foot firmly planted in the Third World and the other striding forth into the First World, the art of contemporary South Africa challenges both African and Western notions of art."

'Coexistence' will feature artist Sue Williamson, amongst others, and is co-organized by The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, and the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, and curated by Pamela Allara, Associate Professor, Fine Arts Department, Brandeis University, Marilyn Martin, Director, Art Division, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, and Zola Mtshiza, Assistant Curator, SANG. There will be an exhibition catalogue.

For those unfamiliar with the Rose, it houses Brandeis University's collection of modern and contemporary art. Widely recognized as the finest collection of twentieth century art in New England, the collection includes pieces by the leading artists throughout the century, focussing on post WWII American art including de Kooning, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Mangold, and Taaffe. Portions of the collection are always on display at The Rose.

Opens: January 22
Closes: June 29, 2003

Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University
Lois Foster Wing and Mildred S. Lee Gallery
415 South Street in Waltham, MA 02454, USA
Tel: 781. 736 3434
Fax: 781. 736 3439
Website: www.brandeis.edu/rose/exhibits-current.html
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 p.m - 5 p.m

The title of 'The World Moves - We Follow' is taken from a Yoruba proverb, speaks to the inevitability of change, in this instance regarding African art. "Many still see African art as primarily being comprised of exotic masks and figure carvings coming from a nebulous time-period," comment the organisers referring to the so-called "ethnographic present."

Seeking to introduce African art to a new audience (eastern Tennessee has never had a major, general exhibition of African Art), this exhibition intends to present a broad survey of African art forms. African Art survey exhibitions have been presented in a number of world venues. Many surveys are focused on particular collectors and their tastes for figures and masks, or permanent collections (for example, the Field Museum of Chicago and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's recent reinstallations, which reflect museums' own collection history and the story they currently want to tell about Africa).

Having neither local museum collections or many private collectors of African Art, the challenge was to come up with a way to celebrate the artistic richness of the African heritage as inclusively as possible. It was imperative to incorporate some of the newest research on previously neglected artforms and geographic areas and include these arts under the umbrella of what represents African Art. The neglected geographic areas of Madagascar, southern and eastern Africa and Ethiopia and the largely ignored art forms such as weapons, furniture, currency tokens, textiles, and contemporary art are therefore incorporated into this exhibition.

" We have chosen to completely integrate the widest possible range of art forms, and thus confirm their incorporation into the canon of African Art," state the organisers. "To do this successfully it was critical to select the very best examples of many categories of objects." The exhibition has thus been organised into a number of themes: Leadership and Status, Death and the Ancestors, Utility and the Art of Living, Transitions, and Connecting with the World. Objects to be included cover a variety of forms (masks, figures, textiles, paintings, weapons, furniture); time periods (ranging from a bronze head and plaque from the ancient kingdom of Benin up to contemporary times with factory-printed cloth and art about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in South Africa); and geographic areas (ranging from Madagascar to eastern and southern Africa, through central and western Africa, to northern and north-eastern Africa).

'The World Moves - We Follow' is complemented by a number of events (musical and dance performances by the Soweto Street Dance Company, lectures, a play, a conference, film series, etc.), held under the umbrella of the "Africa Semester, Spring 2003".

Opens: January 10
Closes: May 18, 2003

Frank H. McClung Museum of the University of Tennessee
701 McClung Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996-0470, USA
Website: http://pr.utk.edu/africa

For More Information on Africa Semester 2003, contact:
Stefanie Ohnesorg
Tel: 865. 974 7098
E-mail: ohnesorg@utk.edu
or
Carolyn Hodges
Tel: 865. 974 2312
E-mail: chodges@utk.edu

As part of 'The World Moves - We Follow' exhibition, the University of Tennessee is presenting a collection of prints illustrating the clauses of South Africa's Bill of Rights. 'Images of Human Rights' is a portfolio of prints produced by Artists for Human Rights - a group of artists described as coming "from the diverse cultures of South Africa."

Several lunchtime talks are being planned at the College of Law in connection with the exhibition. Professor Ebrahim Moosa, formerly of the University of Cape Town and now of Duke University, will speak on how the Bill of Rights deals with questions of religious freedom, addressing the relationship between Islam and constitutionalism in South Africa. His talk is tentatively scheduled for late March.

The exact time and place for the showcasing of 'Images of Human Rights' is yet to be determined. More information on the portfolio can however be found at the Images of Human Rights web site, which includes an introduction by Desmond Tutu.

Opens: February 1
Closes: May 18, 2003

College of Law Building
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
Tel: 865. 974 1000
Website: http://pr.utk.edu/africa

For More Information on Africa Semester 2003, contact:
Stefanie Ohnesorg
Tel: 865. 974 7098
E-mail: ohnesorg@utk.edu
or
Carolyn Hodges
Tel: 865. 974 2312
E-mail: chodges@utk.edu

The Peter Weiss Collection is one of the largest collections of its kind. Consisting of more than 10 000 postcards, published between 1890 and 1950, all of them depicting blacks, the collection represents an invaluable source for understanding the role of Africa and blackness in European popular culture in the first half of the 20th century.

During the Africa Semester 2003, 'Africa at Home: European Postcards 1890-1950', an exhibition at the Black Cultural Center, will offer the public the chance to view a representative, thematically focused excerpt of the collected materials. Approaches range from 'entertaining' caricatures through to expressionist paintings to advertisements and political propaganda. This will be the first exhibit of the Weiss Collection on the American continent. (See NEWS.)

For more information on 'Africa at Home: European Postcards 1890-1950' and the Africa Semester 2003, contact:
Stefanie Ohnesorg
Tel: 865. 974 7098
E-mail: ohnesorg@utk.edu
or
Carolyn Hodges
Tel: 865. 974 2312
E-mail: chodges@utk.edu

For further information please contact: feltayeb@utk.edu

William Kentridge, Santu Mofokeng and Zwelethu Mthethwa are the trio of South African artist exhibiting at the sixth Sharjah International Biennial, currently on in the United Arab Emirates.

For this year's event director Hoor Al-Qasimi and curator Peter Lewis have selected works that "articulate the multiple yet general discourses between aesthetics and politics in terms of both a diversification and coinciding of representations and insurgencies". In view of the current hostilities in the region, the Biennial aims to address the aesthetic in a time that urgently seeks an ethical disposition.

Rosemarie Trockel ranks as one the foremost artists from the event's long list of participants.

Opens: April 8
Closes: May 8

Sharjah Art Museums and Expo Centre Sharjah
Tel: 00971 6 568 8222
Fax: 00971 6 568 5959
Email: info@sharjahbiennial.com
Website: www.sharjahbiennial.com

There is not much chance left to catch the tail-end of Thomas Mulcaire's new silkscreen poster work, titled A luta continua, so get down to Perth's 'gallery in a window', the Spectrum Project Space.

Closes: end April

Spectrum Project Space
Edith Cowan University, 221 Beaufort Street, Perth 6003, Australia
Tel: +61 8 9328 2008
Email: spectrum@ecu.edu.au
Hours: Thurs - Sun 2pm - 6pm