Tangencya/Thinta
by Gabi Ngcobo
Tangencya is a word derived from a synthesis of the English word tangency and Portuguese word tangencia both alluding to touch. The isiZulu word thinta is also a verb meaning to touch. Here the concept of touching expresses the notion that what is touched becomes transformed.
Tangencya/Thinta was an inter-disciplinary arts-based project conceptualised and curated by sculptor Andries Botha (SA) and conceptual artist Miguel Petchkovsky (Amsterdam/Angola). Rustom Bharucha, an independent writer and cultural critic based in Calcutta, was theorist to the project. Bharucha's role was to initiate dialogue during the artists discussion forums held in the evenings at different venues within the city. These were meant to reflect on the days different engagements and interventions.
The project had 11 site-specific interventions featuring 31 artists from South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Angola and took place throughout Durban during December and January.
This is Durbans busiest time of the year. December 16 marked the projects start, the same public holiday that marks the kick-off date for the festive season. Commemorating the Day of Reconciliation, this day acted as a catalyst to connect the concept of Tangencya/Thinta to its objectives.
The evening meetings hosted by Bharucha became a classic case of artists talking to themselves about the world out there. Discussions became intellectualised proofs of brilliance and, although a lot of points were raised, the silencing of the other was especially apparent. It is at this point that the project fails to touch and, I feel, doesnt reach out enough.
To reconcile is to find agreement between two opposing sides, or to bring about a friendly relationship between disputing parties. This was very much the purpose of Tangencya/Thinta. This was done largely in terms of timing, the nature of the interventions as well the skepticism with which it was received by the Durban art community.
The interventions were premeditated to project Durban as a cultural place that investigates and defines African modernity in multiple contexts and sites. Says Andries Botha, The project refers to how local creativity can be both a multidisciplinary cultural experience as well as a response to conceptual challenges at regional, national, international and global levels.
In the Durban context, this time of the year always finds the city buzzing with people, flooding in from other parts of the country, from peripheries to the centre as it were. The street buzzes with music pumping out of the mini-bus taxis which connect and act as reconciliation points for these two positions.
It is at this point that Mozambican Fernando Titos Mabote and Mondli Mdanda from Durban intervened. By collaborating in construction of a life-size taxi from junk and found materials, they challenged the notions of marginal edges and the centre.
This is a work-in-progress meant to elicit reaction and address problems in the transport industry. The Tangencya/Thinta team is left with the challenge of constructing these discussions in a manner that will touch and contribute to reconciling relationships between passengers, drivers, owners, and the taxi industry and municipality.
Maria van Gaas, a Durban-based sculptor with a background in architecture, and Zinhle Mngomezulu, a senior ceramics student, collaborated in an intervention which sought to further challenge the notions of margin and centre. Their site, at J section in Umlazi, a township half an hour south of Durban, brought out questions of physical distance which are based on the psychological impact of how the centre is seen from that perspective.
By engaging Mrs Gambushe, who runs the Zamukuziphilisa Community Centre (a self-help sewing and beading enterprise for women), the artists were tasked with bringing their unique vision to the situation. As the eye is a foreign one it becomes intrusive, seeking its own connections with the centre by adding architectural forms reinforcing the space as a satellite to the city. This is reinforced by Mrs. Gambushes need for visibility, a sensitive issue as in this location visibility can also be detrimental..
The artists trained 10 women in mosaic-making. The mosaics they made were then mounted on a recently erected wall panel. A structure of bamboo and other natural materials was also constructed to create a friendly and welcoming entrance to the community centre.
Miguel Petchkovsky's intervention critically examined the museums' institutional genealogy. Museums have become lifeless structures that monumentalise and freeze history. The challenge for Petchovsky lay in how to open up the space so that the memory it houses also serves to create an ongoing dialogue. Infusing museums with life is an ongoing process and one that needs a carefully conceptualised content.
By using photocopied photographic archives, Petchkovsky reconstructed the meanings of museum by emphasising the connection between outside and inside. When photocopied, photographs become ephemeral and therefore less precious. This creates a warmer, more tangible context for their consumption.
One other intervention sought to connect the spaces between the different interventions, another dealt with issues of sexuality and contemporary sexual dialogues around issues of HIV and AIDS, using art and installation in public places as a tool for reaching out. Durbans complex spiritual dynamics were not neglected either. The city is made up of multicultural entities with varying and sometimes complex spiritual belief systems. Artists Jeremy Wafer (SA), Dumisani Mthethwa (SA), John Monnakgotsi (Botswana) and the now late Richard Shange (SA) worked with this.
Tangencya/Thinta, although negligent of some important areas, was nevertheless an important challenge and learning experience for the Durban cultural scene. Durban was impelled to look at itself, especially in terms of its location, issues of inclusivity and promoting ongoing dialogues. The project is set to become an annual event that will follow up on issues which arose here and will spread to other Southern African countries in the future.
The project ended on January 20 and a follow up is planned for September this year.
