JOHANNESBURG

The obsession of one artist - Angolan Fernando Alvim - has led to one of the most complex multimedia exhibitions (excluding Biennales) ever to be staged in this country. 'Memorias Intimas Marcas' ('Memory Intimacy Traces') was conceived by Alvim as a way of attempting to heal the wounds of the Angolan war by initiating an intense artistic dialogue or interaction with the world. Inviting Gavin Younge of South Africa and Carlos Garacioa of Cuba to join him, the three journeyed to Cuito Cuanavale, the site of one of the most hotly contested battles of the war, to experience for themselves its after-effects on the people in the area.

It was the distillation of these experiences which led to the first South African showing of the work, at the Cape Town Castle in November 1997. The theme was a big one. Faced with the horrors of war, it is not easy for artists to produce work which seems profound enough, sufficiently considered and engaging, particularly when there are the cavernous spaces of the Castle to fill. Inevitably, perhaps, the quality of the work was uneven, but the impulse and the energy which went into producing the work was to be admired. Memorable indeed was Alvim's hospital bed with its mutant occupants, and Younge's touching video of post-war daily life in Angola, shown on video monitors in the front carriers of a ring of bicycles.

Now the exhibition has opened at the Electric Workshop in Johannesburg, with a small showing in the African Window Museum in Pretoria, and has added to its roster of artist-participants one more from each of the key countries - Capela (Angola); Sandra Caballos, the first woman, (Cuba); and Moshekwa Langa (South Africa). Added to this are three guest artists for this event: Wayne Barker, Colin Richards, and Lien Botha.

'Memorias Intimas Marcas' will go on to tour Luanda, Europe and South America.

At the Electric Workshop until May 15, Tuesdays to Sundays 11h00 to 18h00. At the African Window Museum in Pretoria daily from 09h00 to 17h00. Guided tours and workshops on request. Phone 083-379-8584.

"To think after all my travels I should land up in this godforsaken place." With these words, her grandmother's, as the opening subtitle, Penny Siopis launches into the mini-saga of the emigration of her family from Greece to South Africa in her masterful video, My Lovely Day. It is a key work in Siopis's current exhibition entitled 'Charmed Lives' at the Goodman, an assemblage of pieces and installations which reflect more than anything Siopis's attempts to come to terms with her own position as a woman, a mother and an artist in this place. Siopis herself may well have found her country godforsaken at times, but even at its most horrifying, like her own work, always rich, always multi-layered, always interesting. The exhibition closes May 16. Phone 788-1113.

This young artist's wordy press release, headed 'My Fifteen Minutes of Fame', for his show 'Child of the Cosmos' tells us he does not lack self-confidence, and with paintings with titles like To Di For and Self Portrait After Gianni Versace, I would think he needs it. But judge for yourself. The exhibition opens with a live performance on Sunday May 3 at 6pm and closes on May 23. Phone 832-1641.

Alex Trapani, Veliswa Gwintsa, Victor Makubalo, Farrel Ngilima, Konrad Schoeman and Stephen Erasmus are the six young artists currently showing at the Civic Gallery in Braamfontein. The theme of the show is language, and Makubalo's lively contribution is a broadcast tape made on a train ride from Soweto to Johannesburg, recording all the conversations, singing, political rhetoric and religious injunctions of the commuters. Trapani, whose unusual work reflects his deep commitment to Christianity, here invites viewers to enter a cube structure entitled Eight Over Infinity Cubed, eight being the biblical number beyond seven, and thus beyond perfection. Earlier work has involved the ritual of communion, and on the sides of the cube viewers can find two of the plastic taps used on boxed wine and, using them, elicit a few drops of wine.