e-news vol 1 of January 2010

e-news vol 1 of January 2010

ArtHeat

ArtHeat

Bongani Mkhonza: Curated Joe De Beers Exhibition: Pretoria Centurion

Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Department

Arts, Culture and Heritage Division
2nd Floor I Es'kia Mphahlele Community Library
Sammy Marks Building I Cnr Van der Walt and Vermeulen Streets I Pretoria I 0002
PO Box 6338 I Pretoria I 0001
Tel: 012 358 4553 I Fax: 012 358 4561
www.tshwane.gov.za









My ref:
Joe de Beer, DEPARTURE exhibition
Tel:
012 358 3477
Your ref:

Fax:
012 664 6242
Contact person:
Samuel Monyela
Email:
artg@tshwane.gov.za
Division/Section/Unit:
Museums

Centurion Art Gallery
Cnr Cantonments Road and Unie Avenue
(next to the Lyttelton Library)
10 September 2009

PRESS RELEASE

Event: Joe de Beer, Departure exhibition
Date: 6 to 29 October 2009
Venue: Centurion Art Gallery
Cnr Cantonments Road and Unie Avenue, Lyttelton, Centurion

The Centurion Art Gallery is pleased to host the first solo exhibition of Joe de Beer, one of Tshwane's emerging visual artists. The exhibition entitled Departure is a selection of the artist's first ten years of work.

The artwork on show encapsulates the artist's perception of his external environment and his sense of being part of it. "I view my artwork as a departure point (a place to begin, as in a discussion or argument) on diverse issues ranging from social concerns to the human condition. I don't presume to give answers or solutions to these issues, rather I ask the viewer to participate in the discussion."



Joe de Beer,"R2,R2,R2",oil on canvas,120 x 80 cm


The important task of selecting the works to be exhibited was left to Bongani Mkhonza, Curator of the UNISA Art Gallery, who says that "De Beer's body of work is not an interpretation of the structure of the world around him, but a demonstration that meaning making in his world is questioned and co-constructed. Most of his empty landscape paintings seem to question the point of departure between borders, personal and public spaces by defusing solid ground rocks into thin air and blue skies."

The exhibition will be opened by Bongani Mkhonza at the Centurion Art Gallery on Tuesday, 6 October, at 18:30 for 19:00, and ends on Thursday, 29 October. Viewing hours are Mondays to Fridays, 10:00 to 17:00 (closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays).

For more information please call the Centurion Art Gallery on 012 358 3477.

Cape 09 Biennale: Guess who is coming to dine?

Church Square: Spin Street, Cape Town

Title of this project: Guess who is coming to dine?

Contemporary Public Performance.

In this performance, artists set up a table placing Jacob Zuma's birthday cake at the centre of the table. This set up was placed at the centre of the Church Square only few metres away from the parliament building in Cape Town, just few days before the presidential inauguration of Jacob Zuma into presidency. Historically, this site was used as the slave trading zone. Some performing artists were tied-feasting while others were mocking them, shouting at them, belittling them into nothing but objects of amusement. With their hands tied tightly at the backs with chains, this artists devour and amputate chickens that were hanging upside down with their teeth. After all this drama, members of the public were invited to come and dine in the table full of divine foods.

Bongani Mkhonza was one of the project managers.

Sessions Luanda a Great Success! by Bongani Mkhonza

Fernando Alvin
Bongani Mkhonza
Bongani Mkhonza
Mirjam Ismal, Loyiso, and Phillipa
Gemuce
Fernando Alvin

Art Throb interview with Bongani Mkhonza

Interview with CAPE Young Curator Bongani Mkhonzaby Carol Brown
'Sessions eKapa 2005 is the first public event of the Cape project to establish a biennial African art event that is not a biennale... CAPE stands for Cape Africa Platform - it works with the potentialities of the fraught relationship between Cape Town and Africa' says the original CAPE manifesto. There was a great deal of hype when Gavin Jantjes took over the project with promises of raising millions and making this a mega event. However it all fell flat at the last minute. He pulled out, went back to Scandinavia and is now working on another large exhibition. Gabi Ncgobo and her team managed to put something together with minimal funding but it was understandably low-key.

The CAPE project appears to have resurrected itself once more and a programme for young curators is in force. One of the participants of this programme hails from Durban. Bongani Mkhonza joined the Durban Art Gallery as education officer in the beginning of 2007 after a career teaching art at a special needs school and participating in many community projects. Mkhonza is in the last throes of his Master's Degree in Art Education which he is pursuing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and inbetween completing his thesis and working full time, he has been selected as one of the curators on the Cape Programme.

I interviewed him to find out more about this programme which seems to have been operating under the radar.

He described how, with the lack of curatorial programmes, he was excited at the possibility of joining this venture and, out of a short-list of 28 people he was chosen as one of the five participants who will have to curate an exhibition for Cape 'O9.

He attended the first Training session in Cape Town January this year under Gabi Ngcobo, and returned in June for the second leg. Co-ordinator this time was Robert Weinek and the first sessions were given by Andrew Lamprecht, Melvyn Minnaar and Robert Sloon.

Of this first day Mkhonza said: 'I was feeling a bit angry initially as it seemed as though when finally I could become a curator, the practice of the First Wave art curation is dying an early death.'

Day two did not seem much more hopeful as they visited Rayda Becker at Parliament and learned of the many challenges which this established collection is now facing. She posed the questions:
'How does one curate the art that is seen to be representing the old regime in a new dispensation? What do we, as Young Curators, feel should be done with this rich collection which is considered irrelevant?'

These debates may be familiar to those who have been in the profession through the changing times, but for Mkhonza they were both depressing and challenging.

He feels that his experiences the following day, listening to some of what he described as the 'New Wave' curators, threw some exciting challenges his way and relieved his depression. The session by Brendon Bussy, brought the element of sound into curatorial practice. The presentation of the 'Africa Burns' Festival where process is paramount was also exciting, as was 2666 studio's boat to Robben Island 'performance'.

Mkhonza says that, 'Through all these above experiences in curatorial practice, I have realised that "curation" as we always knew it is long dead and the contemporary world needs new ways and methods of engaging in a public discourse where art is relevant to the issues of today and our future. Technology (like the internet and blogspots) offers us unimaginable tools of interaction locally and globally. Gone are the days where only the elite group of art curators, scholars and academics control the art. Now art is our vehicle towards addressing global challenges instead of preoccupations with defending our pasts. Public art, and the use of other art forms are the future of engaging with the wider public discourse.'

Mkhonza is now on his way to Luanda where he will participate in further collaborations and exchange of ideas, which he will be sharing with us at ArtThrob over the next month or so.

Art is Round!

Is our South African contemportary art flat or round?By Bongani Mkhonza

‘A round earth is the most stable shape according to gravitational theory; a flat earth would tend to collapse toward the center, and people standing near the edges would feel a gravitational pull toward the center of the flat surface instead of perpendicular to the
surface’….
Our contemporary art in SA is running a risk of collapsing towards the center if it allows itself to be controlled by commercially driven corporate/private collectors who continues to highlight/promote the usual suspects of the art scene through senseless art auctions and art-fairs and etc. This earth is indeed round; we need to develop a kind of approach that diversifies our art appreciation and production. We need to continue with our endless search for the new, fresh and unknown while appreciating/ conserving and reconstructing the known in order for it to make more sense to our contemporaries. Art curators should take a radical approach when doing their job! Curators go out there research about the unknown, defend the upcoming weak and protect the art from capitalist sharks, rather than seeking to please the markets. Art is not for the elite few!
Art is round!
To be continued…
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