Cape Young Curator Exposed: Bongani Mkhonza

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Interview with CAPE Young Curator Bongani Mkhonza
by 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.






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Kunst Mobil Berlin Open Studios 2008

Künstlerhaus Bethanien

The place The space The park






DANIEL BARROCA


DANIEL BARROCA’s works are concerned with memory and its images, searching for contemporary interpretations of history’s fragmentary legacies such as photos, pictures, and sound and voice recordings. Barroca has a particular interest in materials that enable highly subjective views of a specific historical epoch or event, in the form of personal recordings by unknown individuals. On this basis, he develops his drawings, films and photo installations and creates perspectives that can be compared and contrasted with the ‘official’ version in the history books.
“Soldier Playing with Dead Lizard” is a video installation; its collages of images and sounds are based on private snapshots taken by Portuguese soldiers who fought in the colonial war in Guinea-Bissau during the 1960s and 70s. It is the artist’s intention to reflect the historical events only indirectly, which is an expression of Barroca’s subtle poetic-visual language; on the other hand, it is also a pointer to the actual political conditions in Portugal at the time, for under the junta it was impossible to speak openly and critically about the war in the colonies, although it was bleeding the country dry.
Daniel Barroca holds a João Hogan fellowship from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in the context of our International Studio Programme.

Daniel Barroca – Soldier Playing with Dead Lizard
15 – 31 August 2008, Studio 2
Opening: Thursday, 14 August 2008, from 7 pm

LIBIA CASTRO & ÓLAFUR ÓLAFSSON


LIBIA CASTRO & ÓLAFUR ÓLAFSSON work with a wide range of artistic media and examine themes relevant to the socio-political situation of public and urban space; their art is a matter of language, urban identity and the effects of globalisation on local communities. The projects are ‘nomadic’: numerous journeys, long periods staying on site and cooperation with local communities and activist groups are established components of Castro’s and Ólafsson’s artistic practice. Motivated by their own hybrid identity and experience as migrants, they not only transport their research from one place and context to the next, but intervene, so activating and highlighting social and political spheres.
In Studio 3, Castro & Ólafsson are showing selected works from the past five years as a representative insight into their artistic practice. Sculptures, photographs, video and sound works made in such contrasting places as Cuba, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, Turkey and Germany reflect their personal, poetic-realistic style of committed artistic work as well as the everyday life of a wide spectrum of people – together with its minor and major events, encounters and spaces.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson are participants in our International Studio Programme.

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson – Recent Works
15 – 31 August 2008, Studio 3
Opening: Thursday, 14 August 2008, from 7 pm



Parallel to the exhibition openings on 14th August 2008, we would like to present a further round of Open Studios at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
Here, you are invited to take an informal stroll through the studios, discover new artistic projects, and chat to the international artists about their work.

The following artists will be opening their studios from 7 to ca. 10 p.m. on 14th August:
Jungju An (ROK), Daniel Barroca (P), Castro & Ólafsson (E/IS), Markus Degerman (S), Cynthia Girard (CAN), Anouk Kruithof (NL), Pia Lindman (FIN), An Te Liu (CAN), Ives Maes (B), Christian Niccoli (I), Christodoulos Panayiotou (CY), Sarah Ryan (AUS), Martin Skauen (N), Sophia Tabatadze (GE) and Ntando Xorile (curator, ZA).

Cape Town has baby Joburg hanging on AVA walls.

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE VOL.1

I finally found time to post [joy..celebration..loud noise]. After an intense two weeks working with Gabi and Mwenya on Scratching the surface vol. 1, it's safe to say the large chunk of the work is done! It was truly an incredible experience and a legendary exhibition. I initially started off working on the artists' bios and necessary documentation. The highlight was when I assisted in installing Ruth Sacks's work, Never Quite There, which is a logo she created of a hybrid mythical creature she quoted from a copy of an engraving she saw at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.

Everything worked out in the end... AVA truly doesn't know what hit it! When walking into the show, you can smell, see and touch the sense of playfulness... the first work being Zambian artist, Kalinosi Mutale's piece, Kali Dictionary. You are greeted, fittingly, by loud (strangely disturbing) sounds of a baby gurgling and babbling. This comes from the video where Mutale invents symbols that compile a visual dictionary. The first traces of the scratching of a surface are revealed with his pencil drawings on the white walls (very labour intensive).

As you walk into the main gallery you are swarmed by the opulence of colour, a stark contrast to the grey and black palette visible in Mutale's work (although there are hints of red ink here and there). You are met by Mlu Zondi’s Experimenta which is a Rubik cube in which the artist performs dressed entirely in white with a projection of black animated text curving with his moving body. The exhibition buzzes with bright colour and animation with three video pieces, Dineo Bopape's By Any Means Necessary, Robin Rhode's Microphone and Simone Leigh's Uhura.

Four sets of performances by Mlu Zondi, Gugulective, the trio comprising of Katy Streek, Alude Mahali & Penny Youngleson as well as Garth Erasmus and Julian Jonker's duo, are part of the shows yummy line-up. The phrase I would describe the show as being is 'a carnival of colour'. The playfulness pumping under the show’s skin was most evident in its rejection of the concept of the untouchable art work. Pristine white gloves are shoved over by unprecious indication to touch... more specifically, to scratch! The white sacred space where the viewer is JUST a viewer is transformed into a place of interaction. The void between the art on display and an ordinary member of the public is bridged through various curatorial strategies such as the labels which are scribbled somewhat effortlessly on the walls in pencil (reminiscent of school days and tagging names on desks and bathroom walls).

The viewers of Scratching the Surface vol. 1 are part of the process and the show, most evident in Bandile Gumbi's pieces Giving up and Giving in. Here the viewers are encouraged to scratch off the colourful spray-painted graffitti to reveal the poetry beneath the surface. Even at the simplest level,there’s no denying that the show is engaging.

Toooooooo cool!

´meeting people´

Marco Kabenda, based in Luanda...

´forging networks without borders´

tremble, fear, excitement, strangers, food, beer, sounds, scenes and everything else you could probably imagine to this endless list of subjective but yet universal experiences. luanda, a capital city of angola, the world´s most expensive city, and yet stark contrast of poverty and wealth. if you survive as an artist in angola you have to be connected to foreign countries for funding, or your uncle is a board member of many local giant corporates such as oil, engineering, import/export etc...

anyways, besides the gloomy picture i just drew above, people of luanda are quite friendly people. there is no stress of walking alone at night in the middle of the city here, unlike cape town, where i have to be conscious of which routes i take to leave long street or when i have to be at the taxi rank. there is a very strong sense of togetherness, "hanguilla" (power to the people) is a common daily greeting term of togetherness...

i had a wonderful reception from the locals, regardless of the fact that english is not popular at all here, they still received me with joy and ubuntu as i know it, and this was touching, given the current state of affairs in south africa with regards to ´black africans´ yes ´black africans´... ´hanguilla´

well, i won´t say much for now as power failures are everyday reality here just like they are in south africa, but then understandably so, they are recuccitating the whole country as they just came out of their hopefully last war...

Quotes from along the way

"Inspire artists to be artists and not conformers"  Saul Williams

"Perhaps this is where art has its place today. One of its roles is to attempt to openly and freely capture the myriad details that make us, here at the most southern tip of Africa, unique" Sello Duiker

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 which 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…
leave your comments.

Cape Workshop Experiences

Bongani...My Cape Workshop Experience:
An artitle called: “from Curation to Non-Curation”
By Bongani Mkhonza (A Curator I have never became)
01July 2008

Art curator-ship according to an oxford dictionary means a practice of being in charge of the art collection in a museum. Recently, in the first wave of our post-modern times, the practice of curator-ship has been re-defined as the art of putting exhibitions together. During this wave, there has been a lot of development in the art curatorial practice. We have witnessed the world recognition of African Curators like Simon Njami and many more. We have witnessed African curated exhibitions making headlines in Europe.
Also with these developments came a big hype about this kind of practice called art curator-ship. A lot of Artists and art Critics started calling themselves curators, a lot of exhibitions took for granted the great works by artists while praising the Curator that put the exhibition together, and through such experiences, the Curators became the superiors of art while the artists are overlooked as just the minor producers of art.

As an Artist and an Educationist having observed this, firstly I also wanted to become a Curator, but how does one becomes a Curator? In South Africa, there are no formal educational Institutions that produce Curators. When I saw an opportunity on the Internet to be trained to become the Young Cape Curator, I grabbed it with both hands, I applied for the opportunity, 28 art people from different backgrounds were short-listed, and I was amongst the five that were successful. At the end of this exercise we have to curate and produce an exhibition called Cape 09 in May 2009.

In January 2008 we attended our first session of training under the supervision of Gabi Ngcobo who was a Research Officer for Cape Africa Platform at a time. I want to dwell on my experiences on our second part of training that we just conducted during the last two weeks of June 2008.

When I arrived at Cape Town, I was picked up by Robert Weineck who is one of the founders of Cape Africa while it was called the Trans-Cape but he resigned later on. He is now back as the Young Cape Curator’s Co-ordinator. He took me from the airport to this exotic old dingy Hotel called Kimberly Hotel on Roeland Drive. On our arrival we met up with Andrew Lamprecht who is a famous Cape contemporary Artist and also a lecturer at Michaelis, who I was told that he lives there. On the following day we met the critic called Melvin Minaar who took us for a long session on art reporting and critical writing. Throughout his session, Melvin continually dismissing ‘the practice of curation’ even was questioning the term ‘curator’ itself. Also accusing Curators of using what he referred as ‘Curators Bubble’. According to Melvin this is a senseless ‘Jargon’ that Curators use to show their intelligence while excluding the very same audience that they are trying to rich out to. After that Robert Sloon which is a pseudo name for Chad who owns the Art Heat blogspot took us for another session. Sloon started off by encouraging us as Cape Young Curators to come up with new ways of taking art to the general members of the public.
According to Sloon, contemporary art practice should move beyond gallery and museum spaces. He showed us different moves of ‘pimping our blogs’ (to make our art blogspots more accessible and more appealing).
By the end of this first day I was feeling a bit angry as I have noticed through the two sessions that while I thought that finally I will become a curator, the practice of the first wave art curation is dying an early death.

Other than other sessions we had, we had to visit the Parliament Collection with the Curator Rayder Becker. Outside the Pailiament we were greeted by a lot of men in black suits and a lot of big German cars. It looked very seriously political. We had to bring our proof of identity and we went through several security checks before we were finally admitted inside the Parliament. One of the biggest challenges Rayder is facing is trying to hold on to the first wave of curation, having to curate the Colonial Collection in a new Parliament walls. Rayder repeatedly asking us as Young Curators: How does one curate the art that is seen to be representing the old regime in a new dispensation? How do we as Young Curators feel should be done with her rich but seen as old Collection. Through-out Rayder’s session I sensed a lot of tension and frustration simple because of the newly presented pressures of representation. It was like Rayder as a curator has assumed the baggage of having to explain herself over and over in trying to justify her curation practices.
Amongst the highlights were Andrew Lamprecht’s lectures on the development of Biennales, their successes and failures. And Brendon Bassey: Hear without fear, where we had to build our own musical instruments ‘that collects unnoticed noise’. It made us aware of different noises and sounds out there that we are not even aware of when engaging with public spaces. Not to mention a 4h00 am session 2666 studios where we watch Christian Nerf and his cohorts escaping to Robben Island with a self made boat which was later taken to Gugulethu (Gugulective) to be destroyed.

Lastly, one of the most effective sessions was with Paul Jorgenson and Monique Schiess. They are both coordinators of the Burning man which is a festival like gathering that happens at the middle of the Karoo desert about 300 kilometres north of Cape Town. This is a contemporary concept where people from all over the world come together for a week, built their sculptures made out of organic materials like wood, paper and glass them burn them at the last days of their stay. It is completely not commercial or buttering, which means that you are not allowed to sell or buy anything. It is based on the fundamental principles of gifting. It deals with issues of environment and communal society. This event is totally against the traditional ways of ‘curation’ and it put more emphases on making the artwork of that moment it time and destroy in order to re create the better one. These ideas are in contrast with ideas of making art work for commercial reasons. It also differs with looking at art as a commodity that art collectors and museums to collect and encourages making art for art sake.

Through all these above experiences in trying to become a curator, I have realised that the ‘curation’ practice as we always knew it is long dead and the contemporary world needs new ways and methods of engage in a public discourse where art is relevant to the issues of today and our future.

Technology (like internet and blogspots) offers us unimaginable tools of interactions locally and globally. Gone are those days where only the elite group of art curators, scholars and academics controls the art, now art is our vehicle towards addressing global challenges instead of preoccupations with defending our pasts. Public art, re-intervention art and the use of other forms of art are the future of engaging with the wider public discourse.

PLEASE VISIT THE FOLLOWING BLOGSPOTS:
artcontemporaycurator.blogspot.com
capeyoungcurators.blogspot.com
southafricannationalgallery.blogspot.com

By Bongani Mkhonza
An Artist, Writer and Educationist
bonganimkhonza@gmail.com

A mis-guide to anywhere

Greetings

Had a chance to go checkout the Belluard Art Festival in a city called Fribourg, not too far from Zurich and part of the exhibition was a project called the mis-guide to anywhere by a collective called Wrights and Sites.

Their main aim is "to explore and celebrate space and place through site-specific performance, Mis-Guided Tours & published Mis-Guides, 'drifts', mythogeographic mapping and public presentations & articles".

What happens is that when people arrive they first have to go to the mis-information office where you can purchase your ticket and get your map and timetable. You then have to follow them and find the different exhibition spaces on your own which gives you an opportunity to explore the city. You also get a chance to go on a tour where a "tour guide" gives you the real thruth about the city and its history and along the way theres all sorts of interesting interventions taking place. My personal favourite was Harun Farocki's Deep Play an installation that brings together 12 different perspectives on the 2006 world cup final match between France and Italy. You get to view the match from different angles including the behind the scenes and abstract computer-generated versions.

Otherwise I enjoyed the works it was nothing too deep very light and accesible stuff. Found some interesting quotes on the mis-guide to anywhere catalogue and this was one of my favarits:

"Anywhere you can reorganise buildings without permission. Anywhere you can stand still without being questioned. Anywhere you can find abondened beds. Anywhere the movie you always wanted to see is playing. Anywere you legged it"

Peace and Light

I say Dumile Feni on the R100 notes......

Katherine Smith on the 50's and I think Willem Boshoff will look hot on the R200.

So, its my first time in Europe, and Zurich is where im at. Was told that Switzerland was a super clean country with very reserved people who are not very stylish....well!

A while ago while travelling in a bus from Malawi to Jozi, i was sitting next to a middle aged Zulu taxi driver who happened to know a whole lot about the South African history and politics. And, i remember him mentioning something about why the South African notes still have the big five printed on them instead of the ex presidents and so on, and me being me didnt really understand what he was on about and why he was bothered by this but it sounded like it was a big deal to him. He tried to brake it down to me and it was something very hectic like the ANC government being like security guards in this country, but then again i might be talking nonsense....so anyway i got to check out the Swiss Money for the first time today and i found it very fascinating that they have some of their artists and their artworks printed on the their currency. I mean i dont know much about who decides what goes on to a bank note or how all that currency stuff works but i think its super cool that artists receive that much recognition for their contribution into the country.

Looking foward to the next 2months....

Onelove

The crowd

Ronald Suresh Roberts opening 'Touching Moments'

Barend de Wet addresses the crowd

The arrival of Barend de Wet (Opening Speaker) at the Opening of Touching Moments

Great Stuff!

Great two weeks, met a lot of good and bad artists, cool stuff!
from Bongani

BLOG, blog, block!

This is the third time I attempt to post my thoughts here. If it doesn't work this time... then its clear there's a hex on the blog.

Well, as I said two times before, I believe our long, chilling silence is the direct result of blog-phobia : The nauseating feeling of anxiety about the possible exposure of one's poor punctuation that leads one to a lonely, passionless, miserable life of non-bloggery. The Young Curators were diagnosed with a severe case of Blog-phobia due to certain traumatic "engagements of discourse" but seeing that we all have a new lease on life thanx to Bobman, we're gonna give it one last run and who knows... this may be the start of a very fruitful relationship. Let's resuscitate her and rock the blog!

xoxo
Discourse

Introduction

It has been an anticipated journey for all of us to convene at the Cape offices on the Monday of January 21. From different provinces and with different experinces in the field, we took off with enthusiasm and optimism. It has, for some, a steady but firm first step of a journey. Within a space of ten days, we got around Cape Town meeting different role players and experts in the creative industry. To this day we are still revising our notes, projecting and reflecting our experiences, as the first phase of the journey. Having said that, the very blog is evidence to these claims, as it is being conceptualised and planned before publishing to the public.

Loyiso