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