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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