The Courier

Kendell Geers, poster realised for the exhibition .ZA - young art from South Africa, Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, 2008.

“It is possible to speak of South Africa without falling into the traps of cliché about race, apartheid, colonialism, class, poverty and AIDS?” asks Kendell Geers in his text for the exhibition catalogue, .ZA - Young art from South Africa.

This is the very challenge underscoring the exhibition produced by the Centre for Contemporary Art Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena. As stated by director Marco Pierini, this initiative started with the purpose of “photographing” the country’s young artistic production in collaboration with more mature artists (Marlene Dumas, Kendell Geers, Bernie Searle, Minnette Vári, Sue Williamson), each of whom has been requested to choose three artists.  The exhibition’s creator Lorenzo Fusi has joined them.

Considering the works presented, what is clear is that the selected artists do not run the risk of following African clichés in order to be accepted or to sell abroad. This interesting corpus of works – though some slightly immature – is juxtaposed with the venue, which is an amazing 15th century palace of with a succession of rooms, halls and ceilings decorated with Renaissance-style paintings. The beauty of the rooms is capped by a turret which, besides offering the best 360-degree view of Siena, is the location where Galileo had his prison sentence commuted and was placed under house arrest after having relinquished the Catholic Church.

Another important element is the iconographic material that the five artist-curators have provided in order to enhance the exhibition’s image: five dynamic, hard-hitting posters covering both the walls and floor of the entrance room. This environment introduced the central performance by Johan Thom during the opening ceremony: for four hours, he endures having broken glass and yellow oil poured on top of him.

The co-curators have also written the catalogue texts to illustrate the contemporary situation of South African artists. Kendell Geers’ analysis of the country’s cultural systems is particularly poignant: “Since the fall of apartheid South Africa has been struggling to come to terms with its violent history, struggling to find a balance between building a future and addressing the imbalances of the past. […] Instead of art being celebrated for its excellence, the work of art has been reduced to a politically correct demographic with an emphasis on traditional craft.” In essence this is an accusation against affirmative action policies that wanted to reverse relations between blacks and whites, and against which art was rebelling.

However, for white artists and writers, bridging the gap with their black counterparts often resulted in the loss of credibility and by being perceived to speak on behalf of oppressed black people. With the end of apartheid, the artists’ most serious problem has been the disappearance of a common “enemy” as well as the need to find a new purpose for their work. The young authors of .ZA, who grew up in Mandela and Mbeki’s Rainbow Nation, seem to have positively solved this problem without negative feelings towards their former enemy.

The exhibition comprises artwork about South African identities and places, and highlights the unsolved struggles of this multiethnic society, while dealing with more universal themes as well. In the performance-installation, Serenade by Simon Gush, a local police car is placed in the entrance of the old building. An actor, dressed in a police uniform, then sits inside the car and sings “Can’t Take my Eyes off of You” through speakers mounted on the car’s roof. It is quite strange (and disturbing) to hear a policeman sing the sweet song, “I love you baby! And if it’s quite alright, I need you, baby!”

James Webb’s The Black Passage is a narrow dark corridor in which the visitor walks toward the source of a rumbling sound – the descent into amine. At the end a light is a suggestion a half-closed door, but when we arrive we find out that there is no way to go out. It is a shocking and surreal experience to go into the mine tunnel, but also evokes similar ‘no way out’, both physically and psychologically.

Ismail Farouk’s videos give us an interesting representation of life in South African cities. Photographs by Zanele Muholi shift the focus to discrimination and identity issues from the racial, gender and sexual perspectives. Night Journey by Colleen Alborough, an interactive installation: a labyrinth of veil curtains in which the spectator becomes an active part of the narrative and sensory path of the dreams and nightmares of a mysterious person sleeping.
Also, the leather figures by Nandipha Mntambo move across the wall to elicit the past. These figures are linked both to the disruptive and aggressive nature of South African animals and to the elegance of 18th century dresses.

In sum, “new South African art” is not exclusively related to apartheid anymore, though it retains strong political and social tones. The artists of .ZA perfectly illustrate the condition of intellectuals placed in a peripheral position within the new globalised world where – despite everything seeming to be near and possible – peripheries remain peripheries.

The authors:

Colleen Alborough
Bridget Baker
Zander Blom
Dineo Bopape
Ismail Farouk
Frances Goodman
Simon Gush
Nicholas Hlobo
Moshekwa Langa
Nontsikelelo Lolo Veleko
Churchill Madikida
Nandipha Mntambo
Zanele Muholi
Ruth Sacks
Sean Slemon
Doreen Southwood
Mikhael Subotzky
Johan Thom
Ina van Zyl
James Webb