Woensdag 26 September 2012
The Beautiful Time: Photography by Sammy Baloji
Images by Congolese photographer and video artist Sammy Baloji feature the industrial landscapes around Lumbumbasi, the capital city of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The images serve as a visual indictment of the failed postcolonial leadership that mismanaged and squandered Katanga’s industrial resources, its modernity, and the economic prosperity of the region.
Surveys - Jane Alexander (South Africa)
While Jane Alexander’s figures are, in many ways, emblems of monstrosity, they are oddly beautiful. Her creatures expose the human animal for all it is and all it could become. Though clearly concerned with social issues, Alexander’s sculptural installations and photographs do not judge, nor do they convey a particular political or moral standpoint.
Laila Essaydi - Revisions
Lalla Essaydi's elegant, creative work belies it subversive, challenging nature. Approximately 30 works of diverse media are drawn from each of her photographic series, including the richly hued Silence of Thought and the more widely known Converging Territories and Les Femmes de Maroc. The exhibition also includes a selection of new works, as well as rarely exhibited paintings and installations.
El Anatsui - When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
Brings together the full range of the artist’s work, from wood trays referring to traditional symbols of the Akan people of Ghana; to early ceramics from the artist’s Broken Pots series, driftwood assemblages that refer to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and wooden sculptures carved with a chainsaw; to the luminous metal wall-hangings of recent years.
Goddelijk en Griezelig. Het geheim van de slang
Goddelijk en Griezelig is een interculturele tentoonstelling over het oudste dierensymbool ter wereld: de slang. De tentoonstelling laat in de vorm van oude en moderne kunst uit de hele wereld zien dat de slang vanaf de prehistorie tot op de dag van vandaag in alle culturen een bijzondere betekenis heeft.
Black Box/Chambre Noire - William Kentridge
De veelzijdige Zuid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar William Kentridge ontwikkelde de afgelopen decennia een multidisciplinaire werkwijze waarin film, animatie, tekenkunst, grafiek en theater samenkomen. Typerend voor zijn werk zijn de krachtige houtskool- en pasteltekeningen die hij tot bewegend beeld transformeert. Black Box/Chambre Noire is een mechanisch theater waarin gedurende 23 minuten zes mechanische figuren beurtelings optreden tegen een geprojecteerde achtergrond van geanimeerde houtskooltekeningen.
MMXII - James Webb
A series of independent yet intersecting exhibitions will be brought together under one roof to form a complete piece that explores the nature of belief and the dynamics of communication. The complete exhibition, entitled MMXII, is a solo display by James Webb. A keynote work in the exhibition is Prayer, a multi-channel sound installation of prayers recorded from over 65 different faith groups in greater Johannesburg. Other works, including static and time-based media projects, will be shown alongside JAG’s collection.
The Grass is Burning: Sketches of South Africa - foto's van Martine Kolner
Op verzoek van SEEtrust reisde fotograaf Martine Kolner de afgelopen jaren meerdere keren naar Zuid-Afrika. In de townships in Johannesburg fotografeerde zij de levensomstandigheden van de zwarte bevolking twintig jaar na de beëindiging van de apartheid. De expositie bestaat uit twaalf series waaronder Black in White, Headgear, In my Courtyard en Slash&Burn. De ruim honderd foto’s geven een impressie van de bewoners in een land waar na jarenlange strijd zwart en blank proberen elkaar de hand te reiken.
Time, Trade & Travel - Exhibition
Exhibition focuses on the complexities of global exchange fostered by capitalism, and its effects on life and art. Time, Trade & Travel set the participating artists on a quest for the historical encounters between Europeans and Africans, in which trade and the concomitant cultural exchange receive particular attention. In collaboration with the Nubuke Foundation in Accra, Ghana and featuring Dutch and Ghanese artists.
The International Exhibition of Black Music
An outstanding exploration of the sounds and rhythms of Africa and the Diaspora and a groundbreaking digital experience that pays homage to artists and music of Africa and the African diaspora, the first tribute to black artists of its kind. The exhibition uses state-of-the-art technology, with over 100 interactive audio-visual setups transmitting the sights, sounds and rhythms of artists from all over the world. The exhibition comprises of a mind-blowing 13 hours’ worth of footage.
In het land van de keizer - Op expeditie in Ethiopië (1930-1931)
Baron Binnert Van Harinxma thoe Slooten en bioloog Gerrit Brouwer kregen op 2 november 1930 de unieke kans om de kroning van keizer Haile Selassie in Ethiopië bij te wonen. Maak hun expeditie mee met de foto's, persoonlijke aantekeningen en filmbeelden. De reis naar Ethiopië had oorspronkelijk het doel om de dierenwereld te bestuderen, maar hoogtepunt van de reis werd uiteindelijk de kroning van Haile Selassie.
Expositie Viktor Ekpuk (Nigeria/USA)
Op zondag 16 september om 16:00 uur wordt de expositie in aanwezigheid van de kunstenaar geopend door Sasha Dees, independent producer / curator on international art projects (New York / Amsterdam) en curator van Open Ateliers Zuidoost Residency programma. De Thami Mnyele Stichting heeft Ekpuk twee weken (tot 24 september) ondergebracht in haar Amsterdamse studio.
Exposition: Mufuki (Belgie/Congo)
Mufuki Mukuna is known for his moody portraits and urban landscapes, often depicting a darker side of life. His characters appear to be on an identity quest, sometimes showing signs of despair and loneliness. Using oil on canvas and other mixed media materials, the artist creates powerful images. He has the ability to paint scenes suggesting a blend of serenity intertwined with very disturbing feelings, creating a unique harmony. Exhibition opening: Friday 21 September 18.00h. The artist will be present.
Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life
Photographic exhibition examining the legacy of the apartheid system and how it penetrated even the most mundane aspects of social existence in South Africa, from housing, public amenities, and transportation to education, tourism, religion, and businesses. Complex, vivid, evocative, and dramatic, it includes nearly 500 photographs, films, books, magazines, newspapers, and assorted archival documents and covers more than 60 years of powerful photographic and visual production that forms part of the historical record of South Africa.
Zander Blom - New paintings
Blom writes: A quote from Françoise Gilot's biography on Picasso made a lasting impression on me at the end of last year: '[Work] below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.' The added benefit of such a limitation in painting is that it has the potential to facilitate a refinement and expansion of one's language and ability. A limitation by its very nature forces one to seek out alternative avenues or ways to solve problems, and in doing so it can open up a range of new possibilities.
Birthday Group Show - Various Artists
Commune.1 celebrates their first birthday in September, with their first group show showcasing brand new work by all the artists who have exhibited with them in the past year, as well as premiering the work of artists who will be exhibiting with them in the future.
Love Land - Wayne Barker
In his latest body of work Wayne Barker builds on ideas of his own artistic history largely made up of work dealing with the politics of representation in terms of the South African landscape. The title of the exhibition, 'Love Land', alludes to the landscape as a product of deviant sexuality, a love child or bastard. The show features a selection of works that carries many of Barker’s trademarks, namely his use of neon signage, expressionist gestures juxtaposed with African pop imagery, digital manipulation and the incorporation of traditional South African craft.
MCA DNA: William Kentridge
Acclaimed for his work in animated film, visual art, theater, and opera, William Kentridge had his first survey exhibition in the United States in 2001 at MCA Chicago. From this exhibition, the MCA acquired more than a dozen drawings and two of his best-known films: Felix in Exile (1994) and History of the Main Complaint (1996), both of which will be on view. The drawings featured in the exhibition are those used to make this latter film—charcoal sketches that Kentridge erased and reworked to create the memorable segments that depict his alter egos and their struggles in late and post-apartheid Johannesburg: Felix Teitlebaum, the romantic artist who is always shown nude, and Soho Eckstein, the self-absorbed, wealthy mine owner and land developer who always wears a pinstriped suit.