I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the opening of the Spier Contemporary 2010 Exhibition at the Cape Town City Hall last night. The event was well attended and a great success. Well done to Tanner Methvin and the Africa Centre for pulling it off.
Matanaswo-A Bragging and Proud Lady - Phillip Rikhotso
This is what I said at the opening:
“The Spier Contemporary 2010 is South Africa’s largest visual and performing arts exhibition, and we are honoured and delighted to launch it here in Cape Town tonight.
A good friend of mine in the art world gave me some advice about my speech. She said: keep it short, make it humorous, and for goodness sake, don’t talk about art. Whatever you say, you will be wrong. In any case, the audience are there to look at the work, and those who are really interested in contesting assumptions of what constitutes the proper protocol of post-apartheid rainbow nation representation in liminal spaces, with or without the cliché of the white frame, can read the catalogue.
Well, you’ll be pleased to know that it will be short. I don’t know about the humour bit, and I will limit myself to just one comment about art.
Maggots in red earth from Polokwane? Die Bystander - Hanje Whitehead
Our current national discourse is fractured, polarised, intemperate and downright dismal. Populism and opportunism is the order of the day and all manner of insincerities abound – none of which bring us any closer to finding ways to solve the real problems of the day – poverty, hunger, unemployment, our lack of solidarity, community and ethics, the need for better systems of accountability and governance.
Hope and Fear - Frina Galloway
Clive van den Berg, a member of the Curatorial Team, talks of a ‘national distemper, a profound unease in the nation’ that is reflected in many of the works submitted for consideration and many of those chosen for the exhibition. Mwenya Kabwe, another team member, notes the political cynicism that exists amongst many artists at the moment, whose work reflects ‘a deep sense of distrust and disappointment in formal politics and particularly with politicians’.
Representation: A Discourse - Christopher Marsberg and Francois van Tonder (video installation)
Phula Richard Chauke's acerbic view of politicians and their cars
The Spier Contemporary has amongst its aims: audience and artist development, creation of new markets, and training and development of artists and curators. All these aims are exemplary. It seems to me however that its greatest contribution is in giving us art as another language to understand and express ourselves, especially during this time when the conventional political discourse is severely limited. And it’s not all serious, thank goodness. Humour, irony and sly jokes abound in many of the works that cast a jaundiced eye on our contemporary leaders and problems.
The 2010 Football World Cup is not spared either. Ball and Chain - Dawood Petersen
I want to say something about the Africa Centre, the organisation behind the Spier Contemporary. Established in 2005, and located in the Cape Town Central City, the Africa Centre has already distinguished itself through its other programmes – in particular, the Badilisha Poetry X-Change, the Pan African Space Station and the Infecting the City public arts festival which annually stages and exhibits free high-quality, thought-provoking works in the public spaces of Cape Town accessible to everybody.
The Africa Centre is one of the new breed of organisations that are conspiring to make Cape Town a creative and innovative city. Five years ago, we realised the close connection between culture and urban regeneration, and so initiated the Creative Cape Town programme. Amongst other things, this programme attempts to find and create both public and private spaces for creative industries and enterprises to grow and flourish.
Today, there are more than 1000 creative industries in the Cape Town central city alone, which is why Cape Town has decided to bid for the World Design Capital for 2014, a biennial accolade that is given by the International Council of Societies for Industrial Design to cities that best use design for social, cultural and economic development.
One of our current projects is the East City Design Initiative (ECDI). The East City is that curious and quirky part of the city centre that lies between Adderley Street and District Six – an architecturally and historically rich area with amazing potential.
Home to many design and advertising businesses, film producers and photographic studios, the East City is also the location of the Cape Craft and Design Initiative, Fabrication Laboratory and Cape Town Fashion Council in Harrington St, the new Fugard Theatre and the District Six Homecoming Centre in the Sachs-Futeran Building, the District Six Museum itself, the Book Lounge, the Assembly live music venue, the Central Library in the beautifully restored Drill Hall, the rejuvenated Grand Parade (site of the 2010 Fan Fest), the new CT Station, Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Faculty of Informatics and Design, and the soon to be restored Granary Building.
A building in the East City with the potential to become one of Cape Town’s most important cultural spaces is the City Hall. To date, for a variety of reasons, this project has not managed to get off the ground. (By the way, have a look at Jonathan Garnham’s work – Gold Chain – a 298,5m long comment on the neglect of the City Hall over the years).
(Untitled) Gold Chain - Jonathan Garnham
The Africa Centre, by presenting the Spier Contemporary Exhibition in the City Hall, has done us a huge favour, in that we can now imagine how these spaces could be creatively used in future. This is why, to coincide with the opening of the Spier Contemporary, Creative Cape Town, the Africa Centre and Cape Mic have launched the Imagine City Hall campaign.
The Spier Contemporary 2010 has brought life and colour into a neglected building
Imagine City Hall is a citizen activation programme. Its aim is to draw support for the development of the Cape Town City Hall as a dedicated cultural venue. The space should be accessible to all the people of Cape Town, and should forward the broader arts and heritage of the city and the continent. Please visit the Imagine City Hall Facebook group, which already has 541 members, and read what local artists Tina Schouw, Steve Fataar and Barry Smith have to say in support of the initiative.
More importantly, when you walk around the Exhibition, please take the time to see how spaces that were, until recently, dark, cluttered and neglected, have been ‘opened for art’, and to imagine the City Hall as a permanent cultural space.
Enjoying the new spaces in the City Hall (Picture: Anita van Zyl)
The opening speakers were mercifully located adjacent to the main balcony used by Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990 (picture: Anita van Zyl)
In conclusion, my thanks and congratulations go to:
- the many South African artists who submitted a total of 2700 works for consideration
- the 101 artists that have been selected for the exhibition
- the Spier Estate for supporting visual and performing arts at a time when funds are hard to come by
- Tanner Methvin, Farzanah Badsha, Robin Jutzen and the hardworking team at the Africa Centre – for the exhibition and for all you do for the city
- The curatorial team and the judges, especially those who are visitors to our city – you are most welcome
Ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a treat! Please enjoy the evening. The Spier Contemporary Exhibition at the Cape Town City Hall is now open for art.”
A Downtown Symphony (detail) - David Koloane. This is my favourite piece on the exhibition (naturally)
Brett Murray at his provocative best with his piece 'Culture'
Voices - Maurice Mbikayi (picture: Anita van Zyl)
Heartbreaker (literally!) - Johann van der Schijff
(By the way, have a look at Gabeba Baderoon’s thoughtful response to Minister Lulu Xingwana’s comments about the Innovative Women Exhibition)
