Kinetics of Art & History

Yesterday’s road has led
To yesterday’s destination.
Today is a new chaos.
A new journey. A new city.
Needing new paths. And new standards.

Ben Okri, “The Ruin and the Forest,” Wild, 45

As attention turns increasingly towards the art of the African continent and its diaspora we reach a conundrum on how we add to the continuing debate about the destiny of Africa. The above epigraph taken from a poem included in the work Wild by the celebrated poet, novelist and artist Ben Okri is characteristic of the duality contained in his works between strife and hope and potential. Working through the prism of postcolonial and postmodernism Okri looks to the possibilities presented by the future informed by the adversity of the past.

In 1995 Denis Ekpo coined the theory Post-Africanism as an alternative to postcolonial thought. Ekpo defined Post-Africanism as an attempt “first to deconstruct the disaster-prone emotionalism, hubris and paranoias indwelling to most ideologies of Africanism whether in art, politics or development discourse and, second, to seek newer, fresher conditions for a more performative African intellectual engagement with Africa, modernity and the West.‟ (Ekpo 2010:182). In making this proposition Ekpo notes the failure of the post-colonial rhetoric of Africanism that informed modern African and post colonial discourse – read African identity, African nation, African rationality, African personality, African authenticity (Ekpo,1995:125) – that misconstrued itself in the conflict of Africa vs. the West. He posits a future which rejects post-colonialism as well as the over emotional harkening on the past and focuses rather on Africa’s position in the (post) modern world in which we, “learn, copy or steal” from the west to hasten the growth of Africa.

In recent practice the re-imagining of black culture and identity has presented ideological ways forward; the landmark exhibition The Black Fantasticby curator Ekow Eshun conceptualised this concept as beginning from an understanding of “race as a socially constructed fiction rather than a scientific truth, albeit one that maintains a determining sway over popular perceptions of the world” going on to say “it also operates with a skepticism about Western narratives of progress and modernity, predicated as they are on the historical subjugation of people of color.”

More recently Lesley Loko notes in her positioning for the BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2023 “For the first time ever, the spotlight has fallen on Africa and the African Diaspora, that fluid and enmeshed culture of people of African descent that now straddles the globe. What do we wish to say? How will what we say change anything? And, perhaps most importantly of all, how will what we say interact with and infuse what ‘others’ say…”

In discussing our way forward we question what the future of Africa in the 21st century holds for cultural practitioners. Considering the opposing views taken by Okri and  Ekpo above together with the position taken by Ekow we question; How do these shifts in discourse colour the future for the practices and ambitions of artists, curators and collectors of cultural history?

Complied by Kim Kandan

The talks line-up

Saturday 02.09.23

A Future in Focus: Kinetics of Art & History  | 10am – 11:30am
Positioning Statement: Professor Chika Okeke Agulu
Moderator: Thato Mogotsi
Panelists: Thuthuka Sibisi, Ayana V. Jackson, Lebohang Kganye, Dr. Joy Simmons, Unathi Mkonto, Banele Khoza, Azu Nwagbogu & Prof. Chika Okeke-Agulu

The Conversation  |  13:00pm – 14:30pm
Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with William Kentridge

Collection Culture  |  16:00pm – 17:30pm
Positioning Statement: Dr. Joy Simmons
Moderator: Ngaire Blankenburg 
Panelists: Maruping Mangwedi, Pulane Kingston and Dr. Joy Simmons

Sunday 03.09.23

The Unerasable Archive  |  10:00am – 11:30am
Moderator: Azu Nwagbogu 
Panelists: Thuthuka Sibisi, Lebohang Kganye, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Ayana V. Jackson

Patronage & Practice  |  13:00pm – 14:30pm
Positioning Statement: Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst 
Moderator: Ashraf Johaardien 
Panel: Billie Zangewa & Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst

The Elusive Metropolis: Johannesburg  |  16:00pm – 17:30pm
Moderator: Greer Valley
Panelists: Unathi Mkonto & Sechaba Maape 

The lifestyle market

Food + wine

Krone
Jack Rabbit
Lucky Bread
Food Goddess
Waterford Estate
Beijing Opera Pantry
Acid Bar, South African celebrating le femme wines

Literature

iwalewa Books
Jonathan Ball Publishers

Merchants on Long presents African designers

Kente Gentlemen
Laurence Airline
Imane Ayissi
Fuata Moyo
Nkwo
Okapi
Viviers

The music line-up

Saturday 2 September
11:00 – 13:00 Womlambo
13:00 – 15:00 Just Themba
15:00 – 17:00 Jab A Jaw
17:00 – 18:00 The Brother Moves On

Sunday 3 September
11:00 – 13:00 Sweeter Brown
13:00 – 14:00 Vinyl Fellas, Bathini
14:00 – 15:00 Tshepo Tsotetsi Solo Piano
15:00 – 16:00 Vinyl Fellas, Bathini
16:00 – 18:00 Vinyl Fellas, Lunga & Tshiamo

The exhibitions

A solo exhibition by Lebohang Kganye – walkabout Saturday 02 September at 11.30am 
A solo exhibition of never before-seen Ernest Cole works
Monumental works by Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse

The performances

Saturday 2 September

17:30 HOW | Showing the Making: William Kentridge on The Great YES, the Great NO
Venue: The Centre for the Less Good Idea

Sunday 3 September

14:00 – 15:00 The Land We Carry by Gregory Maqoma
16:00 – 17:00 The Land We Carry by Gregory Maqoma
Venue: The Centre for the Less Good Idea

The Open Studios

(from 12:00 – 13:00)
David Krut Printworkshop
Mary Sibande
Danger Gevaar Ingozi Studio
Mikhael Subotzky