South Africa circa 2005Abridged Opening Speech: Paolo Cannevari and Marina Abramovic at The Johannesburg Art Gallery
1 May 2005The Johannesburg Art Gallery reminds me of a 95 year old lady that, in her prime was a beautiful diva, courted and doted upon by all the world, but who has not aged very well. Today she is falling apart at the seams, trying to paint over her wrinkles and cracks with pollyfilla and whitewash. These cracks are structural however and its only a matter of time before she collapses completely. In the past few years alone priceless works of art have been stolen from the museum, others vandalised (my own included) or destroyed and many more lost due to negligence, mismanagement and especially from water damage as a result of the shoddy architectural renovations that earned Meyer Piennar a merit award from the South African Institute of Architects in 1988.
A country is judged by its Art and how it takes care of that heritage. When I speak of Art I am specifically referring to radical, cutting edge, elitist, avant garde works of Art with a capital A and not culture in general. When we think of Holland we do not celebrate her lace, clogs or windmills but pay homage to old and young masters in the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh and Stedelijk Museums. When we consider France it is the Louvre, Musee dOrsay and Centre Pompidou that we remember and celebrate rather than the buskers, street painters and craftsmen trying to write your name on a grain of rice. As much as we all love the Yankees, or eating a hotdog or pretzel in Central Park, it is the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan that sets the city apart from any other. These institutions and their collections were assembled according to criteria of uncompromising excellence with examples of pure genius and nothing less.
In her lecture at the Johannesburg Art Gallery Marina Abramovic last week explained that the most important criteria for defining a good work of art is that it should be disturbing. Art cuts across political boundaries, slices through history, disrupts easy social patterns, turning the tables on convention and apathy. Art should be critical of its time and place and openly ask the questions that nobody else dares to even think. Art is not polite and does not live well with politicians seeking easy solutions to complex problems. The artist is a unique creature that is able to simultaneously live amongst the rich and famous, the captains of industry, presidents and princes whilst at the same times also living amongst the outcast, downtrodden and anti-social. As romantic as this may sound it is as true today as it was a century or two ago. The strength of a nation or a country lies in its ability to continually nurture and support the artist who has the uncanny habit of biting the hand that feeds. The artist embodies the greatest expression of freedom possible, flying in the face of political correctness or for that matter political incorrectness. The artist should be socially responsive but never socially responsible. Only a strong and wise government understands the need to nurture this sort of dissent, to sew the seeds of a culture built upon a foundation of critical contestation and challenge, to support the unsupportable.
Before venturing further I must however emphasise that when I speak of art that is disturbing it is absolutely not the same as art that is shocking. There has in recent years been a misconception amongst young artists the world over, that shock can be a short cut to success and an international career. The image we have of artists like Damian Hirst or the Chapman Brothers as using shock tactics to get ahead is an image nurtured by the media rather than having anything to do with the artists themselves. Disturbing art can be considered shocking to many but they have nothing in common for the former asks precise questions about its time and place whereas the latter is the lowest form of entertainment.
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. We are haunted by history, crippled by guilt, emotionally destroyed by the shadow of a system that was officially declared a crime against humanity. The sheer complexity of addressing the economic, social, health and educational problems has meant that cutting edge art has been downgraded to an optional extra rather than an intrinsic part of nation building. The museums have taken the easy road that shifts their attention away from the radical elitist arts and moved towards what they perceive to be more populist forms of cultural expression. White Guilt mixed with glib easy race and class slurs have left an art system paralysed into inertia. 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 crafts. Its ironic to say the least that the Johannesburg Art Gallery embarrassingly hides its 17th century Dutch Lace collection in the basement whilst celebrating its African beadwork, when in fact these two art forms have so much in common.
The Cultural and Sports Boycotts were very effective weapons of the struggle during the time of Apartheid and each deserves greater recognition for what they achieved. Until the 1990's the only art that was ever exhibited, collected or taken note of in South Africa was that of South African artists. Now almost 2 decades later and after 2 international Johannesburg biennials the only work that galleries and museums continue to show is that of South African artists and its starting to take its toll. Today there are 2 very distinct strains of South African artists, those who have functioning international careers and those who do not.
There was a short moment between 1994 and 1997 when, as a direct result of the Johannesburg Biennial, so many International curators and critics were flying to South Africa that artists, like myself and others in the Bag Factory studios in Fordsburg, probably met more curators of greater importance than any artist in London or New York. From these visits a number of artists like William Kentridge, Tracey Rose, Candice Breitz, Moshekwa Langa, Minnette Vari, Zwelethu Mthethwa, David Goldblatt, Claudette Schreuders, Sue Williamson, Robin Rhode, Santu Mofokeng and Berni Searle were able to launch their international careers. We were lucky few to have been in the right place, at the right time and with work that touched the international nerve of one or more curators. As a result these artists today enjoy previously unimaginable privilege with unheard of productions budgets, getting to expose their work in every corner of the globe, exchange and share ideas with the worlds best critics, curators, artists and collectors. For the most part, with some exceptions, the work as a result is getting more refined, more precise, more developed and in some instances even redefining international art history. These artists have joined the ranks of the first generation of South African artist emigrants that include Marlene Dumas, John Coplans and Ian Wilson who have all made impact upon the global art system.
Tragically there is a world of difference between the work of these artists and those that have not been able to travel and test their work and ideas alongside the world very best. For the most part those left behind have lapsed into an easy flippant disassociation with their international counterparts, quickly dismissing them as Ex-South Africans. Instead of trying to understand the reasons for the difference in global response they have opted for conspiracy theories and fallen into insular paranoia. As the world gets larger for some, the world collapses in on others as they chew their fists with jealousy and provincialism. Sadly I have to admit that South African Art is, from my point of view, getting worse and worse and increasingly resembles the kind of stale growth that one finds underneath large rocks.
Instead of breaking the cycle by inviting the best international artists to show in South Africa and thus put an end to provincial myths the museums and galleries seem set to focus exclusively on the same local artists they have only ever shown. The local is lekker syndrome grew out of the decades of isolation but now instead of nation building it translates into a recipe for ignorance and parochialism. More to the point the South African museums do not even show the international South African artists. It is pathetic that William Kentridges forthcoming retrospective at the Johannesburg Art Gallery was not curated by a South African institution that could have as a result generated hundreds of thousands of Rands in royalties as the show toured the worlds museum circuit. Instead the artist himself has been placed in the unfortunate position of having to donate the sales from his own work to cover the basic costs of the show. When will the government realise that artists like William Kentridge or Marlene Dumas are national assets and role models that should be supported at all costs ? More specifically such artists have the knowledge and experience that is as South African as it is international and should be taken advantage of in the development of viable national policies and strategies in redefining the role that museums like the Johannesburg Art Gallery and National Gallery in Cape Town could play in the development of the languages of art.
The antidote to ignorance and provincialism is of course knowledge and exposure. As one of the fortunate artists that is able to show around the world I feel a great debt in bringing back to South Africa as much as I am able to. From this perspective I organised the exhibition of Paolo Cannevari and Marina Abramovic at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. It is not a classical exhibition for it cuts through all the traditional models of artist, curator and sponsor in that the artists have waived their professional fees and Linda Givon has generously underwritten all the basic costs and expenses. Abramovic explained that there are places in the world that one gives to and places that one takes from. To this end both artists have donated significant works from the exhibition to the museum.
The government has failed the artists of South Africa, as have its museums. The institutions of art have not been doing their jobs properly and are suffocating in their own political fears so the onus now falls on internationally acclaimed South African artists to rescue the situation by their example and create role models that place excellence, talent and vision ahead of all else. We need to design and sew a new set of robes for the naked Emperor. With this exhibition I would like to challenge the museums around the country to finally put an end to the Cultural Boycott, to look past their political paranoia and start making shows that are truly of an international museum standard. I would also like to challenge those artists who, like myself, have enjoyed international success, to give back to South Africa, to share the knowledge and resources that they take for granted, to organise exhibitions and conferences in South Africa of their international counterparts, to donate catalogues, books and magazines to their local libraries and start working by example. We need to build a community of artists where the success of one does not translate into the jealousy of the rest.
Sentiment is the death of art and for as long as we continue to hide behind the masks of craft and guilt the work of our artists is only going to continue getting worse. We need to get the winds of fresh air and the rays of critical discourse underneath that rock for the countrys black and white talent is being suffocated by the deathgrip of political correctness, white guilt, black accusations and parochial political short sightedness. Is it not time we stopped running in the special Olympics for victims when we could be competing and winning in 100 meter sprint ? Our problem is not one of talent, race or social inequities but a lack of knowledge, an absence of courage and extreme xenophobia. Museums are supposed to be spaces of elitist, cutting edge excellence and not political escape routes for the visionless. For those who do not understand the importance of Da Vinci or Dumas, Kokoschka or Kentridge there will always be MTV, soccer, rock and roll and Leon Shuster.