PROPOSAL FOR THE FIRST JOHANNESBURG INTERNATIONAL
Kendell Geers, 2000

In the 5 years that have passed since the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial it has become clear that the Biennale model is not appropriate in that context. The primary reason for the demise of the exhibition is due to a lack of understanding and an absence of faith in the international model that assumes the visitors to the exhibition have both the knowledge and experience to decode the work presented. On the one hand the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial curated by Okwui Enwezor was hailed as an unprecedented success by the international art community whilst it was almost entirely misunderstood if not rejected by the South African art community. The difference in reception was so extreme that the show has since been indefinitely postponed. The loss is however inestimable for the situation only gets worse for there is very little or not any exposure of international art to the South African public. The South African artists that are being exhibited internationally get stronger in their work and develop careers that sooner or later end up with the artist emigrating. The only way to end ignorance and a great deal of the paranoia that proliferates within an isolated context is through education and exposure.

The deadline of every 2 years is not really economically sustainable within the ostensibly third world context of Johannesburg and apart form that the audience would need more than 2 years to translate and digest the challenges of international art in a very provincial context. More than that the focus of the international Biennial model on the exhibition itself rather than ongoing development and education is entirely inappropriate anywhere in Africa today. In contrast I propose model based entirely on the needs of the Johannesburg context but one that is as international as any Biennial.

The proposal is to launch an exhibition called The Johannesburg International in 2004 that then repeats itself art irregular intervals that can range in time from 2 to 5 years between each successive manifestation. In between each exhibition the Johannesburg International continues with an administrative office and small curatorial team that arrange small exhibitions of both local and international artists and most importantly focus their activities on education the public and local artists about contemporary international art. The offices would house a public library and archive that includes every single book or catalogue published on South African art as well as a slide library and an archive of cuttings, portfolios and proposals of South African artists and curators. This library would thus enable research on South African art and artists by both local and international curators or art historians. To date no such archive or library exists. Moreover the library would also carry subscriptions to all the major contemporary art magazines as well as every significant book or catalogue on contemporary international art. These books and catalogues can also be donated by sympathetic institutions around the world. Funding needs to be secured for the long term sustainability of the library and curatorial offices.

For the first Johannesburg International I propose an exhibition that seeks to establish a sustainable model that ensures the project continues into the future without getting lost in either local politics or international pressures. It is vital that the model is both African and International and that the quality of both the work shown and the theoretical components be of the highest uncompromising quality. The biggest problem that such an emphasis on quality places within the local context is that there is literally no knowledge or experience of contemporary art and thus the works are always met with mockery and accusations like my child could have made that or at its worst that the works are an unwelcome foreign import. The solution is greater emphasis on education and interaction with the community. The idea is simple use the skills and knowledge of participating artists as both the education and interaction program. The participating artists would be asked to collaborate and interact with the local community and develop their projects within the public realm. The artists would be invited to Johannesburg up to a year in advance to meet as many people as possible and search out public sites that interest them, ranging from the art museum to the streetside where vegetables are being sold informally. In this way a chain of venues and sites can be created that link Soweto in the south through the city centre and end up in the affluent northern suburbs. The exhibition will be fixed using a map that draws the visitors attention to each site. In this way it is also very easy to include the needs of an official fringe for a different colour map can be printed that then includes unofficial exhibitions along the same route and thus everybody can feel that they have a fair exposure and representation. Naturally the Johannesburg International can only accept responsibility for the quality and vision of the main exhibition. The route can be coordinated to fit in with the minibus taxi network and the drivers of these taxis can be invited to lectures on the work and thus become informal guides as well as providing an informal transport system.

The first exhibition should be no larger than 50 artists in order to keep the costs down and make the learning process more manageable. It would also be advisable for half of those artists to have previously visited South Africa so that experience may guide their decision as to how and where to exhibit. Its conceivable for instance that an artist like Rirkrit Tiravanija (whom I invited to South Africa in 1995) could work with the informal restaurants on the streetwalk or an artist like Thomas Hirshhorn (who participated in the 1995 Johannesburg Biennial) could establish an informal structure in Soweto with a bar or shebeen along the lines of his Documenta 11 work. Similarly an artist like Luc Tuymans could present his paintings based on the history of the Congo in the museum context for that too is a community. As each artist searches the local context and environment for their site they will in the process educate the people they meet about their work and ideas. In addition each artist will be asked to work with a young art student as an assistant, a process that again educates the student as much as it provides an opportunity to test their own theories out on established artists.

The selection of the artists will certainly include South African and even African artists but its very important that a significant number of the participating artists are of an international standing in order that the exhibition opening lure galleries and curators and collectors who may in the process meet local artists or discover somebody on the fringe that would otherwise be denied that kind of exposure.

The second and subsequent Johannesburg Internationals can follow the same community focus (akin to Jan Hoets Chambre dAmis) until such time as a permanent venue can be secured and the South African public have a better understanding of contemporary art practices and can deal with a white cube exhibition. The Johannesburg International will in between exhibitions consist of a core staff of a curator, a personal assistant to the curator, a web designer and a librarian. The role of this curator will be to search out local and international exhibitions as well as fundraise. In addition to this small permanent team a board of trustees should be established that oversee the long term survival of the Johannesburg International. These trustees would meet every 6 months to direct the activities of the project and also when appropriate select the curator for the big Johannesburg International exhibition. The members would be selected from artists, curators, fund raisers and other related professionals with a dedication to supporting, developing and nurturing contemporary South African art within an international context.