WORKERS are feverishly hanging installations and sprucing up the Johannesburg Art Gallery – there are only hours left before the greatest art exhibition in Africa opens.

June 22, 2007

By Lucille Davie

Two artworks already installed in the Johannesburg Art Gallery

THE curator at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Clive Kellner has a controlled excitement about him – he looks like he’d like to shout from the rooftops, but instead just smiles nervously.

For good reason - Africa Remix, the greatest exhibition of African art assembled, is about to open at the JAG, showcasing more than 85 artists from 25 countries in Africa and the diaspora, a first for the continent.

The parquet floors of the gallery are littered with large wooden crates, bubble wrap and ladders as a large team of people finalises preparations for the opening of the exhibition on Sunday.

Many of the artists will be present for the opening. Some have already arrived, and are anxiously checking to see that their works are being installed to their specifications. Bié Venter, who hangs all the important exhibitions around town, is striding around the tall galleries, her eyes focused only on gallery walls.

She says she has 20 people helping her, and they have been working for three weeks on getting the installations just right.

On the other hand, Kellner has been working on getting this exhibition to Joburg for the past year. “It’s been a huge battle to get African art back into the country,” he says. Lots of people have seen the exhibition … in four European cities and in Tokyo. But now it’s our turn.”

Africa Remix was first exhibited at the Museum Kunst Palast, in Dusseldorf in Germany, in 2004, and was considered to be the largest exhibition of contemporary African art ever seen in Europe. From there it went to the Hayward Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Kellner is concerned that Europe and America are, in a sense, “narrating the history of African art”.

'Let’s rewrite history'
Although there have been art exhibitions in Africa, like biennales in Dakar, Cairo and Johannesburg, this exhibition is on a far greater scale than those, he says. “Let’s rewrite history - the vision must start to move back to Africa.”

He sees the exhibition as a catalyst to discussing the future map of Africa, to get funding to bring art back to the continent. And to balance the bad news that too often hits the headlines.

This feeling was endorsed by Simon Njami, the curator of Africa Remix. He said it was taken for granted that you went to London, Paris or New York to see what was produced in Africa. “We have been educating the West for long enough. It is more than important now to see the art in Africa.”

There’ll be 137 artworks on display, including painting, sculpture, installation, video, drawing, photography and design, produced by the artists over the past 10 years.

Artists from the diaspora live in cities as scattered as New York, Paris, London and Los Angeles. In all, 15 South African artists will feature in the exhibition; they include Jane Alexander, Willie Bester, Wim Botha, Andries Botha, Tracey Derrick, Marlene Dumas, David Goldblatt, Jackson Hlungwani, William Kentridge, Moshekwa Langa, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Santu Mofokeng, Tracey Rose and Guy Tillim.

Walkabouts and discussions
South Africans are in for a treat with artists giving walkabouts. Five panel discussions have also been lined up, the first one on Tuesday, 26 June, chaired by Njami. A special Africa Remix website has been created, where you are encouraged to post questions for Njami, and to tune in to all the other exciting news happening around the exhibition.

There will be a full-colour South African edition of the catalogue, available at major bookstores; a CD-rom, featuring interviews with the curator and 24 artists in Joburg; and an education supplement.

Kellner estimates the cost of bringing the exhibition to South Africa to be about R3-million. But the real value is closer to R5-million, with free media coverage from the Sunday Times and Radio 702 for the duration of the exhibition.

It’s unlikely the exhibition will tour to other South African cities or to anywhere else in Africa, Kellner says.

The City is undertaking special sprucing up of the Joubert Park area, in preparation for the opening on Sunday.

The first panel discussion is on Tuesday, 26 June from 2pm to 4pm. It will be led by the exhibition’s curator, Simon Njami, and will include a number of artists whose work is featured in the exhibition.

Africa Remix is on at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, from Sunday, 24 June. It closes on 30 September. The gallery is on King George Street, Joubert Park, and is open from Tuesdays to Sundays, from 10am to 5pm. Entrance is free.

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