AFRO DESIGN & CONTEMPORARY ARTS
HORS-SERIE
BE/NATIONAL
Couverture: Graphisme inspiré du monument Nelson Mandela de Marco Cianfanelli. Merci à tous ceux qui ont contribué à ce numero: Jay One Ramier, Chimurenga, Le 104, Le MAC/VAL,La Gaîté Lyrique, Mary Sibande, Mikhael Subotzky, Simmi Dullay, Dominique Malaquais, Nompumelelo Mqwebu, Mack Magagane, Themba Vilakaz, Shireen Hassim, Francois Verster, Dnièle Hibon, Jürgen Schadeberg, Christine Rebet, Onyeka Nwelue, Niq Mhlongo, Kagiso Matlala, Katja Gentric, Jean Paul Delore, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Nick Welch, Cuss Group, Akin Omotoso, Hotel Yeoville, Zanele Muholi, Gordon Cyrus, Sean Hart, BLK JKS, Hélène Pichon, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Stacy Hardy, Bintou Simpore, Terry Ayugi, Olivier Sultan, Anna Gianotti Laban . Direction de publication Carole Diop Pascale Obolo Rédactrice en Chef Pascale Obolo Direction de projet Louisa Babari Direction Artistique antistatiq™ Graphisme antistatiq™ Comité de rédaction Frieda Ekotto Kemi Bassene Olivia Anani Camille Moulonguet Michèle Magema Caecilia Tripp Patrick de Lassagne Djenaba Kane Anne Gregory Photographe Alexandre Gouzou Communication et relations presse Virginie Echene Tous droits de reproduction réservés Contact: info@afrikadaa.com Février 2014 www.afrikadaa.com www.facebook.com/Afrikadaapage www.twitter.com/afrikadaa
EDITO : A l’occasion de la Saison sud africaine en France, la revue Afrikadaa est heureuse de vous présenter une publication bilingue en collaboration avec la revue sud-africaine Chimurenga. Regards croisés sur la scène artistique passionnante d’un pays singulier, rencontres avec les artistes, articles de fond, textes littéraires, critiques et une bonne dose de création sont au cœur de cette édition hors série. BE NATIONAL est un échange entre des collectifs issus d’Afrique anglophone et francophone, un dialogue de contenus et de formes entre deux Afriques, qui se regardent mais qui ne se rencontrent pas toujours. Cette collaboration inédite entre deux structures de publication sur les arts contemporains permet de produire un pont culturel inattendu au service d’une réflexion sur la création. Le projet BE NATIONAL a été imaginé sous une approche narrative cartographiée où l’on découvre une scène artistique sudafricaine émergente d’une grande variété. L’équipe rédactionnelle a favorisé différentes formes d’approches narratives avec au centre de tout, le partage des expériences et des savoirs. Laissez-vous guider et surprendre par cette étonnante richesse artistique sud-africaine… Le 20 décembre dernier nous présentions à la Gaité Lyrique à Paris, le premier acte de cette collaboration; un acte éditorial vivant, à l’image des pratiques artistiques des deux revues, et qui accompagne la saison dans sa temporalité. Ce premier hors série de la revue Afrikadaa sur la scène artistique sud africaine est un point de départ, une invitation à poursuivre ce dialogue, que nous espérons voir se prolonger longtemps après la saison sud-africaine en France, et étendu à encore plus de pays, de régions, et d’univers créatifs passionnants. Nous tenons à remercier particulièrement les auteurs et les artistes ayant contribué à ce numéro: Chimurenga, l’Institut Français, le MAC/VAL, le 104 pour son accueil en résidence et la Gaité Lyrique qui nous a permis de réaliser l’ acte éditorial de BE-NATIONAL. In collaboration with the South-African publication Chimurenga and on the occasion of the France - South Africa Season, Afrikadaa is proud to present a bilingual special edition titled “Be National”. At the heart of this special edition, you will find our cross-referenced look at the South African art scene, artist interviews, reflective articles, literature, critiques and a good dose of creation. Be-National is a dialogue between artistic collectives and individuals coming both from Francophone and English-speaking Africa. The content in this issue is a dialogue on form and substance between two Africas, who look at each other but do not always meet. This unique collaboration between two publications with a focus on contemporary arts allowed us to build an unexpected bridge of culture, a common reflection around the act of artistic creation. BE NATIONAL is a project that was envisioned as a geo-specific narrative, where the reader is invited to discover a rich and diverse, emerging South African arts scene. The editorial team worked in favor of various narratives, with the sharing of knowledge and experiences at the core of everything. Let us guide you through an unexpected journey into this amazing place that is the South-African scene. On December 20th, we introduced our audience with the first act of this collaboration, an “editorial act” that drew its life from the artistic practices of both publications, a “living” entity, which we hope, suitably accompanies the Season in its temporality. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the authors and artists who contributed to this special issue: Chimurenga, L’Institut Français, Le MAC/VAL, Le 104 for having us in residency, and La Gaîté Lyrique who invited us for the BE NATIONAL live editorial act. PASCALE OBOLO
Sommaire SOUTH AFRICA: ILLUSION OF EXCEPTIONALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 RÉSIDENCE D’ÉTÉ AU MAC/VAL AVEC MARY SIBANDE ET MIKHAEL SUBOTZKY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE HOUSE OF HOLLY AFRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 AFRICA MEETS EUROPE FUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 TRIBUTE TO JURGEN SCHADEBERG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 STER CITY : OU COMMENT RACONTER L’HISTOIRE D’UN PAYS EN UNE HEURE SELON JEAN PAUL DELORE . . . 29 MACK MAGAGANE «... IN THIS CITY» . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 GENDER, RACE AND THE REINVENTION OF DIFFERENCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 MY TRIP TO PARIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 IN CONVERSATIONS: ONYEKA NWELUE INTERVIEWS NIQ MHLONGO IN PARIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 UNDYING GHOSTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 SEARCHING FOR AFRICA IN PARIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 PAR DELÀ « MY JOBURG » . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 PROJECT MINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 ORIGINAL NOISE FROM THE JOZI STREETS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 BE NATIONAL ACT 1 @ GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 LOST IN TRANSLATION ROHILALHA MANDELA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
AFRIKADAA BE NATIONAL
INTRODUCTION
south africa: illusion of exceptionalism By Frieda Ekotto Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies - French and Comparative Literature The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“And as we let our ow n l i g h t s h i n e, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. “ Nelson Mandela
Amandla! Amandla! Ubuntu: I am because
and the racist, brutal oppression and
became a cause that inspired people
you are! I am here today for people like
discrimination of blacks and other non-
around the world. Many people gave their
Amilcar Cabral, Winnie and Nelson Mandela,
white people in South Africa when my own
lives, and Nelson Mandela became the most
Wangari Muta Maatahi, Thomas Sankara,
father, being a black man, could not be part
prominent symbol this struggle.
and many others…
of the delegation of Swiss colleagues that were going to South Africa.
Madiba, you have charged us to never settle
In 2000, I spent a year in Johannesburg with my friend, a BBC journalist. She took
for a life that is less than the one we are
In 1984, I entered Colorado College as
me to Mandela’s one afternoon to talk
capable of living. YES, Madiba compels
an undergraduate along with the South
about the Apartheid Museum, which was
us to recognize the ethical grammar of
African Teddy Mattera, son of revolutionary
being conceptualized at that time. By then
suffering and connect public values to
poet Don Mattera, who was part of the
thousands of people had recounted how
collective struggles that expand and
underground resistance movement in
gentle and caring Mandela was, but it was
deepen the processes of democracy. As
South Africa. Don Mattera is well known
still astounding to meet him in person. His
we celebrate Nelson Mandela’s legacy and
for his book Memory is the Weapon (1987)
smile was beautiful and welcoming, his
morn his departure, it is also important to
dedicated to the people of Sophiatown,
kindness a sign of grace. (I could go on and
remember the history of how he started
who were struggling during the apartheid
on.) Mandela hugged me and asked about
that “long walk to freedom.”
years. Along with Teddy, I organized an anti-
my family. He wanted to know what I, as
divestment movement on campus, sleeping
a Cameroonian, was doing in America. I
But let me begin with my memories of
on the doorsteps of administrative buildings
tried to ask him questions about prison life
Mandela and his struggles.
at Colorado College. As we now know, many
because I was in the process of revising my
colleges and universities had investments in
book on Jean Genet and carceral discourse,
South Africa. The struggle against apartheid
but he avoided the subject by telling me
I became aware of the system of apartheid,
5
INTRODUCTION instead that what I have inside me as a
battle against apartheid, are abysmal. We
thinker, is something that no one can take
must always remember that it was Winnie
away. I must understand the value of human
Mandela who kept the light on so that
agency! He praised my efforts as a teacher,
Mandela would not be forgotten beyond
for understanding the value of education
bars.
for and about the continent of Africa. I have not forgotten his words, and I often refer to
Madiba charged us to never settle for a life
them in my classes.
that is less than the one we are capable of living. We need to continue to fight
Now let me return to South Africa and its
for freedom, justice and a world where
“apartheid.” After World War II, the South
every single person can drink clean water,
African government continued in the
and have a place to live with access to an
institutionalized and intensification of that
education that can better his/her condition.
vicious system of oppression. Blacks and
YES, I will honor Madiba’s legacy, and
other non-white South Africans were locked
continue the struggle. That is what he
down in prison-like “Bantustans” without
wants each and every one of us to do. Rest
the most basic necessities of life (like clean
in peace Madiba! La lucha continua…
water or decent shelters). They were treated as non-humans, subject to fascist “pass laws” that governed their every movement. It is crucial to revisit and confront the reality of the path Nelson Mandela charted. It did not lead to freedom for the oppressed people of South Africa. This is why he continued the struggle to end poverty, to create an equal world for the South Africans who still suffer in the grip of global capitalism-imperialism. Two decades after Mandela became the first black president of South Africa, the situation for the masses of black people in South Africa remains dire, and South Africa continues to be one of the world’s most unequal societies. At least one quarter of the population in South African lives in extreme poverty. Immigrant workers from poorer countries in Africa are subject to violent attacks: we all remember the result of extreme xenophia in 2008 where at least 60 foreign workers from other African nations were brutally murdered. Conditions for women, who played heroic roles in the
6
Amandla! Amandla! Ubuntu: I am because you are! I am here today for people like Amilcar Cabral, Winnie and Nelson Mandela, Wangari Muta Maatahi, Thomas Sankara, and many others…
résidence d’été au MAC/VAL avec Mary Sibande et Mikhaël Subotzky
Interview by Pascale Obolo Photos : Alexandre Gouzou
In 2013, Mary Sibande and Mikhaël Subotzky were the guests of MAC/VAL museum, for a summer residency in the context of the France/South Africa Season. the works they produced during that time were on show from october 26th to january 26th at the museum. these two young artists, consecutive laureates for the standard bank visual arts prize, allowed us to dwell in two contrasting aspects of the South African arts scene, two radically different ways to question identity in postapartheid South Africa. Afrikadaa followed the two artists during their residency, and the exchange that was initiated with them led to a collaborative video projection on october 27th
AFRIKADAA Let’s start with a general
the whole day? At that time I did not have
question. What is your background?
an answer. I said I think it’s more than that and while I’m learning I’ll teach you guys,
Sophie is dead and now the purple shall govern govern
MS I grew up in a small town called
too. Actually they are learning now. They
Barberton. My grandparents brought me
know what art is – it’s more than drawing
up. My mother moved to Joburg in my
and painting.
early life, I think I was eight. She moved to the city of gold for better opportunity. From a very young age I knew I wanted to be in the creative field. But I didn’t know what. The closest thing for me to be
In South Africa you can’t explain a single thing without going back to history because everything is linked to history. “We are” because of our history.
For the time of the exhibition of her
creative was fashion because I saw fashion
pieces at MAC/VAL, six of Mary Sibande’s
magazines and fashion on TV. I didn’t know
sculptures invaded the cities of Ivry-sur-
anything about art. When I was in high
Seine, Vitry-sur-Seine and Choisy-le-Roi
school I thought I was going to be a fashion
in the form of a photographic parcours of
designer. I had sketches of fashion and I
monumental posters. These were shown on
collected fashion magazines. But when it
tall buildings boarding the RD5 road, which
was time for me to choose a career I ended
links the three cities together into one
up applying for fine art, which in a weird
AFRIKADAA : Do you think the lack of
community, and which is expected to evolve
way, I don’t know how. I was a few days late
art in your community is the linked to
into an Arts Boulevard within the following
applying for fashion. My second option was
political decisions to keep art out of certain
years. We can see the character Sophie
fine arts. Looking back, I think it was the
communities in South Africa?
pondering over the future while waiting
best decision that I indirectly made.
for the bus, riding a horse or as a musical
MS : What I picked up on when I was in
ensemble’s conductor. These portraits and
AFRIKADAA : Can you tell me what role art
art school is that art was for a certain class.
their powerful presence in public spaces
played in your family?
Growing up in a small town people didn’t
were aimed at arousing the public’s curiosity
say OK it’s Sunday, let me go to a show or a
towards this mysterious character, and it
MS : I can speak of my community where I
museum. In South Africa you can’t explain
sure did.
grew up. A lot of people didn’t know what
a single thing without going back to history
Mary Sibande was born in 1982 in
art was. I myself didn’t know. I didn’t study
because everything is linked to history.
Barberton, a mountainous town in the
art in school. My high school didn’t have
“We are” because of our history. People do
province of Mpumalanga. She lives and
art as a subject. I discovered art later in my
this because of our history. Even the kind
works in Johannesburg. Through her work,
life, my first year at university. But I didn’t
of food we eat today has to do with our
she explores the construction of identity in
immediately go to art. I took a “bridging
history! So everything is back and forth. Yes
the context of post-apartheid South-Africa
course” where people who are undecided
those limitations were political. It is part of
and stereotypical depictions of women.
start. I was one of those undecided kids.
the geography that situates people in South
Since her early work, her sculptures have
During that year I realized I wanted to be
Africa.
represented Sophie, her “alter ego”, which
a fine artist even though when I grew up I
she is slowly walking away from, to write a
never set foot in a museum or gallery. My
AFRIKADAA : Do you remember any artists
new and more introspective chapter of her
family was the same. When I told them I
that were part of your childhood?
character’s life. That is: “The Purple Shall
wanted to study art they asked, what do
Govern”.
you mean? You’re going to draw and paint
8
MS : There were none. None. I only started
MAC/VAL
my history. I am learning about the
the name Sophie instead of any African
limitations that come with my heritage.
name, because my great grandmother had
It’s all about questioning my surroundings.
two African names, but when she died
Questioning the kind of education that
she only had one western name, which
I received in comparison with other
was Elsie. This was because her masters
people’s education. All this makes up the
couldn’t pronounce her African name or
kind of art that I make right now.
they didn’t want to bother. So they gave her the name Elsie.
Mar y Sibande
knowing about this other art world when I
AFRIKADAA : “Sophie” is an important
For me it’s the play on names. For black
figure in your work. You are closing
kids in the township it was compulsory for
the chapter on Sophie. So here’s a
them to have two names – a school name,
metaphysical question, what will happen
which was a western name, and a home
to Sophie?
name, which is an African name. Look at me, my name is Mary. A lot of kids after
was in my first year. MS : She will morph into something else.
high school change their names back to the
Sophie will always be there. Once in a while
home name. But I thought I don’t want to
she will pop up, perhaps not as a maid but
change it because it is what it is. I can go to
MS : From the beginning, my third year
as something else. At this point in my life I
the Home Office and change it to another
work was about me looking at myself as
want to explore other avenues. Perhaps I’m
African name but it wouldn’t be the same.
a young woman in post apartheid South
shooting myself in the foot, but I can only
So I thought why not just make artwork on
Africa. So I started painting a collection
find out when I get there.
it? Hence the name Sophie.
of aspirations. I started painting shoes
I feel like this is the time to experiment and
and from there I painted dresses. The
try something new. It’s always important
AFRIKADAA : You came to France for a
link between fashion and art has always
to challenge myself. As soon as something
residency and created a new work. You said,
been together from day one. While I was
becomes easy I usually let it go. But with
“Purple shall govern”. What do you mean?
painting all these things that I wished to
Sophie’s story it was never easy. It was the
have, or things people in my family wanted
making of Sophie that was becoming easy
MS : Purple represents the stage where I
to have, especially my grandmother, I
for me – to make the dresses, to make the
am. I chose the color purple because it was
started using my grandmother as a stage
mold, the sculpture.
a rich color in the olden days, especially
to tell a story. At that time I didn’t know
I feel like “let me put her on pause for now.”
in Europe. People wore purple to classify
what I wanted to do, but I needed to start
Later, perhaps I’ll come back to her. She’ll
themselves as clergy or rich, since purple
somewhere. I felt the need to start at home
morph into something, perhaps a table. I’ve
was a very expensive dye. Also, purple is
before I went “out there”.
given myself a platform to experiment and
the color of mourning.
play around.
This new character is actually mourning the
AFRIKADAA : What inspired your works?
letting go of Sophie. I’m mourning because
AFRIKADAA : In terms of aspects of identity and questioning your own identity, what
AFRIKADAA : You choose the name Sophie,
she led me to where I am right now and I’m
role does the artist have in society in asking
which means wisdom in ancient Greek, does
letting go of her. I don’t know if I’m brave
who we are?
that mean that you are leaving wisdom?
or if it’s stupidity. Time will tell. Also, purple speaks of me. In 2009 I had
MS : Yes there is a role, I can only speak
MS : I want to learn that wisdom. Sophie
a show at Gallery Momo entitled “Don’t
for myself. In talking about my own
is teaching me about my heritage. Sophie
Leave a Dead Queen”. I had four figures
identity I am learning about myself, about
speaks of the lineage in my family. I gave
in the show. The first one represented
9
MAC/VAL
about the absent masculinity in my family. That work was speaking specifically of my father who I didn’t know. My mother and father broke up when I was three. Then he disappeared in the South African army and he came back when I was 15 or 16. I didn’t know him all those years. He existed in four photographs. In two of the photos he was wearing an army uniform. I knew him through my grandmother’s narratives and through my mother’s stories. So he always
Sophie on the walls
existed as a female form and that’s why there is this absence of masculinity that is represented in that work. AFRIKADAA : So you have been influenced by your family story? MS My work is very much inspired by the women in my family – from great grandmother to my mother. I draw a lot of energy from their personal history. I have made that part of my work. By inserting myself in their story, I wanted to be the author and the character in the book at the same time. I wanted to play an “Every
Sophie on the walls
Woman” kind of character. my great grandmother; the second figure represented my grandmother. The third
MS My grandmother is the matriarch of the
figure represented my mother. The last
family. My grandfather is there, but if there
figure represented me and was dressed
is any decision making my grandmother will
in purple unlike all the other figures that
be called. She’s the person who pulls the
were all wearing variations of blue. When
family together and makes decisions. We’ve
I thought of letting go of Sophie I wanted
trusted her for years. Likewise, the male
to go back to that figure in 2009 that
figure in my work is there, but not really
represented me. Right now I’m telling my
there.
own narrative as a young South African
In 2011, I was showing in the Venice
woman existing in post apartheid South
Biennale. For the first time I showed a
Africa.
figure that wanted to look male. But when you look closely you see the face is
AFRIKADAA Where is the maid figure in your
female and she’s got breasts. The idea
work?
behind that work is that I wanted to talk
10
AFRIKADAA : The aspect of family heritage, which is very rich and which feeds your work, is also a heavy background. Are you free in your work with all this background that can trap you? MS : A lot of people I know feel like I shouldn’t have made Sophie because she is not aggressive enough and she is not saying what she wants to say. In a way, yes, she’s not. Every time I think of a concept that I’m visualizing it’s always difficult because as much as I’m telling the story and playing all these characters, I don’t want to
MAC/VAL
Mary Sibande, A Terrible Beauty is Born , 2013, Courtesy Gallery Momo Johannesburg
10
11
make her an angry person. It’s easy to be
without visualizing what kind of person she
question yourself and tell us where you
trapped in anger. While I was growing up,
would be. Then in my fourth year I wanted
come from. The educators wanted to know
my grandmother used to tell me and my
to make her into a physical object and I
where we came from. There were other
cousin’s stories about how she grew up and
started casting myself. Using myself to
black kids who wanted to talk about global
about working as a maid. Not a single day
illustrate the body of Sophie. That’s when it
warming, but of course they would get a
did she sound like she hated her job or she
all started.
“Fail”. But as soon as they started talking
was angry. So for me to tell an angry story
Of course it all started at University. The
about themselves, that’s when they would
would have been so abstract, so far from my
kind of education that I received was totally
get a good mark. There was a steering
grandmother. She was very humble like a
different. I feel that if I went to another
towards that “talk about your identity”.
lot of black women in South Africa
art school perhaps I would have looked at
My work speaks of that. It comes from that
who did what they did without
Sophie from another angle. My university
institution where I speak of my own identity.
complaining. For me to create this character
was more technical, more about making.
This identity that I’ve created that is Sophie
that was very angry, angry like me because
Other universities are more about writing
has a form of escapism. She is not here, but
I’m a new generation, would have been a
or about conceptual work than making sure
she’s here -- if that makes sense.
far-fetched story. I wanted to make a story
the physical object looks good. That’s the
that was very close to my grandmother, as
push and pull; it’s where I am right now.
AFRIKADAA : Can the South African artists,
close as I could.
How do I advance myself? How do I move
black and white, escape their racial identity?
That’s why this new chapter in my work
away from the kind of education that I’ve
speaks of my own perspective and how I
received? And I’m learning everyday, about
MS : I don’t know if I’m distorting this but
view life and where I am as a young South
myself and about my surroundings.
the way I see it, black artists are looking
African woman. I want to explore more, not
I’ve started reading, which is a great thing.
at themselves – questioning themselves,
telling anyone else’s story, but telling my
In my school, reading about philosophers
heritage, history. And white artists are
own story.
or other artists was not promoted. Only
looking at us. They are making works about
now, because my partner is working at a
black people. It’s the idea that if your aren’t
university, he started questioning his own
looking at yourself, someone else will look
art making. And he eventually stopped.
at you. It’s a weird relationship where you’re
He’s not making anything.
looking at yourself while you are being
black artists are looking at themselves – questioning themselves, heritage, history. And white artists are looking at us.
looked at. And my question is why are AFRIKADAA : Very interesting. Let’s go back
people not looking at themselves? Why are
to Sophie for a bit. Creating a character like
artists looking at black people to express
this, which you’ve given multiple identities,
their existence as South Africans?
can it be said that the only way to escape is
I guess it’s easier to stand behind the
to invent identities?
camera than to stand in front of it.
AFRIKADAA : Through this work you explore
MS : Yes. To have an identity, you always
AFRIKADAA : The racial question is very
a post apartheid identity in South African
have to invent yourself. Identity is a thing
strong.
society and you question the stereotypes of
that can shift through time. Identity can
women. How did you start this Sophie work,
be another form of escapism. A lot of black
MS : Race is strong, to this day, in South
which is the work that made you famous?
artists in South Africa make work about
Africa. Race places us. Race plays a role
identity compared to white artists of the
in our geography. It also puts a lens on
MS : I started with the idea of Sophie in my
same age. I think this stems from our art
people’s faces. Whether you’re behind it or
third year. I started painting her aspiration
school where we were told; you need to
in front of it. It is all racial.
13
MAC/VAL
Mikhaël Subotzky
“stuff barta”
Mikhaël Subotzky, photo by Alexandre Gouzou
14
Mikhaël Subotzky, installation at MAC/VAL, 2013
104
the house of holy afro
Source : Hugues Le Tanneur / Festival d’Automne à Paris Photos : Alexandre Gouzou
Le sud africain Brett Bailey est depuis longtemps un spécialiste des carambolages stylistiques. Dans la foulée de ses spectacles et performances précédents, House of the Holy Afro mêle street dance, gospel des townships et rituels chamaniques. Un cocktail explosif à la croisée de plusieurs cultures. Le metteur en scène agite un chaudron d’autant plus intense qu’il accueille les formes les plus diverses. C’est dans d’anciens lieux sacrés dans les montagnes de l’Est Sud Africain que Bailey est allé enregistrer certaines des chansons au cours de cérémonies
6
ancestrales. Ces enregistrements ont été ensuite retravaillés par les interprètes du spectacle qui y ont adjoint des rythmes électroniques. Ce principe, à l’origine de plusieurs spectacles créés avec sa compagnie Third World Bunfight – de iMumbo Jumbo à The Prophet , ou encore le très contreversé Exhibit B– est radicalisé dans House of the Holy Afro, où il s’agit de susciter un choc à même de remettre en question l’image trop formatée que l’on se fait souvent de la réalité africaine. Dramaturge, metteur en scène, mais
aussi plasticien, Brett Bailey interroge inlassablement les transformations à l’oeuvre dans l’Afrique post-coloniale avec les ambiguïtés et les contradictions qui les accompagnent. Qu’on l’apprécie ou non, l’oeuvre de Bailey ne laisse pas insemsible et nous conduit à nous poser la question suivante : en accentuant et en prolongeant la caricature dans le but de dénoncer le racisme, n’est t’on en train de poursuivre le projet raciste?
31
Africa meets Europe fusion
Interview by Pascale Obolo Photos : Alexandre Gouzou
32
AFTER TRAVELLING FOR A DECADE ACCROSS EUROPE AND THE USA, NOMPUMELELO MQWEBU HAS NOW SETTLED IN JOHANNESBURG. IN THIS ECONOMIC LUNG OF SOUTH-AFRICA, SHE CREATES CULINARY EVENTS WITH HER PROJECT AFRICA MEETS EUROPE: A NAME TO REMEMBER, SYNONYMOUS WITH EXCELLENCE AND GASTRONOMY, AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN EUROPEAN INFLUENCES AND SOUTH-AFRICAN HERITAGE FOOD. BETWEEN SENSIBILITY, TECHNICITY AND A SMOOTH MIX OF TASTES, NOMPUMELELO EMBODIES A STYLE, A WAY OF THINKING THAT SHE CALLS « MELTING FOOD ». PASCALE OBOLO MET HER AT « LE CENT QUATRE », AN ARTISTIC ESTABLISHMENT IN PARIS WHERE SHE WAS OFFERED A RESIDENCY AS HEAD CHEF OF THE RESTAURANT « LES GRANDES TABLES », IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SOUTH-AFRICAN SEASON IN FRANCE. 33
PO : What’s your background ?
the staff are intimidated they don’t really
was French.
perform at their optimal capabilities.
I’ve been exposed to French cooking from
NM: I came from Durban, the largest city
the time I’ve started in the industry. And
in the South African province of KwaZulu-
PO : How do you feel about your collabora-
most kitchens kind of follow after French
Natal. My love for food starded with my
tion with the French chef you have been
gastronomy. So even when people move
father, who traveled as a young man work-
working with ?
and do other kinds of « cuisines » the
ing on ships cooking. On sundays he used
training in most cases would have been
to cook for us at home, so from a young
NM:I was lucky that I had chef Adrien, to
French-based and then they add whatever
age I was exposed to different foods and
whom I’ve been talking to via e-mail before
kind of « cuisine » they want to follow. For
different spices. I think from there, altough
my arrival. I sent him a list of ingredients
me it was the same but when you come to
I didn’t know or realised it, the love for food
and equipments I needed so he was pre-
the industry you have to bring yourself into
started to grow in me. My grand mother as
the food. That’s why when I create a menu
well, who comes from Xhosa culture, taught
I pronouce my identity to people, because
me different ways to cook KwaZulu-Natal
I need to pick in the kind of food I grew up
meals.
eating, the kind of food people eat around
Like everybody I went to the corporate
me back home and the influences of coun-
world first, until I got to a point where I
tries that I visit.
thought I needed to follow what I wanted, PO : What inspires your cooking ?
my passion. That’s how I decided to study at a school of food and wine. From then on I’ve been learning and traveling, doing
NM:I would say ingredients. I like to play
food.
around with different ingredients or even the same and try to do differents things
PO : When you cook you look like a per-
with it.
former, an orchestra’s chief conductor. Can you explain how you work and how you
PO :Do you think that food reflects the iden-
direct you kitchen ?
tity of a country ?
NM: The first thing for me is time, it is very
NM:Most defenitly, that’s what I was striv-
crucial in the kitchen. I like to finish the
pared and so that wathever wasn’t there
ing for in South-Africa because I think we
cooking at least two to three hours before
when I came, we could have a look at. He
haven’t achieved our food identity. The
we are meant to serve people, so that
went out and got everything, he was fully
food industry continues to ignore differ-
everybody gets a chance to relax before
dedicated in assisting me in everything I
ent cultures. They are selective as to the
the service. In this way the staff get time to
needed, having him helped me a lot.
cultures they bring into the food but at
seat down and let their mind unwind from
the same time they are more accepting of
the business of the day and get focused on
PO:Looking to your travels and your world-
Europe in our « cuisine » then they are of
the service. I also like to remain calm in the
wide experience what is your feeling about
local products. For me there is an indentity
kitchen because when I’m calm everybody
French cooking and French people ?
crisis in terms of food in South-Africa. My
is calm and if we are calm we focus and we
own experience makes clear to me that eve-
do our work. When you act like a prima-
NM:Altough I was in South-Africa, I trained
rywhere you travel you need to have your
donna you intimidate the staff and when
in a French kitchen. My pastry chef, chef Eric
own food identity. For exemple as a South-
19
104
PO : Whats you next challenge ?
African chef you can’t travel to France and
NM:Paris is busy, very busy, you need a lot
pretend to cook French food better than
of time to experience this city. I remember
the French, you need to bring your identity
the last time I came here, in 1996, I had a lot
NM:My next challenge is to go home to
from which the French can learn from.
more time then. So every afternoon I make
do some training with women farmer. We
an effort to go somewhere I haven’t been
already started a training with these women
yet, from the typical tourist attractions to
who run ophanages or day care centers. I
finding little bakeries that are family owned
teach them how to cook for young children
NM:Not yet. The most important thing for
and get to taste the croissants. Another rea-
and how to use what they produce, without
me is to change the mind set in South-
son why I pledge to come to Paris is to get
going to the shops.
Africa before i’m ready to open a restaurant.
the chance to taste the food of chefs that
Although things are changing, there is a
I’m inspired by, especially women, like chef
huge gap that’s slowly starting to close,
Anne-Sophie and chef Pascale).
PO : Do you have a restaurant ?
sourcing ingredients from small farmers is growing and I hope it grows more. PO : Do you have a lot head chefs in SouthAfrica ? NM:They are a lot of head chefs but not from South-Africa, they would be from anywhere around the world, that’s, according to me, another big issue that South-Africa needs to work with. A lady for whom I have a lot of respect, Mrs Gunene, said that this situation reflects self hate for South-Africans when they don’t believe in their own. We need to have more chefs who are ready to take South-African food ahead. PO :What would be your advice for someone going to South-Africa for the first time, and who wants to experience the food and the culture ? NM:I would probably suggest to experience a good Shisa Nyama (meat barbecued on an open fire) in an outlying township, eating it the South-African style, with the hands. PO :It’s your second stay in Paris, what are your feelings about this city ?
20
tribute to Jürgen Schadeberg Jurgen Schadeberg Interviewed by Pascale Obolo Photos : courtesy of Jurgen Schaderberg Pictures of the exhibition and portrait of Jurgen by Alexandre Gouzou
and informs. When meeting him at the
Berlin. He suggested I work with him and
In November 2013, the city hall in Saint-
opening event at Saint-Ouen, I discovered
become his apprentice.
Ouen held a tributary exhibition to Nelson
that Mandela’s values of equality, solidarity,
About a year later I went for a short time
Mandela and the struggle to end apartheid,
diversity and universality are shared by
to a school of optic and photo technique.
in the context of the Week of International
the municipality of Saint-Ouen. While
Then I went to Hamburg and I became
Solidarity. The exhibition “Tribute to
France is facing growing issues of racism
a volunteer – that means a “trainee” or
Nelson Mandela by photographer Jürgen
and homophobia, this exhibition brings
“intern” – for the German Press Agency. So
Schadeberg” was a proposition of curator
us to the realization that the fight against
by 1950 I knew enough about photography
Olivier Sultan. 44 pictures spanning 60
intolerance and racial prejudice is a never-
– or I thought I did anyway – at least I knew
years of South African history were on view,
ending story.
the technique. I migrated then to South
and M. Schadeberg’s talent at bringing
Africa.
these bits and pieces of history to life, all
PO : What is your background, when did
while keeping a neutral eye is stunning.
you begin to be a photographer?
Africa?
Through his artistic practice, Jürgen Schadeberg is a witness. He denounces,
The Midnight Kids, 1955
21
PO : Why did you decide to migrate to South
JS : I started taking my first photos in 1942 when I was 11 years
JS : I wanted to leave Germany because
old, in the air raid
I was sick and tired of the whole Fascist
shelter in Berlin.
Nazi scene and the racism I experienced
That’s the first
as a child in Berlin. And I wanted to see
picture I produced
the world -- anybody who is that age,
which was a success.
about 19, wants to get out into the world.
I experimented with
I would rather have been able to go to
little cameras, the
New York where there were a lot of things
instamatic cameras
happening in photography, especially in
they had in those
photojournalism. But that wasn’t possible
days. At the end of
for me. So through a family connection, I
the war, I was about
managed to go to South Africa.
14 years old, 1945,
When I arrived there, to my horror, I found
there was a friend
I was going from the frying pan into the
of the family who
fire because I discovered that there was
was a professional
the beginning of another form of racism
photographer in
that I had just left in Germany. I wasn’t
MAIRIE DE SAINT-OUEN
prepared for this because I hadn’t really
you haven’t got a hope in hell ever getting
known what South Africa was like or what
a job. They used these huge big cameras
the political scene was. At the time, Europe
and they had two slides in their pocket
wasn’t interested in what was happening
and they went out on a job. They took one
in Africa. It was never really reported in the
picture of somebody shaking hands or of
newspaper. So I was rather horrified by it.
somebody giving a check or pointing at the
It was a terrible shock for me and I thought
wall and saying, “There, that’s where the
now where am I going to go next? But,
bullet went”. And that’s the type of pictures
I stayed there for 14 years. And then left
they took.
again in ‘64.
I had a bit of a problem of people appreciating that I worked with a Leica with 35-millimeter film, which was very traditional already in Europe. That had been going on for the last 30 years that people had been working with them, especially Life magazine and Look magazine in America. In England there was the Picture Post, a very famous magazine. There was Paris Match and there was Stern they were established magazines in Europe. In South Africa there was nothing. So I had to battle to get people to accept my photos because of their misunderstanding and no knowledge of documentary photography.
Nelson Mandela, Treason Trial, 1958
And then I started working with a magazine called Drum, which catered to the African public.
PO: n So was it difficult at this time to work
I went to a town called Bloemfontein,
as a photographer in South Africa?
which was the capital of the Orange Free State in South Africa. It was the hot bed
JS : Well I don’t think it was difficult.
of racism. This is where most of the Boers
There was no tradition of documentary
and the Afrikaners were based. And there
photography or photojournalism – it didn’t
was a conference in Bloemfontein, an
exist in South Africa. So when I arrived and
ANC conference. They had their annual
I tried to look for work and went to the local
conference in different centers of South
main newspaper with my little Leica camera
Africa and this time it was in Bloemfontein.
they looked at it and said if you come to
That was December 1951. I went there to
South Africa with your miniature camera
photograph the conference and the people.
35
And there I met, for the first time, Mr. Mandela. He had just been appointed the youth leader of the ANC. I found him very relaxed and created an atmosphere of total control because there was a little tension there at the time. They were worried that the racist Afrikaner might start some problems because the ANC had their conference there. Everybody was very nervous except Mr. Mandela he was relaxed. I was impressed by his self-control. PO : When Nelson Mandela was liberated you took his photo? JS: After 1952 I photographed him in his office first. That was a very strange thing. I was working with a writer from Life magazine. We had an appointment with Mr. Mandela in his law office he shared with Oliver Tambo. This writer, we went to get his car to go there, and he couldn’t find his car. He couldn’t remember where he parked his car. So I said well how could we not find a convertible Cadillac, they are huge cars. We looked around and eventually we found the thing and then we drove to Mandela’s office . Mandela was just about to leave. He said he was terribly sorry but he had to go to a special meeting and he had all his
papers under his arm. And he wanted to
Island because we were making a film about
The World that was run by the government,
make another appointment. So I said to him
Robben Island and he then allowed me to
so it was very indoctrinated with racism and
please hold it. Stand there, please, just for
photograph him in his cell. The cell where
so on. We produced this photo-magazine,
one minute. I had a Rolleiflex, a big camera,
he’d spent 17 years.
a picture magazine, about life itself. Where
with me. And I took two frames. And then
people could communicate to each other.
he left. These are two of the nicest pictures.
PO : Can you talk about your experience at
They had never had a form of communicat-
He managed to stand very still and had all
Drum?
ing, of seeing and understanding, about
his papers under his arm and waited and
themselves. There were no reports about sports events, about music, and there was no criticism anywhere about the Apartheid system. We did some stories criticizing Apartheid, not criticizing but looking at it and reporting about it. Obviously that was a form of criticism. Of course we also had to be very careful that the government wouldn’t close us down. In that sense I think it was a very valuable function we had to do, it was very important to us. Fortunately we had some good writers. They usually came from missionary schools. Missionary schools in South Africa were mixed and was free education – free intellectual education. They talked about literature. For instance, those people that went to British missionary schools, the Anglican Church missionary schools, knew about Shakespeare and Dickens. Those that went to the German missionary, Jesuit schools, they talked about Schopenhauer and Emmanuel Kant, German philosophers that were dated, it was a bit funny. These schools were closed down by the government. What happened is that the government decided to have what they called Bantu education -- a special educational system for Africans, for black people.
posed for me.
JS: Drum was one of the major magazines
They limited the education totally. They
I photographed him again several times. I
that catered to the black public, the African
never taught them mathematics. (Hen-
met him several times. I photographed him
public. The Africans had no way of commu-
drik) Verwoerd, who was the architect of
after he’d come out of prison in 1990. In
nication between one another except some
the Apartheid system once said there’s no
1994 he went back to the prison on Robben
small newspapers. There was one called
point in teaching the “Bantu” mathematics
23
MAIRIE DE SAINT-OUEN
because they will never have an opportu-
print. We printed on an old press that was
PO : Most of the time you realize when it’s
nity to use it.
bought second hand from India. The quality
a white photographer who goes and covers
of printing was really bad. We had to be
some issues. In your case, it’s just impos-
careful to produce simple pictures, not too
sible to know, that’s the real beauty of it
complicated, since we had a rough screen.
there is no imposition of your point of view
PO : When did the magazine stop and why?
or your way of thinking. It is the true eye of
JS : The magazine eventually went bankrupt. And the owners sold it to the National
PO : How do you see the evolution of pho-
the heart.
of Paris, which was an Afrikaans -- that
tography from Apartheid to post Apartheid?
It was such a difficult period of time historically; it could be difficult to show it in a very
means the poorest whites. They were the
just way.
Huguenots who were thrown out of France
JS : In the beginning in the fifties, there
about 500 years ago. They ended up in Hol-
were not any photographers, especially not
land and started speaking a form of Dutch.
at Drum. There were good writers – intel-
JS : Maybe that’s true, I don’t know. But
They immigrated to South Africa. They
lectual people, intelligent thinkers and they
this was in the Apartheid period. Towards
came to Cape Town. And then the British
could write. Of course it was a magazine
the end of the Apartheid period there were
arrived in Cape Town and practically threw
for black people so we only wanted black
a lot of other photographers also taking
them out. So they trekked north and came
people there. I was the only white photog-
pictures about Apartheid. But they were
to transpire and they started the Free State,
rapher.
a little bit too obvious. They wanted to
where Bloemfontein was. It’s a long history,
show people crying and people being
a 400-year-old history of racism. They called
sad and suffering, which was true, but it
themselves the Afrikaners. Most of them were farmers, very good farmers I must say. But they were also very brutal. And the brutality wasn’t only physical it was also psychological. PO : In France, Drum was considered one of the best magazines in Africa. How did you work with the graphic elements and decide which pictures to use? JS : I had the background in Germany of having seen a lot of traditional magazines, also paintings and books. So I had some sort of visual background. I looked at Life magazine, Look magazine, Saturday Evening Post. I looked at Holiday magazine and Picture Post in England. And I learned a lot from those magazines. They were my bibles – especially Life magazine. However we had a big problem because we had very poor press. First of all, at that time, worldwide there was a shortage of news-
24
Dancing at the Ritz Johannesburg 1952
Miriam Makeba posing for Drum Cover, 1955
was pushing it too hard. Because people are human beings and people have pride and self-confidence and that’s important. That’s a matter of attitude, I think. Most of them were white South Africans. They were indoctrinated. I wasn’t a white South African. I wasn’t indoctrinated. That was the difference. PO : Could you talk about your movie, Drums, and how you transitioned from photography to movies? JS : Strangely that was terribly easy,
25
because the two go
period, about the beginning of Apartheid.
together. Because
We had all these Drum photographs and I
when you do docu-
researched all the footage that was avail-
mentary work, you
able – there was not very much. Of course
are telling a story.
the music was important, too. I put it all
You have an estab-
together into one package and made the
lishing shot and you
film.
move in and you
Then we showed the film and I had the
show the different
police after me because it was against the
aspects of whatever
law to show pictures of Mandela, Walter
the subject is. It’s the
Sisulu, and Kathrada. They were the three
same with filming
people still in prison then, you see. I had
and the nice thing is
the police colonel coming to see me and
that you have sound.
he said they could send me to prison for
You add music to it
this. So we got a special lawyer and we
and effects. I find
had to spend a lot of money. It was hushed
that terribly exciting.
up because this police colonel was a bit
You have movement.
worried. He said soon it would change
Whereas with still
and everything would be different. They all
photography you
were getting more and more careful.
have to put every-
So on one of the actual films, I got a felt pen
thing into one picture
and went over each frame when Mandela
– one moment, one
was on it and scribbled over him. And
fraction in time. You
when you saw it on the screen you could
take that out of time
see my scribbles, but you could see him
and try and tell the
through it. That’s now in the museum of
whole story and that’s
filmmaking in Berlin -- they say it’s very
also very difficult. So
important to have that piece of film.
filming was very easy for me.
PO : How did you first meet Miriam Makeba?
PO : What about your other film Have You Seen Drum Recently?
JS : She was very young, about 18 or 19 years old at the time. She was singing with
JS : Well that was in the late eighties and
the Manhattan Brothers, a group of close
you realized that Apartheid was crumbling
harmony singers. We decided we wanted
and was going to fall to pieces. There were
her on the cover of Drum. She was a very
dialogs between business and the ANC.
shy person. She came from Pretoria from
Mandela was still in prison but there were
a very poor family. The funny thing is that
dialogs between him and the government.
the dress she wears in the photos that were
We heard about it. So we thought now is
in 1955, in 1959 Leional ... what’s the chap
the time to make a film about the fifties
who made the film Come Back Africa? I
MAIRIE DE SAINT-OUEN
can’t remember his name... In my film you
JS : Well, it’s got lots of problems. You see
can see her singing in the club, she sings
Allan Peyton, He was a famous writer. He
two songs. She’s wearing the same dress 3
wrote Cry the Beloved Country. He once
years later. She only had one decent dress,
said South Africa is bedeviled by race. And
that’s when I photographed her. Also, Dolly
it still is. There are still all these prob-
Rathebe, the singer, I took a picture of her
lems, the old problems. They still have a
and she had men’s heavy shoes on stage
hangover from the Apartheid system. It still
because she had no shoes, no proper shoes
worries people and it still has an effect on
to wear. Didn’t have any money, didn’t
the whole society.
have any clothes. They were very, very poor.
And that will go on for many more years before it will sort itself out, I believe. I think
The musicians used to do a session and
there are a lot of strong people in South
play a song when they went to a record
Africa -- a very strong atmosphere and very
company, four of five of them, and they got
powerful people. But it has a lot of terrible
five pounds. Five pounds is equivalent to
problems. So it will take another forty years
about 30 or 50 euros . They got fifty euros
before it will sort itself out. I think... I don’t
for the four of them to play a song with no
know. Who is to know?
contract, nothing. No copyright. Nothing. They were very badly treated. PO : How do you see South Africa today?
39
The Jazzolomos, Johannesburg, 1953
Gamblers on a smoky corner in Sophiatown, 1955
J端rgen Shaderberg, Photo by Alexandre Gouzou
41
“ou comment raconter l’histoire d’un pays en une heure selon Jean Paul Delore”
Par Louisa Babari Ci-dessus : l’affiche du spectacle Page de droite : Photos de Alexandre Gouzou
29
MAISON DES METALLOS
Lindiwe Matshikiza
Nicholas Welch
Je ne crois pas que l’on puisse raconter
de la pièce le disent à maintes reprises,
Malaisie pour Lindiwe. Tout vient à qui sait
l’histoire d’un pays en une heure, ni en
L’Afrique du Sud, ce n’est pas une histoire
attendre, de la Préhistoire à nos jours. Les
dix d’ailleurs.
de Noirs et de Blancs mais bien celles du
procédés scénographiques ingénieux de
capitalisme allié au colonialisme. L’homme
Sean Hart et le charme et le brio des deux
L’histoire d’un pays ne se raconte pas.
du duo Nicholas Welch, Blanc, sud africain
acteurs me font dire que la pièce est là, sur
Peut-être, peut-on raconter l’histoire de
d’origine écossaise, de langue xhosa, n’était
leur épaules, trop peut -être. Sans compter
ses habitants. C’est ce que font les deux
pas autorisé, dans sa famille, quand il était
sur la présence enthousiaste du public sco-
acteurs de la pièce, en français (sic) qui ont
enfant à dire Blanc ou Noir. Il revient comme
laire ou jeune public à qui véritablement le
travaillé à partir du cliché ajoute le metteur
Lindiwe sur la complexe histoire du pays qui
propos semble destiné. Bingo.
en scène, Jean Paul Delore. Prenez un cliché
conjugue les appartenances et les origines
pour l’Afrique du Sud, celui des metis par
ethniques aux vagues de peuplement et à
Le spectacle reprend à la scène nationale
exemple. “Je n’aime pas ce mot” dit la comé-
l’arrivée des colons. Le territoire lié aux corps
de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines les 3 et 4 avril
dienne du duo Lindiwe Matshikiza qui décrit
des origines, puis au corps politique et histo-
2014. Ster City sera également en tournée
beaucoup trop de gens en Afrique du Sud.
rique, le scénographe de la pièce Sean Hart,
dans une dizaine de pays en Afrique en
“T’es métis, t’es “ coloured”. Au fond, qu’est
l’incarne par des projections sur les corps
octobre-novembre 2014.
ce que cela veut dire ? Pendant la période
des deux comédiens. La musique, les sam-
de l’Apartheid, certaines catégories de
plers, parés de percussions et de batterie,
Ster city “ conférence historique burlesque “
personnes ne trouvaient pas de place dans
menés par les arrangements intéressants de
tout public à partir de 10 ans, mise en scène
les catégories discriminatoires. Aujourd’hui,
Dominique Lentin est parfois chantée par
de Jean Paul Delore, Maison des Metallos
tout au plus, les pauvres restent pauvres
les acteurs, rapée par Nicholas en zoulou. La
et les riches restent riches. Pour 80% de
pièce raconte l’histoire des ancêtres, celle du
Noirs et 20% de Blancs. Les deux acteurs
charpentier écossais, de la famille arrivée de
30
MAISON DES METALLOS
Mack Magagane
«... in this city» Interview by Pascale Obolo Images : courtesy of the artist
For the France-South Africa Season in 2012-2013, the Centre Photographique d’Îlede-France collaborated with Market Photo Workshop to invite a young and promising South African photographer for a research and creation residency that lasted three months. Mack Magagane, that´s his name, develops his work around urban life, with Johannesburg, the city where he resides, as the starting 31
point of his research. For his residency, Mack presented his work at the fine art institution Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy’s Galerie YGREC. The group exhibition, titled “Blombos tot Rooibos” (From Blombos to Rooibos), was held from November 22nd to 30th.
studies, my sister suggested that I take a gap year. She told me about the Market Photo Workshop, a photography school that was affordable and had a bursary program. I was interested in architecture, and tought that I could develop this interest through photography. That’s how everything started, photography chose me without me choosing it. How would you define your work ? I usualily fail to define my work. My work has been given titles, from docu-fiction, to contemporary photography, to narrative, to surrealism... I play around within those genders and I don’t limit myself to a specific one. My background being from the
AF: What’s your background ?
Market Photo Workshop which is a school of documentary photography. I’ve learned this
MM: I matriculated* in 2008. As my family
gender and I was exposed to it but I’m also
didn’t have enough funds to finance my
part of a contemporary era where we need CPIF
to find significance in our work... Being part
genders like music, illustration, multimedia or
of youth in South-africa, I think that we need
collages. It’s been a very inspiring experience,
to find our own say and the significance of
I’ve met interesting people and collaborated
what we choose to say about South-Africa.
with a small group of artists from different backgrounds..
Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you think that things will change in SouthJohannesburg is the basis of my work. It is
Africa after Mandela’s death ? v
within this diversity of culture where I grew up, that I get most of my influence. I just can’t
It’s a familiar question, it’s been asked a lot.
create a work that would be of another place
I don’t think much will change. Mandela
or another context.
worked very hard for our country so it will be
How do you feel about your French experi-
only saddening to see us going down rather
ence ?
than letting is life story inspire us.
* to matriculate = to finish high school
Thank you for sharing your Parisian experiIt’s my second time in Paris, as I was invited
ence with us
Mac Magagane, Photo by Alexandre Gouzou
to the Photoquai festival in 2011, but talking about this residency at the CPIF, it was quite amazing. My work has changed, I’ve learned lot of new ways to use photography, not just as a medium to represent a certain issue or a certain idea but rather a means to other art
32
CPIF
gender, race and the reinvention of difference Shireen Hassim
Zanele Muholi, Photo by Alexandre Gouzou
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GAITE LYRIQUE
As a site in the global imagination,
as a marker of integration into the nation:
that disrupts the narrative of a women-
Johannesburg is a space of possibility and
South Africa has one of the highest levels of
friendly political domain and reveals the
openness, a mining town that is founded
elected women in its national parliament.
deeply embedded forms of raced and
on the promise of riches and of newness
To be a virtuous citizen in this version of
gendered power.
– a possibility of remaking not just one’s
democracy is to support the idea women
economic fortunes but one’s very self into
have freedom in South Africa. It represents
We have to turn to the social to perceive
the condition of modernity. It continues to
the triumph of a form of feminism that
these forms of power. In everyday
be such a city and such a place, every day
focuses primarily on access to places in
interactions in a range of spaces, the
attracting migrants of every type from other
institutional hierarchies. That is a thorough-
boundaries of communities and the criteria
parts of the country, the continent and the
going modernist demand on the part of
for authentic citizenship are carefully
world. As a site in South Africa, this city
the women’s movement, in that it frames
policed, and it is women’s bodies that are
that is the beating economic and political
a demand for recognition in the context of
the terrain for such regulation, in the idiom
heart of a new democracy contends every
the liberal democratic public sphere. But
of preserving culture. The range of practices
day with the problematics of making and
positions in parliament are not costless
of regulation that have emerged are wide.
remaking of nation.
gestures of inclusion. Frequently it becomes
They include :
part of a process of turning the gaze away
-
reinvented ceremonies of
In the city, certainties of identity and place,
from the underlying structures of power
virginity testing, in which young girls are
of social order and social position, are
in the relationships between citizens, and
tested to see if they are sexually ‘pure’ with
endlessly under question. New communities
between citizens and the state. Or, at the
the reward that they may dance before the
form that are outside of the structures of
very least, those questions are strategically
Zulu king
tradition and family, and outside of forms
suspended. For example, if positions in the
-
of authority such as traditional rulers and
state are granted on the basis of women’s
clothes that may be worn by women in
family patriarchs. These are communities
collective exclusion, then it becomes
some parts of the country, where women
that cohere around new identities and new
strategic to retain that sense of women
who wear trousers in public may be open
forms of sociability and for whom difference
as a homogeneous social entity. Then to
to attack from other members of the
is a productive force. Outside of the gaze of
ask the questions: does the body conform
community
official politics the encounters between the
to the binary political categories of male
residents of the city suggest that there may
and female – am I that corporeal entity
curing black lesbians of their supposedly
be ways of thinking about what it means to
referred to as woman – or to ask what the
un-African sexuality
be a human being in a space of open-ended
forms of violence are that underpin the
possibilities, where gender difference is not
categorization of male and female is to pose
All these practices remind us of the ways
fixed as permanently male or female, and
a question that cannot be answered within
in which bodies, and particularly black
where the body marks social relations in
the framework of the political system.
women’s bodies, mark the boundaries of
ways that cannot be captured in the forms
-
constrictions on the
‘corrective rape’ aimed at
collective communities. It is in the spaces
of politics and citizenship written into the
It is doubtless true that as a result of the
that are carved out by women and men to
Constitution.
inclusion of women in parliament the
challenge boundary making that the most
outward manifestations of the state – the
profound and threatening political gestures
The narrative of democracy in South Africa
personnel, institutions and policies – have
are made. Literary scholar Pumla Dineo
is centred on a modernist idea in which
been significantly stripped of their markers
Gqola argues that the most transgressive
the pinnacle is the formal sphere of the
of gender difference. However, I argue that
forms of feminism may indeed be found in
state and the constitution. The presence of
the presence of the sexualised body in the
the creative spaces in which black women
women in political institutions is celebrated
public sphere evokes a discussion of gender
exhibit levels of autonomy that are not
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GAITE LYRIQUE
easily expressed elsewhere.
Indian scholar Nivedita Menon describes
unsettling to those for whom the narrative
‘seeing like a feminist’ in this way: ‘to see
of democracy is twinned with the
In this presentation I wish to discuss
like a feminist is not to stabilize, it is to
celebration of the presence of women in
two moments of such encounters at the
destabilize.’
government. To note the dissonances in
boundaries of public and private, both
democracy – the violence towards those
provoked by representations of bodies in
The first emblematic encounter took place
who choose to live outside the given
the world of art, that challenge hegemonic
in August 2009, at an exhibition entitled
forms of gender, to suggest that women
norms. Both encounters invited responses
Innovative Women. The exhibition was
may have multiple identities, to present
that sought to foreclose the possibilities
financially supported by the government
women as sexual agents, or who articulate
of dissent from the conception of virtuous
in honour of National Women’s Day, an
intimacies that defy the pristine images
citizenship. (One of the provocateurs was,
annual public holiday that commemorates
of desexualised maternalist politics – is
indeed, an artist celebrated in the Sharp
the participation of women in the national
to disrupt the very core of the nation. In
Sharp Johannesburg month, Zanele Muholi.)
liberation movement. The exhibition was
her defense Xingwana explained “I was
to be opened by the Minister of Women,
particularly revolted by an image called
In both cases, the narrative of South Africa
Youth and People with Disabilities, Lulu
‘Self-rape’, [by Mntambo]… The notion of
as the epitome of a human rights oriented
Xingwana. However, the Minister walked
self-rape trivializes the scourge of rape in
democracy, a country of freedom for
in, looked at the photographs briefly, and
this country” (Van Wyk, 2010). She drew
all, was disrupted. The modern vision of
then walked out. What she saw was a series
on the idea of protection of children from
postapartheid citizenship is one in which
of images by photographer Zanele Muholi
pornography to justify her response. “My
all are stripped of ethnic, racial or gender
and artist Nandipha Mntambo. Muholi’s
reaction was guided by the view that
differences. In reality, however, difference
photographs show nude and semi-nude
these “artworks” were not suitable for
and entitlement are configured in new
lesbian couples in embrace, and are among
a family audience….To my mind these
ways around gender and race. The anxieties
her most tender images; in other exhibitions
were not works of arts [sic] but crude
provoked by economic exclusion and social
she has portrayed heteronormative violence
misrepresentations of women (both black
fragmentation have found expression in
in images that tend to shock – for example,
and white) masquerading as artworks
violent masculinities, in which weapons
showing the violence that accompanies
rather than engaged in questioning or
are extensions of maleness and women
sexual relationships.
interrogating…These particular works of art
are no more than bodies to be possessed
stereotyped black women…we have laws
or wombs to bear children. At precisely
Nandipha Mntambo’s Rape of Europa is a
in this country that protect children against
the moment in which women are claiming
deeply symbolic work in which she depicts
exposure to pornographic material” (Van
rights and asserting their collective
herself in the Greek mythological twin roles
Wyk, 2010).
presence as moral and political agents, it
of minotaur and maiden. Mntambo’s work
would seem, they are being beaten back by
deals with ‘the dynamic between fighting
Here is a clear statement of the ways in
the blatant assertion of masculinized power.
and protecting, public spectacle and
which discourses of equality can conceal
private self’ – and portrays strength and
the conservative foundations of nationalism
The two encounters in Johannesburg
vulnerability simultaneously in narcissistic
and social cohesion. The task of women,
reflect two dimensions of the forms in
embrace.
as described by Xingwana, is to protect
which gender identities are corralled: first
children from the immorality of nudity
within the confines of heterosexuality and
Xingwana claimed to be offended because
and intimacy: by extension, to stabilize
second within the confines of patriarchy.
the images were pornographic, “immoral…
the heterosexual patriarchal family which
I suggest that in both encounters the
and going against nation-building” (Van
is considered to be the normal form of
artists concerned deploy a feminist gaze:
Wyk, 2010). The exhibition was doubtless
the black family (despite all sociological
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GAITE LYRIQUE
evidence to the contrary). Indeed, for her
in the exhibition depicted ANC and South
South Africa, who has the right to criticize,
the exhibition was particularly egregious
African president Jacob Zuma as a glorious,
and who is an authentic citizen.
because it represented black women
larger than life sized revolutionary, penis
outside of the normative framework of
exposed.
black community. She wishes to dissolve
For some feminists it also raised a third question: the gendered nature of power,
sexuality and sex and particularly the messy
Within the space of ten days, President
the implications of a masculinized politics
complicities of sexual desire, violence
Zuma sued the artist and the gallery
for women’s sense of citizenship, and more
and harm by reinstating the comforting
and hundreds of ANC supporters took to
particularly how we might understand
narrative of the idea of ‘good’ black women.
the streets of the normally calm suburb.
the implications of masculine forms of
The Goodman Gallery owners reported
power for women as political subjects of
In this framing by a prominent public
receiving death threats, the head of the
postcolonial democracy in its South African
defender of the idea of gender equality
Shembe Church – the largest independent
form.
(for that is what she stands for as Minister
Christian church in South Africa - called
in charge of Women’s Affairs), the
for Brett Murray to be stoned to death and
Murray’s exhibition included works
performance of gender in the public sphere
somehow in the furore two men slipped
that depicted the ANC as ‘for sale’ and
– more specifically, the performance of the
through the flaccid security at the Gallery
‘sold’, drew attention to corruption and
category woman – must stabilize both the
to smear red and black paint over the
authoritarianism, and to the association
hetero body form as well as the ideological
Spear. On Tuesday, the ANC organized a
between masculinity and political power.
meaning of female identity as primarily
march to the gallery, in which the various
The Spear painting itself referenced a
maternal. Xingwana’s inability to grasp the
constituents of the ANC participated—
1967 Soviet poster of Lenin as well as the
ways in which the works of Muholi and
the Women’s League, dressed in uniform
language of the ANC, whose former military
Mntambo disrupt the certainties of fixed
and selling food, the ANC’s Umhkonto we
wing was called Umkhonto we Sizwe,
identities attached to heteronormative
Sizwe veterans goose-stepping in combats,
or Spear of the Nation. In its portrayal of
patriarchy reveals the limits of state-
members of the Shembe church in uniform.
Zuma as potent phallic leader, the painting
sponsored feminism that is detached from
This carnivalesque outpouring of political
unmistakably alluded to the sexual life of
the complexities of power relations in
anger was focused on the defense of the
the President, who was tried and cleared
society.
President’s dignity, and by implication
of rape in 2006, is polygynously married to
(often overtly) on the persistence of racism
four women, has fathered approximately
in South Africa.
nineteen children, of whom at least two
But not all bodies evoke the same levels of public interest. Xingwana’s reaction to the
were conceived out of polygynous wedlock.
portrayal of ordinary women’s bodies sank
Art and politics met in a heightened
without much of a trace in public debate.
clash that embodied all the tensions of a
Unambiguously, then, Murray’s use of the
By contrast, the portrayal of the body of the
country moving imperfectly towards an
continuities between masculine virility and
president became a national cause celebre.
imagined state of democracy. For many
political power played on the familiar and
In May 2012 an exhibition by Brett Murray,
commentators, what was at stake in this
general critique of politics as male, and
called Hail to the Thief II opened quietly in
debate was nothing less than democracy
the specifically hetero-patriarchal mode in
a gallery in the upscale art hub of Rosebank
itself. First, it raised whether or not the
which Zuma/ presidential power appears as
in Johannesburg. Within days, however, the
liberal political norms of the South African
a figure in South African politics.
calm and placid white-walled space of the
constitution were in danger of being
Goodman Gallery became the centre of a
eroded by a socially conservative populist
The connections are made in very obvious
political storm about art, culture and the
movement. Second, it re-opened the
fashion. The painting linked sexual potency
right to dignity. A painting (called the Spear)
question of citizenship: who belongs in
very directly with political power, and
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GAITE LYRIQUE
in doing so it linked intimacy with the
On the other hand, many intellectuals
discourse that associates a particular
performances of masculinity in the public
emphasized the right of citizens to criticize
political party with the general interests of
sphere. The painting, and indeed the whole
those in power. Disrespect, whether
‘the people’.
exhibition of which it was a part, parodied
as a form of critique of the powerful or
Third, Mntambo and Muholi’s
the pretensions of power. In the otherwise
dissidence from conventional norms, thus
representations of female bodies outside
clothed image of Zuma, it is the penis
features as a crucial element in a robust
of the framework of heteronormative,
that dominates; in the grotesque scale of
public sphere.
maternalist identities evoked a response
the painting, it is the overweening ego of
of deep insult to the conventions of South
the male politician that invites the viewer
However a straightforward liberal stance
African nationalism. In the case of Muholi
into mockery. The artist draws the viewer
that focuses only on the right to freedom of
and Mntambo, the naked bodies of black
into the familiar space of noting that the
expression does not take us into the heart of
women were in themselves ‘crude and
emperor is indeed naked.
why the painting evoked such an emotional
pornographic’ with the implication that
debate, and why that debate was so far-
they violated the codes of privacy.
In creating this work, then, Murray was
reaching in its impact on South Africans
The effect of government and ruling party
commenting very explicitly on the figure of
who are not part of an elite circle of visitors
responses was to place these artists outside
Zuma as the embodiment of the collapsed
to art galleries.
of the community.
story of a democratic teleology, the
Indeed, in the ANC’s stance, to be a critic –
president as the personification of dream
It is clear that surfacing deep seated
whether as a white artist or a black feminist
turned nightmare. And part of that collapse
anxieties about the postapartheid social
artist - was to position one’s self outside of
– the tragic flaw in Zuma’s presidency, as
order exposed the extent to which the
the nation. The consequence of critique is
it were – is the extent to which his sexual
racialised past remained deeply imprinted
clear: it is to be an outcast to nation.
relationships have continually surfaced in
in the present.
In these debates about works of art, race
public debate.
But how would those anxieties be dealt
was mobilized in a way that separated
with in the public sphere? To some extent,
racial identities from those of gender.
The reaction to the painting was varied,
reading the works of Mntambo, Muholi
Achille Mbembe, one of the most astute
from commentary on what was entailed in
and Murray as demeaning the black body
interlocutors of Fanon’s work, points to
satirical art, complaints about its supposed
constructs the debate at a level that was
the linkages between race, patriarchy
pornographic qualities, the long tradition
beyond politics. By this I mean that it made
and privilege. He suggests that what is at
of male nudity in the history of art, and
sensible deliberation more difficult in the
play in the political carnival relating to the
nudity in the public sphere in general, cast
face of the categorical imperatives of racial
Spear is a crisis of patriarchy. “Many young
in a spectrum of possibilities of analysis
and party loyalty. It does this in three ways.
men, especially among the poor, can no
of democracy’s demands. On the one end
First, the substitution of the phallus with
longer enjoy the privileges of patriarchy.
of the spectrum lay explanations for or
blackness invisibilised the debates on
There is more than ever before an unequal
against the exhibition based on the tension
violent masculinities in politics which are
redistribution of the dividends of manhood.
between modern and traditional notions
evident in the gendered dimensions of
Struggles over access to women are
of respect of authority and seniority in
Murray’s (rather obvious) critique.
dramatised by high levels of rape and
politics. For these critics, who sought to
Second, the reappearance of colonial racial
various forms of sexual violation. In this
have the painting banned from public view,
harm in analyses of The Spear played into a
context, President Jacob Zuma represents,
the artist epitomized white racism and the
notion of the president as embodiment of
in the eyes of many young men, the
denigration of the black male body. They
the ANC and ANC as embodiment of nation.
symbol of a “big man” involved in an unfair
focused on dignity as the core value in
To elaborate, for some ANC members, it
capitalisation and monopolisation of those
South African democracy.
represented a familiar trope in nationalist
resources necessary for patriarchy to keep
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GAITE LYRIQUE
reproducing itself.”
of the president forces a reading of political power as phallic and overpowering. Women
Mbembe is acutely aware here of how
are outside the view of the painting, as
central the projection of virility and
they are outside the view of many of the
entitlement to the bodies of women works
commentators in the debates discussed
as the marker for power in contemporary
above. But artists such as Murray, Muholi
South Africa. In his reading, women’s
and Mntambo are the grinding stones for
bodies become the terrain of a patriarchal
new debates on embodied subjectivities.
battle between young men and political
Their images fracture the triumphalist
patriarchs. We could extend this argument
narratives of South African democracy,
to show how dependent the patriarchal
and disrupt the neat solidarities of race
paradigm is on the idea that women’s
or class. Race, gender and sexuality are
bodies are vessels for reproduction, to be
interconnected in shaping subjectivities,
hidden from public view and to display
and Spear and the artworks in the
no signs of sexual agency and autonomy.
Innovative Women exhibition lead us to
As Anne McClintock has argued, in this
think about the complicated nature of
paradigm women’s agency is a designated
power. They provoke discussion of what can
agency – an agency by invitation only.’
be said, how and by whom. Importantly,
And what is invited is participation via
that invites a consideration – specifically –
mechanisms such as quotas in the formal
of which women can speak, what they can
liberal public sphere, not participation as
say, and when.
destabilizing critique. Through these forms of closure, involving the reinstatement of the primary binary distinctions between black and white, male and female, ‘the nation-state will remain the repository of male hopes, male aspirations, and male privilege.’ An alternative reading of the works of Muholi and Mntambo in particular would reveal the ways in which black women have negotiated the boundaries of racial and patriarchal power, whether through resistance or accommodation or some combination of strategies. It would show that there is no unified black identity, however successful this was in sustaining the anti-apartheid movements, but rather ‘a realistic engagement with heterogeneity’ (Gqola, 2010: 34). In Murray’s work, the brute representation
38
GAITE LYRIQUE
my trip to Paris
Text & Photos Themba Vilakaz
France has always been a special place I held with undying aspirations to visit. Reading, watching and listening to tales of the country compounded my keenness to visit. So, when I got an invitation to do so, I was naturally elated. As days drew nearer, I had mixed feelings. How was I going to communicate? Would I be able to network with other professionals convincingly? My most polished French language skills bordered around a simple greeting: Bonjour. I started to be filled with doubt, wondereding if my expectations of the country famed for love, romance and beauty would prove to be as beautiful.
68
As a photographer, I have always been
Gautrain from Johannesburg CBD to the O.R
asked where I was from, I answered. It ended
intrigued by the acclaim France holds in
International Airport, the change was already
there. The conversation could not be extended
photography history. In 1839, we read, Louis
palpable. Boarding the flight to Abu Dhabi
because of our language challenges. It was a
Jacques Daguerre implemented the highly
made the transformation even faster than any
case of two men, who looked smart but were
successful photograph processing. It was a
human being could comprehend. The com-
brought to detour by a language barrier. It was
milestone achievement; arguably one that
munication was predominantly Arabic.
a painstaking experience. Being persistent, he
would change the course of photography and probably its moving cousin, film. With this
asked about different issues from my country, But it was upon arrival in Paris that the tongues
I answered with the verve of someone trying
started sounding strangely familiar. It’s a
too hard to reciprocate. The driver compli-
dream background, I looked forward to visiting
language I had heard before, somewhat scat-
mented my country for successfully hosting
France.
tered, but now, it was beautifully dominant
the 2010 soccer World Cup. With effortless
It was an exhila-
grace, I thanked him for his kind words. He
rating journey
then asked about Nelson Mandela’s health.
of languages.
I told him the media had been quite the
I hail from the
issue. Little did we know that in over a
most popular
month, the anti-apartheid icon would
place in Johan-
depart the land of the living.
nesburg, Soweto, a symbolic place
The journey was interestingly long but
in the history of
short, made short by the conversation
South Africa’s
we tried to strike and long because of the
resistance against
same conversations that were a pain to
apartheid, where
breakthrough. I was dropped in Belleville.
I used to take off
We said our goodbyes with my new friend.
early every morn-
I was also welcomed by the rains and a dark
ing in a taxi that
cloud cover. I waited for my hosts at a coffee
represented what
shop. In need of service and wifi password,
Soweto is, a mix
I realized my foibles in France. I struggled to
of different tribes,
put my messages across. It slowly dawned
where being
on me that French was beyond ‘Bonjour.’
multilingual is a standard. A driver
It was time for Germany. My main task was
that speaks in
filming a colleague, Zanele Muholi who was
Tsonga, passengers that are not ashamed to
and saturated. I hired a meter taxi/cab to the
accorded an Honorary Professorship. If France
communicate in their own languages... It’s a
place where my hosts were waiting. Taking
was tough, then Germany was tougher. From
fair distance to the Central Business District of
a taxi was not problem, giving the driver
a pricey hotel, total failure to communicate
Johannesburg,
directions was. I read the address to him, but
and the salty food, we made our way back to
but it was made even longer by the usual traf-
it was mission impossible. My dictation of
France on the third day.
fic jam.
English alphabet confused the driver even. In a gracious countenance that spoke of hos-
Checking in at the Hipotel Hotel in Paris,
During the transition from Soweto and
pitality, customer care and a genuine sense
besides smaller rooms, I got allocated a room
its multiple language base, to the trendy
of caring, he tried striking a conversation. He
with a torn curtain. One couldn’t sleep with
69
light piercing in all the time. My protests led
understood both French and English. It didn’t
taught me that, like the French, I should be
to a better room, at face value. I realized that
help, I was overcharged at the end. I realized
proud of my own language. Not only that, but
it was hell afterwards, literally. The heater
this on receipt and sought assistance from a
I should also learn other languages, besides
was unadjustable. It was constant heat like a
security guy who shared my complexion. After
English. The fact that I failed to communicate
perfect summer day in Limpopo Province of
several false starts, we managed to under-
with a fellow African, a security guy at Fnac. He
my home country. Sweaty and stuffy in the
stand each other and I got referred to another
spoke French, I spoke English. If we had a com-
morning, I got what a language handicapped
shop assistant.
mon African language, we would have been
person would, little kebabs and fruits--that
able to communicate easily. It was a cathartic
was easy to buy without delving into much
It was the eve of my departure, and I had to
experience; an experience that brought ideas
explanation that would require esoteric com-
reunite with my colleagues. We decided to
of how I can document various people that
munication skills.
take a walk around checking out museums,
co-exist in France, so as my obsession with the
but they were closed. We only managed peep-
Eiffel Tower.
Later on, I tried to shrug the disorientation. A
ing from outside. It was a great experience, for
colleague from South Africa offered to show
we managed to walk
me around. Before doing so was a little eureka
around. The transport
moment for my inabilities to communicate. I
system was efficient
needed to iron press my clothes. After several
and connected, so
failed attempts, I devised a way, download a
much so that we
smartphone app that would translate what I
didn’t even fear
wanted. Through this, I communicated. The
getting lost. By good
joys of technology.
fortune, we stumbled upon a museum
With a colleague, we scanned through popular
that exhibited South
places around; from parks and shops. Picasso
African photos.
museum was a good highlight. It was not a fairy tale, it actually existed, I discovered.
It was a worthwhile experience the fol-
Days went by and I had to attend the Sharp
lowing day when
Sharp exhibition. At it were five fellow South
I tracked my way
Africans. Besides enjoying each other’s com-
back. With network-
pany and obviously the artworks on displays,
ing contacts that
we ‘enjoyed’ sharing stories on how we strug-
really promised
gled fitting in. The uniformity of the narratives
on developing my
pointed to prejudices based on language and
professional life, I felt
race.
contented. Ironically, I got inspired by the
However, my greatest fallout was to come.
French’s pride in their
Lured by the sale tag at Fnac I decided to buy
own language. My
an electronic gift for one of my hosts. The
difficulties in commu-
price at the pay point was double the display.
nicating might have
The language deadlock led to an argument
been excruciating
that was mediated by a fellow customer who
at the time, but they
41
71
Francois Verster
the lion sleeps tonight... “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. Nelson Mandela”
Still from « A lion’s trail » Photo by Neil Brandt
A conversation between Danièle Hibon, film curator at Jeu de Paume, Paris and South African Filmmaker François Verster with Caecilia Tripp CT: In the wake of Mandela’s Lion sleeping
Durban International Film Festival in South
way chronological, mixing documentaries
tonight and forever, the present continues
Africa, in the framework of the cultural
and fiction, following the rise and fall of
with the presence of his spirit. Danièle, can
exchange with France for the Jeu de Paume
Apartheid up to today. The whole part
you tell us how you came about your won-
for the final selection.
of documentary films around apartheid
derful selection of South African Films?
I was there for twelve days and met a lot of
and anti-apartheid movement, also from
producers and filmmakers, who gave me a
the archives, got a lot seized down due to
DH: There was a first selection, taking place
suitcase full of movies to watch. My ambi-
limited screening schedule. If you like me to
in Paris, but afterwards I went myself to the
tion for the film program was to be in one
give you one example of a major documen-
43
JEU DE PAUME
tary, which has been done with the early
You Seen DRUM Recently?” from the 70’s
pendent films, from there I went to London
existing studios Varant for documentaries in
and ‘DRUM” the fiction film of Zola Maseko.
where I ended up doing some research on a
Johannesburg, South Africa it is “Chroniques
couple of documentaries and finally did my
Sud Africaines” by André Van In, which
CT: DRUM magazine really played a key
first film. So my first film was done in South
retraces the history from 1975/76 on.
role in resistance, transgressing apartheid
Africa, but produced by a London company.
As I had to reduce the program, I decided to
through their glamorous lens on Black
I guess I learned what I did through a pro-
focus rather on the contemporary filmmak-
Culture, its thrilling drive of always reinvent-
cess of working on other films.
ers and show the South Africa of today, such
ing music culture and publishing inspiring
as François Verster, Khalo Matabane among
literature as a new black voice, being
others The cycle finishes with a documen-
already beyond Apartheid. It is also one of
tary which Carolyn Carew pointed out to
the magazines, which has inspired and still
FV: The first film I made was called “Pave-
me, from 1973 by a collective from Britain
inspires Afrikadaa.
ment Aristocrats” and it was about a group
but also from South Africa, Nana Mahomo,
CT: What was the first film you made?
of homeless people in Cape Town. It was
Chris Curling and Pascale Macfarlane, which
DH: Yes DRUM Magazine was a legendary
is at the heart of Apartheid and draws a
magazine, and Schadeberg had photo-
strong portrait of the segregation “Last
graphed Mandela from the 40’s on, up to
CT: So you could say you started cinema
Grave at Dimbaza”. The film toured around
the legendary photograph of Mandela’s face
after Apartheid had ended?
the globe when it came out, besides South
behind the prison bars.
Africa itself, which was under censorship. CT: I saw you also programmed the films
shot in 1997 and then finished in 1998.
FV: Yes. I think the interesting thing is that CT: How did both of you, François Verster
(..). I mean the history of film in South Africa
and you, actually meet ?
is quite strange. The first films, let’s say a
around the legendary “DRUM” Magazine ?
substantial percentage of the first films that DH: When I was in Durban people praised
were ever made, was shot in South Africa,
DH: Yes it is an important document and I
his film, which was still not finished at the
because the first big world event that hap-
had showed it already before in 1991, when
time. I went to Cape Town, where he lives,
pened after the invention of the moving
I started the cinema space at Jeu de Paume.
to meet him and was very happy to discover
camera was the Anglo-Boer War of 1897-
It was in the framework of the retrospective
his films, which have a strong aesthetic, but
1902. So quite a lot of films reels was shot in
of Lionel Ragosin, which I choose to open
an even stronger human ethics.
South Africa and you got these reconstruc-
with “Come Back Africa”. It was the first time that it screened in France. It is a beauti-
tions of South African battles happening in CT: So François, you are from Cape Town ?
ful film, it was filmed clandestinely with a
London and Hampstead, and so on. So in some sense South Africa played some kind
tourist visa, it was easier at the time to film
FV: I live in Cape Town, but I am originally
of role in the early years of cinema and then
as stranger under the Apartheid system, as
from Bloemfontein in the center of he
also in the 1910’s and the 1920’s quite a lot
any body else was under high surveillance.
country.
of big films were being shot in South Africa.
It is filmed in Sophiatown, the hero of
Generally for people like myself, there was
the film was casted randomly at the train
CT: What inspired you to go into making
in terms of documentary basically only
station of Johannesburg. The film is partly
films? Did you do Classical Film Studies ?
BBC Star History Program, National History
fictional, partly documentary. L.R. was in
Program, so was there was no real tradition
relation with the reporters from DRUM
FV: I did not formally study Cinema, I did
of political or social documentary under
Magazine, such as Jürgen Schadeberg, who
some master in English and musicology.
Apartheid.
was its artistic director and one of the pho-
Afterwards I spent some time in New York
The films that were made were basically
tographers. That’s why I showed also “Have
and I just started to work on some inde-
made underground, made very urgently
44
JEU DE PAUME
76
77
and the footage was smuggled abroad. So
filmmaking.
a white person … and I was very surprised
they were much more I guess news ori-
You live in South Africa and you are deal-
not to know about such a central part of
entated or propaganda oriented and not
ing at some level always with social issues,
South African History. Especially the fact
available for the general public.
obviously as a documentary filmmaker in a
that the original song writer died in absolute
After Apartheid, when filmmakers of my
place like South Africa these things become
poverty whereas the song in its American
generation started out, there was no real
a very essential part of what you do,
form had been the number one hit 40 times
older generation of filmmakers to look up
whether actively approached or indirectly
around the world and had made maybe up
to, or creative filmmaking of social docu-
approached.
to 50 Millions dollars over the years. And it
mentary or fiction filmmaking. In a way my
just seemed to me that this is a story, which
generation had to figure it out by them-
CT: Can you tell us about your film “ A Lion’s
needs to be told as a part of a South African
selves, or by reference to other films that we
Trail”?
self-referential mythology.
could get access to.
It was finished in 2002 and it raised quite a lot of awareness about the injustice that
CT: You went still to school under Apartheid,
occurred and played some role in the fact
how did this affect you as a filmmaker ?
that the family of the song writer got paid quite a bit of money by various people. It
FV: It was very, very difficult, as a student
also won an Emmy award in America, which
at university, one could find ways to see
was quite good given the fact that it is a
a few films at limited screenings at small
political form questioning the way in which
film festivals, but mostly the political forms
America had been exploiting intellectual
were banned, it was very, very hard to have
property from Africa.
access to that. But I think my own inspiration for filmmak-
CT: Was your next film then “Mother’s
ing didn’t come so much from politics as
House”?
it came from, I guess, being inspired by people like Werner Herzog at the time.
FV: I finished another film called “When
I remember when I was 19, I was a member of the university film club and I saw a
The War Is Over” at the same time as “Lion’s Solomon Linda
Trail”. The film dealt with ex-activist people
couple of Werner Herzog films and it just
roughly my age, who had been involved in
completely blew my mind, the fact that you
the struggle against apartheid, fighting on
could have this kind of I guess emotional
FV: “A Lion’s Trail” tells the story of the most
the streets against apartheid. A lot of teen-
and existantial, explorational form, it is
famous song ever to come from
agers during the 80’s banded together as
something I had not experienced before and
South Africa, if not Africa, which is “Mbube”,
what was called “Self Defense Units”. They
it really, really inspired me. And then in 1999
which was transformed into American
were militant to more or less degrees, they
a group of about ten South African filmmak-
“Wimoweh” and eventually became “The
created barricades when the police wanted
ers went over to Copenhagen to meet with
Lion sleeps tonight”.
to come into the townships or they created
ten Scandinavian filmmakers and everybody
I was approached by a TV Magazine to make
a conversion so that activists could escape.
presented their films and spoke about it and
a short film about the story of this song. At
that was really inspiring for me,
that point, even having grown up in South
CT: Was there some kind of solidarity beyond
to see what was possible in documentary.
Africa, I had no idea that “The Lion sleeps
the color line in the struggle against Apart-
Because, as I said, as a documentary film-
tonight” came from a South African Song. I
heid?
maker, we did not have access to creative
guess that also reflects on my education as
47
JEU DE PAUME
FV: Obviously it was delineated along the
about the direct political involvement, but
racial line, which her mother never had the
racial lines, although some white activists
more looking at the ways that the violence
chance.
joined the ANC and went underground. The
of Apartheid had actually played out within
white youth movements were much more
the family situation. I discovered Valencia’s
innocent. But the militant group I was look-
daughter, being a much stronger charac-
CT: Well in the film when the mother says
ing at was called
ter, to follow the process of a young one
that under Apartheid there was racial segre-
Bonteheuvel Military Wing, a guerrilla
becoming a teenager when apartheid was
gation and white and colored people would
branch of the ANC. A lot of them went
already over, looking at what that meant
not live together, Miché answers that that
into Exile. So the film dealt with what had
for her in relation to her mother. Did she
did not change!!
happened to these teenagers 15 years later,
now have chances that her mother did not
people that had given up their youth for
have or whether the same cycles of familiar
FV: There is a lot of issues you cannot just
the sake of fighting apartheid. In the film I
emotional repression would continue.
fix by fixing the laws, or having the right to
focused on two former militants, where one
So the film followed its own course.
vote or the right to equality, there are long
became a military captain and the other one a gang leader, they are still friends. Both
term social and submerged effects, that CT: So Miché became the character of the
are still not resolved and what you follow
of them are part
through with Miché is trying to escape this
of the “lost youth”
cycle, but also falling back into it.
who fought against apartheid.
CT: In your next film “Sea Point” you choose
So the next big-
a more distant view of the new mixed “Meet-
ger film was then
ing Point”. Tell us more about what is “Sea
“Mother’s House”.
Point”?
CT: How did you
FV: “Sea Point” is a three and a half kilo-
meet the main char-
meters long promenade and a public Pool
acter of “Mother’s
in Cape Town, it is the “every man’s land”
House”?
between the city and the ocean. It is one of few the public spaces (swimming pool),
FV: One of the
Evening Bird’s MBUBE
main characters is Valencia, the mother of
which are used by all people: all races, all Post-Apartheid Teenage Hood ?
Miché, the young girl you see growing up.
ages, all genders, all sexual orientations and all religions. It is one of the places where
Valencia was actually a part of this group
FV: Yes I guess so and how different is this
people seem to be happy..
Bonteheuvel Military Wing. I had filmed
Teenage Hood from what it would have
The film is about the possibility of happiness
quite a bit with her for the previous film,
been twenty years ago.
in South Africa in a shared space.
work out, so we did not actually include
CT: What would you say, how different is
CT: You choose to have quite a large diversity
her in the film. But I thought she is a strong
that now?
of characters to speak about their country?
that material and we had some discussions
FV: Well she has the social and geographi-
FV: Well yes, first of all I wanted to film it
together, I also met her family. Through this
cal mobility which her mother did not have,
from a distance in a “Brechtian way”, by
process I discovered that there was actu-
she goes to schools which her mother could
framing your relationship in a self-conscious
ally a much stronger story to be told, not
never have gone to, mixing beyond the
way, but that did not really work out, it was
but then in the edit, the story did not quite
character and I was looking for ways to use
48
JEU DE PAUME
kind of limiting. So I went back to some of
CT: With the character of Aubry it comes
actively confronted. In South Africa, it is a
my encountered characters, like the home-
out very strongly in the film, as he raises
healthy thing,
less person Aubry and the little boy, as
the question : “Well I cannot even be on the
where things are discussed and questioned.
well as a couple of other people, because
Beach. But I am South African.
I think it makes it a very dynamic place to
I needed a little bit more depth of them,
I don’t come from the Sea, I come from the
work and live.
some more intimacy with their characters.
country!!”
On the political level the film is very much
So when the colonizers arrived in Cape Town
CT: Thank you both, Danièle and François,
about how as a white beneficiant of the
from the sea, they called it “Cape of Good
for this inspiring dwelling on South Africa
apartheid system do you speak about the
Hope” .. Robben Island is just in front of
and the films we like to see more of.
past and the present in South Africa. It is
it, where Mandela spent 18 years of his 27
very difficult for a person like me to com-
years in prison, right ?
ment directly on South Africa, it is very contested and it is not really your space as a
FV: Yes, Robben Island is just in front of
white person, in some ways..
Sea Point and a lot of the white population under Apartheid just ignored the presence
CT: What was your personal experience at a
of prisoners on Robben Island.
closer look at “Sea Point”? CT: Is there a message you like to give out, FV: If you look at the Sea Point Side, the old
something which sticks to your mind?
age home is on the one side and the pool is on the other side, in a quite crude way
FV: In Europe everyone speaks about the
the old age home is the “white life” in all
crisis, a lot of economic problems, a lot of
its nostalgia about the past, which is dying
social problems and you feel there is almost
out and the pool on the other side is used
a reversal of position, like with China and
by a lot of young black kids jumping around
now with India, a lot more interesting things
right into the future.
are coming out of Africa, a lot of internation-
Why Aubry, the homeless person, is interest-
ally train settings are going to come out
ing, he is someone who has been excluded
of Africa in a decade or two. I really have a
from the system, because he was black
strong feeling about that.
before and now he is also excluded from the system, because he is poor. It is this kind of
CT: Africa is the future.
“double exclusion” even in the “new” South Africa he does not have a kind of a space.
FV: Yes it is an interesting time. You live with
But, what I was trying to say earlier, in the
very real social conflicts and a lot of uncom-
film he has a voice, he articulates a voice,
fortable things on a daily basis, but it is very
which cannot come from me. That’s the
vibrant.
kind of narrative in the film and the explo-
In a way everything in South Africa ends up
ration in the film, which is very much my
being a racial issue, which is on one hand
issue. You need to connect with someone
exhausting but it is also a very necessary
real, who lives these political and social con-
and vital thing. I think a lot of these topics
flicts and can narrate them from the point of
in Europe or America are stripped under
view of his own personal experience.
the carpet and are not really addressed, or
49
JEU DE PAUME
Still from « Sea point days » Photo by Pierre Crocquet
81
in conversations: Onyeka Nwelue interviews Niq Mhlongo in Paris I met Niq Mhlongo in lagos two years ago. or so. at a very artsy restaurant and bar, bogobiri. a writer friend, uche peter umez had talked about him and had given me a copy of after tears, his novel, to read and i enjoyed it. i had issues with the novel, regarding the depiction of its nigerian characters. i would discuss it with niq later, but i didn’t. we hung out several times, even with kenyan writer, binyavanga wainaina and nigerian writer, igoni barret and actor, david nnaji. we drank and ‘chopped’ at o’jez in surulere, lagos, nigeria. two years after, i am sitting in a chinese restaurant on rue de bagnolet in paris. we are eating cantonese rice, mushroom and chicken and drinking tsingtao beer. he has just finished reading from his novel at the mediatheque and had a Q & A session with his french audience. his novels have been translated into european languages and he is gradually becoming a literary superstar in france. he has an itinerary which i look at later in his hotel room and figure that he has a very busy schedule on this visit. After reading his first novel, dog eat dog, which when pronounced by french people, it soundslike, [snoop] doggy dogg, i found it cinematic enough and thought i should ask questions, so we discussed everything about his career and also life. 51
MEDIATHEQUE MARGUERITE DURAS
Niq Mhlongo
When did you start Dog Eat Dog?
Can you tell us what kind of things you did
Dog whilst in Cape Town because I missed
before writing Dog Eat Dog?
Joburg so much. I missed my family and my
Around year 2000. I was doing my third year
friend that I had left at Wits University. Dog
LLB at The University of Cape Town (UCT).
Before writing Dog Eat Dog I was just a
Eat Dog was then born out of that
I was bored with law cases and lonely in
student. First I did BA at Wits University
nostalgia. Most of the things that I wrote
Cape Town as I’m from Johannesburg. To
majoring in African Literature. After
in Dog Eat Dog did happen in real life.
I started writing in order to deal with my
finishing my BA I decided on doing LLB post
Some are exaggerations, some I observed,
loneliness.
graduate degree. The only writing I did was
experienced. Some are hearsay.
only associated with my studies. What motivates you to write?
Who do you admire? Is there someone who What kind of historical context of your
influences your writing so much?
I’m motivated by different things- the will to
country influenced what you are doing
share experiences with the world, by South
today? Or did you just start out of the fact
I won’t single out a person. I was influenced
Africa and its unpredictability, by
that you needed to write?
by my own experience, experiences of
love, politics, by hatred, by Soweto and
others, my neighbourhood, Soweto.
it’s sub-culture. I’m motivated by my own
I started out of the fact that I needed to
However, I must say that I grew up reading
experiences, other people’s experiences,
write. Like I said, Dog Eat Dog came out
African Literature by Heinneman’s African
my beliefs, my attempts to understand the
of my loneliness in Cape Town. I actually
Writers Series authors. I was able to read
world as we live in it. I’m motivated by so
wanted to be a lawyer, and not a writer.
great authors such as Achebe, Ayi Kwei
many things.
That is why I studied law and failed some
Armah, Buchi Emecheta, Ferdinand Oyono,
of the courses in 2000. So I wrote Dog Eat
Ngugi, Eskia Mphahlele, Mia Couto, Gabriel
52
MEDIATHEQUE MARGUERITE DURAS
Okar, Bessie Head, Dambudzo Marechera,
The lesson is that I must write for myself
I want to write, and write and write more
Hove, Tsitsi Dangarengba, Amah Ata Aidoo,
first and think about my audience later.
stories until my laptop runs out of ink. By
and etc. All these writers had an equal influence on me, and I admired them a lot.
the age 50 must have published at list ten What kind of support have you gotten so
books.
far from people in Nigeria towards your Did you receive some kind of economic
writing?
support to write?
Let’s talk about you as a person. What kind of person are you? How can you define
Most of it is moral support. I have lots of
yourself?
What is that? No way. I did everything on
friends from Nigeria, most of them are
my own. I had plenty of time because I was
authors. Also I grew up reading literature
I’ve been asked that question before, and
unemployed in 2001 and part of 2002. I
by Nigerian authors as I have mentioned
this is how I answered it: I’m an enigma. I’m
relied on friends and relatives for economic
earlier.
like an algebra test that no student passes.
support.
But I think I’m a happy person, an extrovert In your own assessment, would you say your
You have had the chance to travel around
writing is making money?
many countries in the world. What kind of things have you learnt during the trips?
and a true Gemini-kind and loving. What kind of legacy would you like to leave
My writing is not making money, but
in South Africa?
opportunities. There is an opportunity to I went to these many countries because of
create one’s own world, to travel, to be
I want to leave South Africa and the world
my writing, and in most cases I was invited
invited to dinners and lunches by high
more books to read. Those books must be
to literary events. In most of these places I
profile people. An opportunity to change
written by me.
admired how people love books, and wish
people’s lives, to inspire them, to share a
South Africa was like that. Travelling has
world stage with other influential authors.
So far, what is your biggest success or goal
also widened my scope around literature
So there is no money, and that is why I still
you have reached in your career?
because of mingling with different writers
sell my labour in order to survive.
from all over the world. It has boasted my
The greatest thing is that I’m read
confidence because I represent my country
In layman’s language, what exactly do you
internationally in different languages,
when I’m in those places. I have learnt
call your genre of writing?
German, English, French, Italian, Spanish,
that an author plays an ambassadorial
Flemmish, Dutch because my works are
role for a country because readers/book
I have no idea. I hear people being labeled
translated into those languages. Also my
lovers rely on authors to comment on
crime novelist. I have been referred to as
name is associated with literature.
politics, economics, and social spheres. And
post-apartheid writer, kwaito generation
whatever an author says is taken as the
writer (whatever that means). My latest
truth. So, I have learnt that artists wherever
novel Way Back Home is regarded as a
they come from, are truly empowered with
political novel. I have no idea of my genre,
a gift to make a difference in the world
and I guess I write about so many slices of
and in people’s lives. They are engines of
life. Maybe I’m a slice of life writer if there is
inspirations and gatekeepers of truth, as
that genre because it is difficult to classify
well as true documentarians of history.
my writing.
What lessons have you acquired to help
What are your plans in the foreseeable
grow in your writing?
future?
53
MEDIATHEQUE MARGUERITE DURAS
Niq Mhlongo was born in 1973 in Soweto. His first novel, Dog Eat Dog, was published by Kwela in 2004 and was translated into Spanish under the title Perro Come Perro in 2006. This Spanish edition was awarded the Mar des Lettras prize. Besides writing novels and short stories, Niq has written a screenplay for the animated children’s TV series Magic Cellar and scripts for a comic magazine called Mshana, the first issue of which appeared in February 2007.Way Back Home, his third novel, has recently hit the shelves. Onyeka Nwelue is a Nigerian writer. He just won a 2013 Prince Claus Travel Grant to travel to East Africa. He is also the President of La Cave Musik (www.lacavemusik.com), a record label based in Paris, France.
54
MEDIATHEQUE MARGUERITE DURAS
undying ghosts Dineo Bopape In conversation with Christine Rebet Photos : Blaise Adilon
What is the title of your piece? Dineo The title is (“But that is not the important part of the story”) Christine Your piece resembles a traumatic landscape of a bodyless crime scene. There are many indices and clues laying around such as this recurrent bottle that comes often in your installations. What is the content? Is it gasoline? The one that has set the fire? Dineo All specificity is denied in a way, similarly like the bottles I have used in (“The queen of necklace: sketch 3”, Bétonsalon, Paris 2012). In general in South Africa when you walk in the street, especially in the neighborhood where I live, one might find street hawkers selling bottled stuff‘something’ repackaged- the bottle is usually recognizable (like that of transparent plastic soda bottles or small liquor bottles), but the contents may appear mysterious – undefined… Christine Yes, yours here is blue
86
MAC/LYON
Dineo
and looking back goes so far away, as an X
old Montréal by accident whilst attempting
It’s an unknown substance until you ask (the
large reverse aftermath.
to run away with her lover. So while I was
seller), what is this? It could be beer, window
at the Darling Foundry (during the open
cleaner, gasoline, medicine. Etc
Dineo
studio event), I made a fire as a kind of
So there is this repackaged thing that
Constant reverb, constant reverb...
commemoration of her (rebellious) act, of her/
has been/is of elsewhere. The content is
the accident. The accident of her entrance into
displaced… the content of the piece also: with
Christine
history... Because (of the magnanimity of the
all these gaps, these mirrors that mirror gaps,
As an audience member you try to define
fire) she entered it (history) accidentally – she
that look back but then looking back at what
the crime wondering: Is it something that
may have otherwise remained unknown,
exactly… The narrative keeps being evaded.
has happened? Is it something that the
invisible, and forever enslaved.
Really.
artist shot (filmed) or are these found
footages? Is it an historic event?
Christine So you did a fire?
I see the fans as ways to activate the piece. To put a frenzy into the object instead of having
Dineo
them still, so they stop performing but than
With all those possibilities there is always like
Dineo
the performance is also circular because the
an evasion, an evanesence, an evasiveness
Yes
fans are circling/searching the air around it.
about (the work) or the storyteller within the
work, the story is always deferred. May be
Christine
Christine
that is in the loop itself, as well as the idea
And how did people respond to it?
These unknown substances are constantly
of chasing. There is always a repetition, an
recaptured through fans, multiple screens
endless deferral.
Dineo
and rear mirrors that are activating the
People were warm to the idea. Lots of people
flames. It makes me think of the burning
Christine
didn’t know the story. It was only scholars of
ceremony of (autodafé) set as public
But I like the story of the story teller….
the area who knew about the story and I found
punishment during The Inquisition. Is it a collective fire?
out about the story from a scholar (Charmaine Dineo
Nelson), when one of the universities there
When I was in Montreal I got interested to the
made a dinner party. And she was like oh you
Dineo
idea of fire, all these songs about fire, “the roof
stay in Old Montréal; do you know about that
Reverberation, the image of the fire.
is on fire” (Dineo
I guess for me fire has so many changes and
sings) “fire on the
possibilities, the violence of it, the enigma, the
mountain” “com’on
howl, the vitality of it, the thing that you sit
baby light my fire”.
around when you tell stories, like a bonfire. But
All these things –
then it’s not that kind of fire, the story is too
all these fires: how
big. What kind of story would be told around a
they can all exist
fire like that?
simultaneously
…. there was a
Christine
story about this
It’s a big (edge) of history that you can never
rebellious slave
extinguish, cool down or forget. Also with
woman called
such huge rear view mirrors (as there are
Angelique, who
from buses), it seems that the reverberation
burned down
56
MAC/LYON
place? Do you know about the history around
from the burning?
that place? What happened? etc... And she was
a zombie, and I replied yes it s like a zombie, also he said it so lightly but thinking of it more,
like “woo I’ll tell you about the story! “ (Laughs)
Christine
there is this thing of ‘undying’. The piece itself
yeah and then she told me the story about
Maybe because it won’t repair history. We
and the video that keeps playing on in a loop.
this rebellious woman who sets the town on
have to commemorate the entrance in
fire. (Laughs) Although the story doesn’t end
history. The simulation of the flames is a
Christine
well…
rather hopeful angle.
Undying is great. I keep thinking of a
phantom hand.
Christine
Dineo
Because they caught her?
The entrance into___
Dineo
The accident of____
Like in a case of a zombie. When there is
Dineo
The accident of it as well, when all the
another force that is activating everything…
Yes they caught her, and then they paraded her
elements come together, when all the
like (in the piece) the fan trying to activate the
head around town...
characters are there, but then the thread hasn’t
small bits of thread or tussles etc. How the
been woven yet. But something like a catalyst
whole ideas of a zombie or zombies is that
Christine
happens, everything was there already, she
there is a figure, a doctor that has put a spell on
What did they do to her?
was in a particular place, she had a particular
somebody and that they are being animated
attitude, there were all this characters around
by this priest/external/internal interference.
Dineo
her, the buildings were characters and all these
They chopped off her head, put it on a stick,
things…
Christine
then paraded it around town. She went on trial
Ghostlike. It could almost be the spirit of the
before that, she was also beaten in public….
Christine
automaton.
There are phantom elements being present
But the interesting part was the fire (laugh) is
in this scene, evidence to be investigated.
Dineo
this thing that remains.
Yet, there is neither a criminal or victim,
Or even in a sci-fi film, these robots like the Hal
there is no evidence. Just a blind spot.
computer in Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey.
Christine
The computer makes demands and it wants
Is the thing that remains of her?
Dineo
to be saved, but it still sounds like a robot, it
I wonder – whether evidence will be the thing
can’ t be the real thing, it’s an animation, or a
Dineo
that frames the story or evidence be the story
simulation of something.
Yes
itself…. that there are patches of space that are
blank, carved out by these scattered bits that
Christine
Christine
are left behind, almost. Within these gaps that
Simulation could lay as the space of politics,
How to exorcize her story, her monumental
occupy most of the piece…
a space with criminal enigmas, with a potential danger to short circuit, activated
gesture? You expel it so well that it is still kinetically alive. It won’t produce ashes, but
Christine
by the absentee and that no one knows how
an endless fire.We have to remember that
These gaps seem channeled through a
to unplug.
act, as a live act, still alive, still in activity.
phantom mechanism.
Dineo
Dineo
Dineo
I like your redrawing because it points at...
I was thinking of a possible question that
The director of the Lyon Biennal, Thierry
someone could ask me: Why not use the ashes
Raspail and I were chatting and he said it’s like
57
MAC/LYON
Christine
Dineo
...The void. Yes all these empty places
Where is the thing that looks at the mirror.
variably fold in.There are these scenes in the
What’s looking through the mirror?
novel ‘Invention of Morel’ from Adolfo Bioy Casares that endlessly repeat themselves.
Christine
Protagonists don’t seem to really feel
What or where is the organ?
or exist. The main character discovers that time is recorded and reproduced by
Dineo
a machine that runs through the wind
Or the receptor. Where is the receiver?
creating kinetic energy.
It’s like with my piece with the recurring phone call (The Problem of Beauty, 2008).
Dineo I think now of the ghost of memory as well.
Christine
This recurrent presence and the simulation
It’s very similar except that this one is
of the real thing …affect …the left over; all
spatial and circular.
the simulation of the present happens but all
We forgot to talk about the sound. It’s the
the emotions are gone. It comes as it traces
apparatus.
simulation, a copy keeps on copying itself. What time is it? Christine
You invented a contouring itinerary that
Dineo
Christine
circumvents the unseen.When the audience
It’s a quarter to six?
How do we do not to erase it?
pass through the installation, they short
circuit the simulation.
Big computer sounddddddd End
Dineo I was thinking of the place today because I was talking to other artists about Corner Place. Because it is a passage. Christine The public feels guilty about traversing it as if your spirited installation had eyes. Yet there is no eye. Dineo Where is the eye? or the figure, where is the figure? Christine Where is the vision in those rear mirrors ?
58
MAC/LYON
MAISON ROUGE
searching for Africa in Paris By Kagiso Matlala
I started this piece, unsure of how to
“But Miss, we are of the same colour.”
particular way of shaping your ideas around
approach the subject of my three and a
I was immediately struck by guilt and
the matter because you are constantly
half month stay as a young South African in
naively gave in to my more optimistic
confronted by it. South Africans need race
Paris. Taking into account that it was my first
side that tries to see the best in people. I
to make sense of certain situations- it is
experience outside the African continent,
nervously obliged and off we went on our
context. I can’t go to a hospital or apply to a
there was much that I had to grapple with
hour and a half ride into Paris. Right in the
university without having to state my race.
upon my arrival. Living in a different country
thick of rush hour traffic I decided to take
I wanted to know if I would be fighting the
for three and a half months is hardly enough
advantage of our newly formed bond. I
same battles I faced in my own country, in
time to fully comprehend it social dynamics
sweetened the mood with a heroic story of
France. Mamadou (my cab driver) threw
but it is also enough time to get a slight
how a brave man sacrificed twenty-seven
all hope outside the window and relayed
glimpse into the struggles of the people.
years of his life for me and millions of others
to me that racism was quite rife in Paris,
The most striking of these challenges being
to live in a ‘free’ South Africa. I watched
ending off by saying that most people just
notions of race and how it is treated in
his eyes grow with
France.
excitement as I
The first part of my adventure came in
told my story and
the form of an encounter with an average
later listened to
middle aged man at Charles de Gaulle
him jovially chime
airport who politely greeted me, with an
about how South
offer of his taxi services. Eager to leave the
Africa was a model
airport and lost in the excitement of finally
for the world to
testing out my ‘French in France’ I blindly
follow. I pitied him
followed him to where he had parked. Once
and decided not to
we got to his car, I noticed that there was
crush his dreams
no signage or company logo indicating a
of the African
taxi service on the vehicle. I hesitated as
utopia he had just
uncertainty and suspicion swept through
described; instead
me, rousing the dormant paranoid
I moved on and
Johannesburger. I swiftly took hold of my
curiously inquired
belongings and coldly informed him that I
about the current
was no longer in need of his services. Before
racial situation
I could take off, I caught hold of his gaze
present in France.
and followed it down to his extended arm.
Growing up in
He slowly raised his sleeve, ran his index
such a culturally
finger up and down his forearm and in an
and racially diverse
incredulous tone he remarked:
country has a
59
MAISON ROUGE stuck with their ‘own kind’. I listened on in
art spaces, why was I not seeing works by
Season in France are steps towards the right
disappointment but decided not to let my
Black French artists? Where were they and
direction and serve as a great source of
first encounter dampen my mood.
did they have a voice? Why was I constantly
hope. I found this cultural exchange highly
As time progressed and after numerous
being confronted with what was being
effective in attempting to break down
encounters with people I came across in my
labelled as ‘African Art’ or ‘tribal African
some of the barriers that exist between
day-to-day life, the impression I had been
art’?
France and Africa. We are living in new
given of France was that of a ‘post racial’
The only answer I could fathom was the
and exciting times where possibility and
society where race did not matter. I grew
idea of exoticism. The word has always
change is rampant on the African continent.
complacent in my cloud of oblivion and
been a textbook term heavily laden with
I consider myself extremely privileged to
blindly carried on with life. Unquestionably
negative connotations but in France it
be privy to these changes and found it
my stay in the city isolated me from the
seemed to be celebrated. My problem
both disturbing and enlightening to view
uncomfortable realities of ‘Black France’.
with this was that it keeps the ‘other’ as
how the French are generally still reluctant
I was privileged enough to be working
the ‘other’ and does not help break down
to embracing these changes and how
in a very comfortable and welcoming
ignorant and racist colonial ideas of Africa.
adamant they are on holding onto outdated
environment and had the fortune of a
Instead it only perpetuates the idea of
views of the African continent. Despite this
spacious studio apartment ten minutes
Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’, leaving us as
I do have hope. I am a firm believer in Africa
away in a so called ‘Bobo’ (bohemian
just a far off idea.
being the future, there’s only so far one can
bourgeois) neighbourhood.
Every time I tried to raise this in
get by ignoring this fact.
I soon found that, life began to get a little
conversation, people were always eager
My experience of France was an enriching
uncomfortable for me when I started
to tell me that I had been misreading the
one and I will be forever grateful for the
having difficulty finding people who could
situation or they would simply just laugh
amazing individuals I came across who
relate to what I had to say and relate to my
it off because as the French say; “We are
welcomed me and made my stay the life
general experiences in Paris.
not racist, we simply do not see race. Only
changing experience that it was. I still do
A trip to the ‘Quai Branly Museum’ raised
a racist could talk about race!” It began to
miss the time spent there and definitely
another red flag. I could stomach no more
dawn on me that the situation in South
wish to come back in the near future.
than fifteen minutes of viewing what the
Africa was perhaps not as bad as I thought
“The darkest thing about Africa has always
museum had to offer. An exhibition centred
it was. We are by no means anywhere
been our ignorance of it”
around non-European cultures of the
close to being perfect but one thing I
George Kimble
world but presented from a very colonialist
can appreciate about South Africans is
perspective and executed in a very
our ability (with inevitable struggle) to
distasteful manner. The whole experience
confront the realities of racial difference and
of being in an establishment of that nature,
diversity.
in the year 2013, was reminiscent of 19th
In my eyes, to not see race is the pinnacle
century France and the particular case of
of racism, it is ignorance in its most blatant
Saartjie Baartman (a woman whose body
form. A total disregard for race is a total
served as an exhibition, during her lifetime
disregard of a race. It is patronising and
and a century after her death). I left the
dehumanising. There is much to be done
building enraged and saddened by what I
when it comes to remodelling the discourse
saw and began to question whether or not
around race and, more importantly, its
Africans had a voice in this country. As a
representations on the arts scene and to
result I started becoming more conscious
the Western world.
of what was presented in contemporary
However programs like the South African
60
Double majored in- French and Anthropology at the University of The Witwatersand, Johannesburg. Kagiso Matlala is Interested in contemporary visual anthropology and is an aspiring curator.
par delà « My Joburg » Par Camille Moulongue Photos Alexandre Gouzou
Une exposition a eu lieu à la Maison Rouge durant cette année de l’Afrique du Sud en France. Elle compilait une cinquantaine d’artistes avec un thème commun, la vie de la ville de Johannesburg et joliment intitulé « My joburg ». Une exposition à thème, exhaustive à l’extrême qui se veut une plongée dans la création contemporaine ; alors on passe d’un artiste à l’autre à la manière d’une compilation un peu comme une soirée avec un Dj set assez chiadé. L’espace de la maison rouge s’y prêtait bien et on en ressort assez diverti, un peu ébahi par cette panoplie. La mégapole est décortiquée par ses artistes dans cette exposition pléthorique comme la Maison Rouge sait bien les faire (notamment avec les collections p articulières). 92
« My Joburg » est un exercice d’inventaire,
un groupe d’hommes fumant dans la
journaux, tapisseries, photographies, huiles
plutôt bien réalisé, de la création
nuit. Des instantanés qui dans un cadre
et acryliques. Des œuvres comme des
contemporaine de la capitale sud-africaine.
intemporel et a-géographique. C’est cette
réceptacles de la vie, des conversations
C’est complet au point d’être un peu
superposition entre le très concret et une
de gens qui l’entourent et qui donnent à
scolaire, on fait le tour de la question et l’on
abstraction subtile qui donne la profondeur
cet artiste une actualité totale, il est ici et
congédie le sujet en sortant de l’expo, une
de ce travail. Complication et trivialité se
maintenant pour toujours.
efficacité incontestable… Cela étant dit,
côtoient et dialoguent admirablement dans
c’est le geste même qui finalement trouve
ses œuvres.
les limites de cette exposition, qui débute pourtant très bien… on suit le fil au départ,
Sam Nhlengethwa est
on se dit que ça va être dense mais dans
né dans la communauté
cet espace un peu biscornu de la maison
minière de Payneville
rouge les œuvres se succèdent les unes
Ressorts en 1955 et a
aux autres sans s’étouffer ou se neutraliser
grandi à Heidelberg, à
entre elles. Un moment de grâce et
l’est de Johannesburg.
d’angoisse irrépressible dans l’unique pièce
Son travail a pourtant
dédiée à un seul artiste : Jane Alexander.
la fraicheur de celui
Un rapace aux ailes coupées dans une
d’un jeune homme, sa
prison aux barbelés déchirants entourés
technique évolue sans
d’une mince doublure avec des gants de
heurt avec une fertilité
travailleurs. Une œuvre magnifique et très
étonnante. Autrefois considéré comme l’un
Le travail du jeune photographe Chuirai
bien exposée. Dans le sous-sol on entre
des artistes résistants d’Afrique du Sud,
Kudzanai a retenu également notre
pour le coup dans quelque chose qui
ses œuvres parlent aussi de musique, en
attention car il dénote à la fois d’un certain
tient plus du vrac que de la pédagogie,
particulier le jazz et de vie quotidienne.
manque d’aboutissement tout en suscitant
finalement l’exhaustivité exténue. Alors
Ce sont des images qui font communier
la vision d’une certaine perspective. Né
pour cet article Afrikadaa a décidé
les époques et les gens dans une sorte
au Zimbabwe en 1981, il vit et travaille
d’approfondir autour du travail de deux
d’anticipation à très courte durée. Son
en Afrique du Sud. Il est le premier
artistes. Dans ce monde du tout disponible,
jeu sur le temps, les valeurs de plan et les
étudiant noir diplômé des Beaux-Arts
le plus difficile c’est finalement de choisir
dimensions géographiques est fascinant.
de l’Université de Pretoria. Pensiez-vous
et d’assumer la nécessaire subjectivité de
Son étonnante palette chromatique anime
que cela soit possible ? L’art sud-africain
cette action.
les actions dans une joyeuse liberté. La vie
Le travail de Sam Nhlengethwa donne
des anciens peuple
vraiment envie d’aller plus loin. Il peuple
ses images comme
ses images de personnages dessinés et
des vies antérieures
photographiés dans une perspective
actualisées. Il
cubiste et dynamique. Il appelle ces
compose chacun de
œuvres des « conversations » au sens d’une
ces petits spectacles
interaction humaine basique dans une
quotidiens avec une
sélection de contextes sociaux : écolières
grande variété de
bouillonnantes dans une rue animée,
médias : gravures,
un couple partageant un parapluie,
lithographies,
62
MAISON ROUGE
ne peut pas contourner cette réalité. A la Galerie Basia Embiricos, on peut lire sur leur site la phrase suivante : « Son discours idéologique est sérieux, plein d’humour, sans tomber dans la victimisation si souvent associée à l’artiste sud-africain socialement marqué. » Hé oui en France aussi, il y a beaucoup de chemin à faire… Bref, cela mis de côté, il a une approche de la photographie d’art presque publicitaire à grands renforts de moyens multimédias. Très proche d’une photographie américaine des années 90 comme celle de David Lachapelle, il la décale subtilement. Très doué pour le dessin, il a commencé sa carrière en peignant des paysages et des portraits mais son engagement politique a vite constitué une part importante de son travail. Il fait également de la sculpture et des vidéos. Chiurai vit d’ailleurs en Afrique du Sud, pour avoir critiqué Robert Mugabe dans ses dessins montrant Mugabe avec des cornes et entouré de flammes. Son approche assez esthétisante glane les codes de notre environnement de manière crue sans intellectualisme. Une œuvre assez violente où tout est dans l’apparence, il dénonce un esthétisme généralisé du militaire à l’universitaire.
94
64
MAISON ROUGE
project mine By Katja Gentric
Mine est une exposition de vidéos réalisées
Le projet Mine réunit les travaux de 21
est écrit par le curateur et artiste Abrie
par des artistes sud-africains. Son nom
artistes: Bridget Baker, Dineo Seshee
Fourie. Le titre se nourrit de la coïncidence
renvoie non seulement aux profondeurs de
Bopape, Doris Bloom, Barend de Wet,
entre deux significations du mot “mine” en
la mine, mais aussi à l’idée d’appartenance
Jacques Coetzer, Teboho Edkins, Simon
anglais: la mine et le pronom possessif. Les
(Mine signifiant aussi « le mien » en anglais).
Gush & Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, William
vidéos se positionnent alors à l’entrelacs
Les travaux présentés ici, choisis pour
Kentridge, Donna Kukama, Michael
d’une conscience du territoire (une question
leur diversité, ont pour dénominateur
McGarry, Nandhipha Mntambo, Cedric
toujours très difficile en Afrique du Sud) et la
commun des artistes qui parlent d’eux-
Nunn, Zanele Muholi, Robin Rhode, Berni
quête d’intériorité, une sorte d’archéologie
mêmes dans leur œuvre, soit en tant que
Searle, Lerato Shadi, Penny Siopis, Gregg
du “moi”.
personne, acteur, modèle, observateur,
Smith, Johan Thom et Minnette Vári. Le
interviewer soit en tant qu’instigateur Mine
court texte d’introduction au catalogue
cherche à explorer la multitude de façons
Lors des Saisons Croisées France/Afrique du Sud le projet a été montré à deux
par lesquelles nous nous identifions et
descriptions que les artistes ont écrites pour leurs films,
reprises en France: à Bordeaux, à l’invitation
positionnons notre « moi ».
un texte d’introduction écrit par Anna Schrade associé
de l’association MC2a dans le cadre de
à l’exposition à Iwalewa Haus à Bayreuth en 2011, et un
“Novart”, un festival dédié aux arts de la
texte/dialogue écrit conjointement par Katja Gentric
scène, et à Paris faisant partie du festival
logue, Revolver Publishing, Berlin, page de titre. - A
et Dagara Dakin en Septembre 2013 pour la version
“Posessions” organisé par l’association
chaque nouvelle exposition du projet Mine le catalogue
française. Mine a été montré à Bloemfontein, à Johan-
Khiasma. A Bordeaux Lerato Shadi et Donna
ou “short guide” du projet est réédité. Il contient les
nesburg, à Dubai en 2012 et à Dresde en 2013.
Kukama, ont créé une performance.
1
1
Texte de Abrie Fourie, 2013. Mine, Cata-
65
BORDEAUX
spectateurs à s’installer sur la chaise en face
Chacun selon sa personnalité, les
A quoi s’attendait le public ayant été
de la sienne et à entamer la conversation.
participants réagissent avec consternation
convié aux performances de deux artistes
Elle répond en Setswana. Progressivement,
ou inquiétude - ils indiquent qu’ils auraient
annoncées comme sud-africaines dans le
les participants renoncent à s’en tenir aux
bien fait l’effort de parler en anglais... Lerato
cadre d’un projet intitulé “Mine”?
quelques mots qu’ils maitrisent de la langue
Shadi, imperturbable reste en setswana et
anglaise et s’abandonnent à la langue qui
écrit en anglais. Tout en cette jeune femme:
Pour arriver sur le lieu de performance le
leur sert à un niveau plus intime - le français,
sa mimique, ses gestes son regard, semble
spectateur mène son chemin à travers la
l’allemand, le créole haïtien, l’afrikaans,
être fait pour faciliter en tout aspect la
vaste cité du quartier Grand Parc à Bordeaux
l’italien, l’espagnol... - Lerato parle dans sa
communication.
avant de trouver la Barre H (la résidence
langue maternelle et écrit simultanément
Cette performance vient comme une
Haendel) et l’appartement-agence2 où les
la traduction anglaise de ce qu’elle vient
exception dans l’œuvre de Lerato Shadi, qui
vidéos pouvaient être visionnées pendant
de dire. Elle utilise un feutre noir par
ne demandait pas auparavant au spectateur
toute la semaine. Le choix du lieu était fait
conséquent l’écriture est lisible pour le court
de participer à l’action, et qui présentait des
par MC2a avec l’ambition de lier le projet
laps de temps entre le passage du feutre et
performances “sans paroles” - ses gestes
artistique venu d’Afrique du Sud avec
le moment où l’encre aura séché, absorbée
étaient ici réduits à des unités basiques
son souci d’intervention dans le discours socio-politique de la ville de Bordeaux. En novembre la lumière en fin d’aprèsmidi disparaît rapidement - même si la performance est programmée pour 18:30, il fait nuit à l’extérieur et le spacieux jardin d’hiver est plongé dans l’obscurité - à travers les vitres on voit les lampadaires illuminant le terrain vague aux pieds de la barre HLM. Une trentaine de personnes ont répondu “présent”. Lerato Shadi se tient assise devant une petite table sur laquelle elle a déroulé un
A gauche et au dessus: Lerato Shadi, novembre 2013, untitled, Photographie par Katja Gentric
long papier noir - une lampe éclaire le papier, une caméra reliée à un projecteur
par le papier. Le participant en face d’elle
de la présence: respirer, subir, s’enfermer,
filme en continu sa surface - le public
est obligé de suivre les mouvements du
s’extraire.... le texte était parfois présent
peut voir en direct ce qui s’écrit sur le
stylo noir sur papier noir avec une seule
sous forme de tricotage, d’écriture et
papier. L’appareillage (lampe, caméra,
alternative, détourner la tête pour voir la
effacement, la parole y était sous forme de
projecteur, écran) est très présent dans cette
version retransmise par le projecteur de
souffle. Pour les titres de ses performances,
installation, au risque de faire disparaitre la
l’écriture sur papier. Il a parfois le temps de
Lerato Shadi choisit sciemment des
personne de l’artiste. Lerato Shadi invite ses
lire une phrase - “I wonder what you are
concepts intraduisibles. Une retranscription
saying” - “You have to speak louder”. - mais
des notions dans une autre langue que
dans le souci de garder un certain rythme
le Setswana nécessiterait un dialogue,
de “conversation” érigé en spectacle - les
une remise en question et une nouvelle
répliques restent décousues...
négociation du sens dont ils peuvent être
2
L’agence Aquitanis a mis en place un
“appartement témoin” pour communiquer au sujet des prochaines interventions architecturales dans le cadre de la réhabilitation des résidences de la cité du quartier Grand-Parc.
66
porteurs.
BORDEAUX
Tout l’exercice tel qu’il est présenté
la traduction. Lerato
à Bordeaux n’a rien d’une recherche
Shadi met en place un
d’équivalence d’une langue à l’autre - et
dialogue ponctué par
c’est pour cette raison, peut-être justement
un “saut” de langue -
qu’il a tout de la traduction - ce moment
un véritable moment
quand la terre s’ouvre soudainement devant
de création à partir de
nos pieds : l’être humain en face de nous
“rien” ou l’idée d’une
ne réagit en rien à ce que nous disons - un
équivalence 1=1 doit
sorte de vertige se déclare - ce sentiment
être abandonnée. Le
du vide complet me semble la véritable
titre de la performance
situation de traduction....
est provisoire, dans une logique cyclique Lerato Lerato Shadi, novembre 2013, untitled,
Au fur et à mesure que les conversations (ou
Shadi s’y réfère comme
faudrait-il dire les “non-conversations” les
“u’titled”3.
Photographie par Katja Gentric
conversations intraduites) s’enchainent - le papier noir se déroule d’un coté de la table
La deuxième partie
et crée un amas déroulé de l’autre - les
de la soirée présente
écritures sont ici devenues quasi invisibles.
un changement de rythme, bascule
Difficile de savoir à quoi s’attendait ce public
presque dans l’opposé
ayant été convié à assister à la performance
absolu par rapport à la
d’une jeune artiste “sud-africaine”? - A une
première proposition.
remarque très sophistiquée sur la traduction
Elle est accueillie par
et la traductibilité des choses? - Sur la
l’Agence Créative,
médiatisation et l’intervention du médium
plateforme artistique
dans le processus? - Certains réagissent avec
multiple, au rez-
de l’impatience - le but de la performance
de-chaussée du 76
n’était certainement pas la provocation,
cours de l’Argonne à
“bas nuages” / “nuages moyens” / “hauts
dans les milieux d’art contemporain ce type
Bordeaux. Donna Kukama accueille ici le
nuages” (ce vocabulaire est lié à l’altitude
d’intervention publique est une pratique
public dans son agence fictive, “The Air
des nuages dans la troposphère mais
tout à fait classique - un public peu informé
State Urgency” où on vend - ceci se voit dès
également à ce que le participant aura
en art contemporain doit encore faire le
l’arrivée devant la vitrine où sont exposés
appris à attendre de lui-même dit Donna)
deuil de l’absence d’un produit final ou
les fiches des produits, comme dans toute
- le client peut exprimer ses préférences,
d’une morale clairement proclamée par une
agence immobilière - des nuages.
ses aversions. Il s’en suit la très longue et
Donna Kukama, novembre 2013, The Air-State Urgency: Shop, Photo par Nadia Russell
intense négociation pour le prix du nuage
activité artistique... Le principe est expliqué au client prospectif
- le client est obligé de faire la première
Le travail de Lerato Shadi crée la possibilité
une fois qu’il manifeste son intérêt
offre qui est ensuite débattue - paiement
d’un ensemble beaucoup plus vaste que la
d’acquérir un nuage. Kukama lui présente
uniquement en espèces, contrairement
simple utilisation de la parole au-delà des
la série des produits disponibles classés en
à la totalité des règles du marché et des
règles de la communication. Le “médié” fait place à un aspect non-médié de la parole, à la confrontation “immédiate” de
67
taux d’échange: “under the table”. Les 3
“u” pourrait être lu comme une abréviation de
“untitled” (sans titre) ou de “you- titled” - impliquant que
négociations sont longues et intenses - pour en faciliter le bon déroulement les services
chaque un titrera l’évènement à sa façon.
BORDEAUX
d’un traducteur sont proposés. Quand les négociations approchent d’un accord, Donna Kukama présente au client le contrat de vente dont il peut discuter les détails - et, si une décision commune peut être trouvée, le client peut partir assuré d’être dès ce moment l’unique propriétaire du nuage de son choix, l’authenticité est certifiée. La version4 monté à Bordeaux est une édition de trois, elle porte le titre The AirState Urgency: Shop. La première édition a eu lieu à l’île de la Réunion où Donna Kukama avait élaboré une unité mobile à l’aide d’un caddie de supermarché: The Air-State Urgency: Launch. Le deuxième volet The Air-State Urgency: Expo, a eu lieu à Carquefou dans le cadre de l’exposition Spectaculaire - ici Donna Kukama avait installé uns “salle de vente” où le client prospectif pouvait “essayer” les nuages avant de décider d’en devenir le propriétaire. Donna Kukama organise son travail en plateformes (par exemple sa participation dans The Center of Historical Reenactment) des collectifs d’artiste (entre autres le Non-non Collective avec Kemang Wa Lehulere). Un concept proposé d’abord pour un festival peut réapparaitre comme un principe organisateur d’un cursus présenté à l’Université (Kukama enseigne à WITS un cursus avec le titre “curating and performance as protest art”) ou dans un échange entre écoles de beaux-arts. Ainsi se tisse une toile sur plusieurs niveaux, où les strates deviennent 4
L’”agence” de Donna Kukama est déclarée:
en Afrique du Sud sous le nom “The Air-State Urgency”
68
Donna Kukama, novembre 2013, The Air-State Urgency: Shop, Photo par Nadia Russell
interchangeables et où l’organisation sous
deux extrémités d’un continuum entre
forme de liste devient inefficace. Telle
une négociation se servant de toutes les
est la particularité des interventions de
ruses du métier et une contemplation du
Donna. Le nom d’une performance peut
travail sur l’intime, mais dans leurs bases
devenir le titre d’une vidéo, d’une action
elles posent les mêmes questions: Que
de reprise - un “follow-up”. La fluidité
signifie être un étranger? - Quel était le rôle
avec laquelle les idées, les images, les
que jouait le langage dans les plus graves
situations, les interventions, les périodes,
malentendus de l’histoire? Que peut-on
les transparences se donnent le relais,
apprendre de la beauté des intraductibilités
les plateformes se superposent, les
? - Donna Kukama et Kemang Wa Lehurele
temporalités coexistantes ou coïncidantes
ont choisi le mot Xenoglossia5 pour désigner
se chevauchent, deviennent la marque de
ce type de recherche créative et se sont
fabrique de ce travail. Chez Donna Kukama
mises à la rédaction d’un “fictionary” de
naissent simultanément une performance,
Johannesburg. Ce projet tient compte
une installation, une vidéo, une restitution
des significations fluctuantes du langage
publiée une année plus tard. Mais le vécu
suivant l’endroit où il est utilisé et le
lors de la performance a généré une
moment auquel il est prononcé. A partir
profonde incision dans l’approche - comme
de ceci elles mesurent son impact sur
en témoigne la chute de Donna lors de la
l’imagination sociale et culturelle de notre
performance The Swing (After Fragonard),
monde contemporain.
celle justement qui la représente parmi les vidéos du projet Mine. Les pratiques artistiques de Donna Kukama
5
et de Lerato Shadi peuvent sembler les
blogspot.fr/2010/11/xenoglossia-research-project.html
http://centerforhistoricalreenactments.
BORDEAUX
original noise from the Jozi streets By Olivia Anani
From Cuss Group’s organic body of contributors: writers, designers, DJs and artists, to Johannesburg’s underground DJ scene represented by the likes of Dirty Paraffin, to Akin Omotoso’s “low budget/high aesthetic” story telling, the people from Johannesburg are taking the power in their own hands to tell local stories, made in Jozi, by Jozi. Come and let’s hear the Original Sounds from Jozi, with no filters.
100
Still from CUSS GROUP - Webisode II Johannesburg - Performance and Reality
BURN MONEY!
poor areas that would somehow
can for me to see.”
explain their status. It is not, as many
Slang Proverb from Ivory Coast
A small group of three, four guys are
sometimes argue, a lack of education.
performing in front of a crowd. It’s not
What is a lack of education? For me, a
It all reminds me of a few years back,
your typical on-stage performance.
lack of education is when one does not
when the streets decided that they
Jamal Nxedlana, the artist behind the
understand the world one lives in, and
wanted to favor a small group of
video piece, tells me it was shot in
is not equipped with the intellectual or
young socialites from Ivory Coast, who
Johannesburg a few years back.
cultural tools to allow them to find their
would go from club to club showing
place in that world. These boys look
off their branded clothes and offering
“Burn money.
like they know very well the rules of the
money showers to the crowds, in a
It’s all about outshining one another…
world they live in. They know of Pareto’s
contemporary twist of what is still
Give the other guy stress.
80/20 principle, and that some sort of
done in traditional ceremonies across
The reward is notoriety.”
power can be granted to the one who
West Africa. To entice them to give
manages to be one of the 20% whose
more, the DJ would get used to singing
The kids are burning money, burning
names you remember. They are part of
their names and imaginary praises as
sneakers. Some open soda cans, and
Warhol’s prediction on the 15 minutes
soon as they walked past the door,
proceed to spill the drinks on the
of fame. They’re no different from the
in a way strangely reminiscent of
ground. The audience is shocked.
one-shot pop stars that you see on
traditional griots singing the praises
But does not interfere. I’m told this
your TV every summer. They are on the
of kings. Later on, the style of music
movement of Izikhothane, is something
pyramid, right where you find that need
they created became a regional, and
that has been going on for several years,
for recognition that simultaneously
even international phenomenon
and came out officially as early as 2006.
defies and confirms Maslow’s theory.
called Coupé Décalé. I can’t tell if the
Like most things underground, it started
Or not? How about the families that
Izikhothane performers intend to, or will
with a group of boys showing off
have to support that flashy lifestyle and
succeed at creating an entertainment
before a crowd in scandalous ways. The
ephemeral performances?
career for themselves. Some claim it’s
news spread across the neighborhood, across town. They went from nobodies
just a youthful experiment, and that Let the streets be the judge.
to somebodies, criticized somedies, but somebodies still, so others soon
they will stop once they settle to have a proper job and a family. … Only time
“If you say you can, then go ahead, and
will tell.
followed, and before you realized it, it was a new trend. Crews were blossoming everywhere, in universities, in townships… But it’s only in 2011 and 2012, with international media reporting on it, that the movement got global momentum. “Want to cut a dash in South Africa’s townships? You better have money to burn”, titled a 2013 article from the Guardian. Now, it’s not just a third world story about the senselessness of kids in
70
Still from CUSS GROUP - Webisode II Johannesburg - Izikhothane by Jamal Nxedlana
Dirty Paraffine concert at Gaîté Lyrique - photo : Gordon Cyrus
“Izikhothane” was one of the short films
re-enactments, to the next stop. Let’s
that caught my eye while watching Cuss
not forget to grab a piece of wisdom on
Group’s video piece Johannesburg II.
our way out:
A DVD I got for 10 euros (but I should have negotiated the price better) during
“I hope my enemies live a long life so
their Black market performance at La
they can see all my success.”
Gaîté Lyrique in Paris. Born in 2009, Cuss Group is an independent collective producing performance and video work on underground Johannesburg life. They talk about street performances, dancing crews, recycling squads on skateboards, showcases and private DJ parties, in a style that is deliberately anti-fancy. The rawness of their work is striking. DJ Hugo’s visual compositions in Timezone have a taste of early Nam June Paik video work, and some of the street performances captured by Thabiso Sekgala and Ravi Govender are so good it takes a second look to realize they’re actually staged. It’s like a theatre in augmented reality. Now let us hop on the TAXI SOUND SYSTEM, an installation by Joao Orrechia
Performance by Bhubesii - Still from CUSS GROUP - Webisode II Johannesburg
and Murray Turpin, past video collective EAT MY DUST’s hilarious, Chaplininspired short films and Some Like It Hot
71
JOZY
The members of CUSS GROUP, photos by Alexandre Gouzou
Still from CUSS GROUP - Webisode II Johannesburg - Recycling the Day
RECLAIMING SPACES
AF: Why choosing such a topic? popular these years, have you ever thought
On Ground” is the story of two estranged
Actually Saro-Wiwa was a friend of my
brothers, Ade and Femi, in the wake of
family, and what happened to him,
the South African xenophobic riots of 2008. We sat down with Akin following
a story I felt compelled to tell. But I guess this fact was one of these reasons
Jeu de Paume’s program “Un Regard sur
why thinking retroactively, I felt that I
le Cinéma Sud-Africain”, to discuss African
needed more maturity to my projects,
cinema and Joburg street culture.
more experience to tell the stories how I really felt them, so after “God is
AFRIKADAA: Akin, tell us a little about
African”, I decided to take some time
your own life journey.
off, and sharpen mywriting and directing skills. I did lots of TV work.
Akin: I came to South Africa when I was seventeen. I’m originally from Nigeria,
AF: So when did you come back to making
and at the time my father, a writer and
about going back for some projects and
I actually have a couple of projects under way. I actually have a couple of projects under way. Hakeem, Fabian and I will re-team for a film adaptation of Helon Habila's Award winning book “Waiting for an Angel”, with the script by Newton Aduaka and myself. Another one that’s been three, four years in the making is on the theme of the Lagos wedding, and is based on a play by Sefi Atta. AF: Sounds great. Which leads me to ask you about fellow African writers and
the University of Western Cape. That was in 1992, and at the time, there was a lot
made in 2008, went to Toronto and since
people whose work you are particularly
going on in South Africa, negotiations to
that time, I had been discussing with
interested in? How is your feeling towards
end apartheid were under way… African
Fabian (Adeoye Lojede) and Hakeem
the future evolution of African cinema?
intellectuals were very curious, and very
(Kae-Kazim, who play the roles of Ade
excited to see how the country would
and Femi in Man on Ground) about
evolve over the years. So after coming to
making a movie based on the 2008
South Africa, I went to drama school and
xenophobic riots. So we hired someone
started working as an actor; but very soon I was tempted to get to the other
two years. When the results came in
side of the camera, so I taught myself
2010, we wrote the script, and it was ready by the end of the year.
“God is African”.
AF: I can’t help but notice that the three of you have your roots in Nigeria, is community in South Africa or something?
It was inspired by real-life events: the execution of activist, writer and
(laughs) I wouldn’t say so. Hakeem
producer Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. The
was already in God is African, so we’d
story tells of a Nigerian student in a
known each other for quite some time.
South African university, who’s trying
And with Fabian, we acted together on
to gather support for Saro-Wiwa, a few
several occasions, during my TV days.
days before his death.
73
I’m currently exploring ideas around perspective, which is a topic I already approached in The Nightwalkers (1998). You have directors such as Jean-Pierre Bekolo whom I admire a lot, and Wanuri Kahiu for Pumzi (2009). More generally, people such as Newton Aduaka, Andrew Dosunmu,, Khalo Matabane with A Letter to Nelson Mandela, Biyi Bandele… are all very talented. Overall, I’d say it’s a very a very exciting time for film making in Africa. There is a sort of expressionism wave going on, that’s taking the place oftraditional tendencies to ponder on the past… Movies such as Tey - Aujourd’hui by Alain Gomis are just brilliant. AF: Yes, “Aujourd’hui” was incredible,
JOZY
and Saul Williams’ performance was just
AF: Sounds like a fun place to be!
AF: We will be looking out for this beautiful story. Thank you Akin for talking to us.
stunning! Now back to South Africa… We’re
trying to get real street-proof data from
Yes, this is the reason why I also wanted
Johannesburg you know. (laughs) As a
to capture that atmosphere in another
Links :
couple of years now. It’s called Tell Me
www.wordsofkatarina.blogspot.com coffeebeansroutes.com.
a writer and film maker, where do you like to hang out when you’re back home? I’d say, a place like the Maboneng Preccint is really trending right now. There’s a lot of thinking and literature being made about the city in general, by writers such as Nic Mhlongo. People are considering the process of deconstructing this city architecture and urbanism system rooted in apartheid, to re-build new streets, new neighborhoods. Johannesburg is
Sweet Something. The story is about a young female writer, who publishes a book based on her own life story, and who struggles with the feeling of having exposed too much. It’s loosely based on the belief that every relationship is an opportunity to re-write your own history. For this movie, I wanted to show a different image of Johannesburg, that of a romantic city.
reinventing itself, we are re-claiming the spaces. We see old abandoned buildings turned into greenhouses, apartments, aquariums…
I host Movie Nights with blogger Katarina Hedren , an initiative that’s been going on for seven years, also thanks to several sponsors. We try to show independent we can. There’s also Kasi Movie Nights, a great initiative, for which a truck equipped to become a moving cinema, goes to the townships to show movies there.
Akin Omotoso, photo by Alexandre Gouzou
A friend of mine is also organizing Music Tours around Cape Town, and plans to soon. Local fashion designers are also showcasing their products at the Neighbourhood Goods Market every Saturday, it’s a fun place to spend the day. You also have the Maboneng Night market on Thursday, Market On Main on Sunday.
74
Still from the movie -“Man on ground”
acte editorial be national / act 1 Photos : Alexandre Gouzou
Depuis juillet dernier Afrikadaa a couvert une sélection d’évènements inscrits dans le cadre de la saison sud-africaine et rencontré de nombreux artistes.
102
Le vendredi 20 décembre 2013 la revue investissait le plateau média de la Gaîté Lyrique pour présenter en avant première le contenu du hors série en cours de production : BE NATIONAL.
76
GAITE LYRIQUE
LAST STOP
Rohilalha Mandela
2013. 14. 12 lost in translation By Simmi Dullay
exorcise itself, to liberate itself, to explain itself. There are no limits–inside the circle. The hillock up which you have toiled as if to be nearer to the moon; the river bank down which you slip as if to show the connection between the dance and ablutions, cleansing and purification–these are sacred places. There are no limits–for in reality your purpose in coming together is to allow the accumulated libido, the hampered aggressivity, to dissolve as in
It has been a week since Mandela died,
the magnitudes of systemic power and its
a volcanic eruption. Symbolical killings,
his body is leaving town as I write after a
dialectic.
fantastic rides, imaginary mass murders–all
three day wake in Pretoria Union Building,
And we dance…
must be brought out. The evil humors are
the capital of legislation and law of South
In my mind I recall Fanon’s words
undammed, and flow away with a din as of
Africa. I hear the processions of cars driving
concerning violence on the rituals of dance
molten lava.-Fanon
by, announcing farewells from the booming
as we face the repression of blackness
I cannot help but marvel at the cheek and
loudspeakers as Rolihlahla makes his last
Andile speaks of and I’m reminded of the
absurdity of the translator at Rolihlahla’s
trip home, returning to the soil where he
metaphors in the action of black people in
Funeral. The translator is a near perfect
was born.
grief and celebration:
embodiment of postmodern relativism
And isn’t it ironic that today 80% of our land
On another level we see the native’s
derived from among other postmodern
is still owned by whites, and that Mandela’s
emotional sensibility exhausting itself in
obscurity, the postmodern interpretation
politics was about land, belonging and
dances which are more or less ecstatic.
of Barthes provocative statement of ‘the
ownership... But his legacy of allegedly
This is why any study of the colonial
death of the author’. Maybe we could go so
freeing South Africa from the shackles of
world should take into consideration the
far as to admit this is the most fitting end to
apartheid and white privilege seems to be
phenomena of the dance and of possession.
Mandela whose politics post 1990’s became
constructed, as Andile Mngxitama, Amai
The native’s relaxation takes precisely the
meaningless.
Jukwa and Garikai Chengu (in different
form of a muscular orgy in which the most
My problem with postmodernity is that
words) point out “what appears to be
acute aggressivity and the most impelling
it deferred justice, responsibility and
love for Mandela is actually self-love, a
violence are canalized, transformed, and
accountability and becomes ‘meaningless’
subconscious act of white self-preservation.”
conjured away. The circle of the dance is a
when applied to principles of freedom,
And further that ‘Black African self-
permissive circle: it protects and permits.
justice and equality. We have witnessed
preservation and renewal is another
At certain times on certain days, men and
that borders are closing while the
matter’.-Jemima Pierre
women come together at a given place,
gap between the enriched and the
Despite the eruptions of celebratory grief in
and there, under the solemn eye of the
impoverished is widening. Postmodernism
the streets among the people the last few
tribe, fling themselves into a seemingly
only really makes sense when applied to
days, which have brought with them a state
unorganized pantomime, which is in reality
the predator economy of the free market
of paralysis, a zombie like bewitchment,
extremely systematic, in which by various
and its fluid movement of the corporation.
South Africans still maintain their daily
means–shakes of the head, bending of the
Yes Mandela was no doubt part of freeing
rituals of work, raising their children, taking
spinal column, throwing of the whole body
us from Apartheid South Africa, but as
out the garbage while witnessing an
backward -may be deciphered as in an open
others beckoned us to remember, he and
uncontested global spectacle reflecting
book the huge effort of a community to
the ANC were part of a force that begins
77
LAST STOP with resistance to the settles, a history of
moving out of the plantation the geography
often undocumented decolonization that
of the plantation has shifted and is wherever
was reaching epic proportions in South
we move as it is inscribed in our bodies by
Africa during the 70’ and 80’s with the black
the pertaining white genocidal gaze.
consciousness movement.
Let Mandela’s death be the rebirth of a
With the immediate access to the world of
newer and stronger black consciousness
information most people recognise that
politics; A politics of accountability and
power really does corrupt and yesterday’s
radical self-love, not the need for love/
revolutionaries become todays plutocrats,
recognition of and from the colonizers. We
clarifying that there is no possibility for
are not slaves and cannot apply Ubuntu to
negotiations. In order to change we might
those who have no humanity. Let us cease
look at the dialectic of power between
this death as a renewal committed to real
the politicians and the people and how
and fundamental restructuring of power.
this relationship of reciprocation is forged through our language. Regarding the translator why should we, the people call out one small fish for fraud, betrayal and dishonesty, when this man probably has the lowest ranking among the most psychotic professional looters and mass killers on the world stage. What is our admiration, veneration and protection of this predator class rooted in? .....apart from being blinded by their amassed wealth; a wealth which is impossible to obtain without pathological exploitation, systemic discrimination and deliberate mass genocides. The hypocrisy that taints us as a people and the stupidity does not cease to shock me. If we have the guts to lynch a single man, we should put them all on trial for crimes against humanity, because only then will we begin taking steps towards fundamentally changing justice and implementing equality. http:// www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/ mandela-service-sign-language-translatoraccused-of-being-fake-.html Spivak’s insistence of being in the academy as privileged insinuates that the black world did not have education and institutions of knowledge production and silences the racism we experience every day. Despite
78
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AFRO DESIGN & CONTEMPORARY ARTS
HORS-SERIE
BE/NATIONAL