Sunday 24 March 2013

When struggle veteran Amina Cachalia died suddenly on the last day of January this year, South Africa lost one of the most charismatic and glamorous members of the struggle generation. It was all the more sad and upsetting because Amina had been so looking forward to the upcoming launch of her autobiography.

Titled When Hope and History Rhyme the book launch took place in the Wits Great Hall on March 9, and also served as a memorial to her life.  All of the Cachalia children and grandchildren  sat on the stage, and in turn, told stories which spoke of her courage and humour. 

Next weekend, I was up in Johannesburg again – this time, to finish filming of my new work, tentatively called There’s something I must tell you, a multi screen video installation discussion between grandmothers and granddaughters, in which Amina plays a central part. Much of her book tells of the family home in Luttig Street, Forsdburg, scene of constant police surveillance and harassment, but also a place where the family gathered with friends and comrades, key figures in the struggle, to celebrate and to enjoy Amina’s delicious cooking.

On Sunday, Amina’s granddaughter, Luiza, came to be photographed outside the Luttig Street house for the piece, and recalled the many good times from her childhood when she had stayed there with Amina.

Being in Johannesburg again also gave me the chance to pay a second visit to Candice Breitz’ exhibition of her new series, The Woods at the Goodman Gallery.  In order to provide three distinct soundproof spaces for each of Candice’s pieces – shot with child actors, or actors playing children in the three film centres of the world – Bollywood, Nollywood and Hollywood – the Goodman has rebuilt the gallery space to accommodate this, with ceilings over each space to enclose the sound. 

Candice Breitz: The Audition (installation view)

It is certainly the most sophisticated installation in a commercial gallery this country has seen. Lara Koseff of the Goodman told me that visitors react very differently to the darkened spaces.

Some are intimidated and leave the gallery without even entering the exhibition spaces, but many spend hours there, enjoying the beautifully shot and expertly edited pieces to the full. The Woods explore the way that children become part of the film industry, and in their energetic and sometimes desperate efforts to attract notice and win acceptance, mirror the aspirations provided for audiences by general release films. 

Wednesday, March 6 2013

Two weeks ago, I flew from blisteringly hot Johannesburg, where I had been shooting in Soweto for a new video installation piece with a film crew from Monkey Films to snowy Switzerland.

I didn’t have a camera in Switzerland, so I used my old Nokia. But I can’t seem to download the phone photos on to my laptop, so have now had to photograph the phone. How ridiculous is that.  Talk about low tech.

The first photo shows the Hotel Everland in the snow. I know I have written about this unique mobile hotel unit before, the creation of Swiss duo Lang & Baumann, but it is such a wonderful space to be in (pic two).  So enclosing. 

Lying on my bed, I can look out of the window at a very Swiss landscape of a steeply tiled roof, and trees on a snowy bank.  There’s a book on the bed.

The book is about Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei’s project Fairytale for Documenta 2007, when the artist arranged for 1001 Chinese people to attend Documenta, held in the small German town of Kassel, for one week each, as an artwork. The Chinese visitors stayed in special dormitories with linen designed by Ai Wei Wei, and could do exactly as they pleased in Kassel. There was no schedule. It was one of the most talked about works of that year. 

I was in Switzerland as this year’s guest curator for the Paul Klee Zentrum Sommerakademie in Bern, and together with the committee, our February task was to select 12 artists under 35 for the two week workshop in August. With 170 entries from 36 countries, this was a difficult task.  It would be great to involve Ai Wei Wei in the programme in some way. He is currently not able to leave China, and skype is apparently very unreliable in China. We’re thinking about how communication could happen. 

Flying back to Cape Town, on Air France, I scan through the list of film offerings, and find, in the Arts and Culture section, all the best known videos of Belgian artist Francis Alys. What a change from the usual airline blockbuster fare. And wouldn’t be a fine idea if South African Airways showed artists’ videos as part of their programme.