Archive: Issue No. 34, June 2000

Something to ask? A comment to make on ArtThrob? Email us at artthrob@mweb.co.za All queries answered by Paul Edmunds, Feedback Editor.

ArtThrob is receiving a steady stream of letters on the subject of reinstating the Johannesburg Biennale. Some people have added comments to their names, and a selection is published here. If you have not done so already, please read the petition initiated by Kendell Geers, below, and sign. All names will be forwarded to Deputy Minister Bridget Mabandla at the Department of Arts and Culture.

From: Justine Lipson jdlipson@iname.com

The Johannesburg Civic Gallery wholeheartedly supports the idea of reinstating the Johannesburg Biennale. Art forms of every sort are being strangled in this country. If we have any hopes of being a viable, cultural tourist attraction, never mind providing our own citizens with a fantastic cultural experience, then we need to move in a very different direction to that happening at the moment.

From: Katrien Reist kareist@dplanet.ch

Please help to keep this priceless good, the freedom of speech, healthy and alive. Visual Arts and the (international) discourse that comes with it, provides us with an invaluable source of information and enables to create new ways of thinking, which effect our future and that of our children in the most positive, creative and peaceful way possible. Art is not an abundance of luxury for the happy few, art is elemental for the construction of our society.

Katrien Reist - independent curator, based in Berne, Switzerland.

From: Henri Vergon henri@ifas.org.za

We want it again. We need it. We will make it.
HenriVergon � French Institute, Johannesburg

From: Mark Attwood mark@artistspress.co.za

Dear Johannesburg city administrators,
The Johannesburg Biennale for the 2 years it functioned, provided an energy and vitality to the Cultural precinct and it is a great pity that this has not continued.

I would very much like to see the event re-instated.

Mark Attwood � Director, The Artists' Press

From: Paule Sachs healthyliving@iafrica.com

I am sympathetic and supply my name but you don't actually state what you want it for. If you'd had a comment like "I support the continuance of the Jbg Biennial" or such it would have made me more comfortable. After all, in theory, you could be using my name in a petition to clear the streets of hawkers!

From: Ruth Rosengarten ruth@esoterica.pt

Just wanted to add my name to this support list!
Ruth Rosengarten � curator, Portugal.

From: Riki Mare b_act@acenet.co.za

I underwrite the plea for the Johannesburg Bienale to be reinstated. It gives a valuable platform for artists from all walks of life to showcase their art and expose the public to art they may not otherwise see. Please add my name to the list.
Riki Mar� - Arts Editor FilmFinesse Magazine

From: Gordon Froud gordart@hotmail.com

GORDON FROUD ARTIST TEACHER AND ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN BOTH PREVIOUS BIENALLES. IN USA, MEXICO, LONDON AND EUROPE, I HAVE MET PEOPLE WHO HAVE SPOKEN WITH HIGH REGARD ABOUT THE BIENNALES OF JHB AND HAVE BEEN ASKING ABOUT THE THIRD ONE. GORDART@HOTMAIL.COM.

From: Brian L. Bishop blbishop@duke.edu

I wish to offer my support for the Johannesburg Biennial.
I am an artist, educator and curator - who recently has shown at Gallery 111.

Brian Bishop - Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC, USA

From: Penny Holmes penny@holmeslondon.demon.co.uk

Save the Jhb Biennale!

Penny Holmes,Visual Arts Educator,London.

From: Kendell Geers kendell@icon.co.za
Subject: Please help us to save the Johannesburg Biennial!!!!
Received: June 16

Dear Colleagues

When Ivo Mesquita was recently fired from the Sao Paulo Bienal for no apparent reason it was the efforts of the global art community that made the bureaucrats realise the consequences and reconsider their decision. There is sadly a precedent that few are aware of and even fewer speak of. In 1997, following the international acclaim and success of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial, artistic director Okwui Enwezor and key members of his team were fired without reason, in addition to which the Johannesburg City council decided to close the exhibition a month earlier than had been scheduled. As a result of the efforts of a few individuals the exhibition managed to stay open as scheduled but the biennial has not survived.

More than 3 years has since passed and every effort to begin the process that would culminate in the third Johannesburg Biennial has failed. As it stands there will never be another Johannesburg Biennial ever again. Neither the Johannesburg City Council nor the National Government's Department of Arts and Culture have given any reasons for this cancellation. Key amongst the reasons inferred is that the Biennial is not perceived as being important to either South Africa or to the international art community.

You can make a difference! If the South African government is made aware of the important role this exhibition plays in life of every african artist as well as the significance it has for the international art community it will have no option but to change its policy. If the Johannesburg City Council is made to realise how this single exhibition has changed the lives and careers of so many key South African artists, both black and white, then perhaps they would change the minds as to its vital importance. As it stands the politicians are listening to the voices of a few individuals in whose interests its lies that the exhibition remain canceled forever. Such an important exhibition should not get caught up in personal politics and hidden agendas.

If the South African government is made aware of the importance this exhibition they will have no option but to begin the process once again. Please now do for Johannesburg, for South Africa and for the entire African continent what you have done for Sao Paulo:

PLEASE HELP THE JOHANNESBURG BIENNIAL TO SURVIVE BY EMAILING YOUR NAME AND TITLE TO ARTTHROB WITH THE SUBJECT HEADER" JHB BIENNIAL". WE WILL FORWARD THESE TO THE RELEVANT OFFICE.

From: mustafa maluka maluka@hotmail.com
Subject: mustafa maluka
Received: June 8

Hi paul

In reponse to your reply to the following question,did you forget about my Melanin Millennium video, my photographs of myself and also Moshekwa Langa's True Confessions as a Disco Queen?

mustafa maluka

- Mustafa Maluka is referring to the letter from Thando Mama printed below. Thanks for the input, Mustafa. Viewers can find information about the work mentioned by checking the Search Engine by artist or work title. Maluka's work, in which the artist questions black stereotypes and asserts his pride in his identity was first seen on the 'Staking Claims' exhibition curated by Emma Bedford at the Granary in Cape Town last year, and Moshekwa Langa's True Confessions of a Disco Queen was a video of the artist shown on last year's Vita Awards show at the Sandton Gallery.

From: : Thando Mama thandom77@webmail.co.za
Subject: South African Black Masculinity
Received: May 24

Hi there,
I am writing an introduction to my paper Attitudes towards the representation of the black male body: Contemporary South African Art. I have come across the work of Thembinkosi Goniwe which featured on from your website. I would like to know if there are any black male artists who are working with or around the issue of masculinity especially in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. I will appreciate your help in this regard. My contact number is: 0826629329 or (031) 204-2291 (fine art printmaking studio, Technikon Natal).

Thanks.
Thando Mama.

- Thando, the only person we can think of who is investigating these sorts of issues is photographer and painter Zwelethu Mthethwa. Put his name into ArthThrob's search engine, I'm sure lots will come up. (I'm thinking particularly of work related to one I mentioned in a review of a show held last year in Cape Town entitled Staking Claims. The work was called 'Vanity at Frankies' and is, I'm certain, part of a body of work which explore similar themes. A catalogue of the show was published. Try emailing the National Gallery at sang@gem.co.za for help in this regard.

From: Richard Strewer richard@cornick.cornick.co.za>
Subject: Aerial photography
Received: May 30

Please could somebody help me, I would like to find out more about aerial photography (techniques, tips etc etc etc.) Has anybody got some info or could put me in touch with some good literature and or people.

Postal address: P O Box 271
Lonehill
2062
South Africa

Thank you
Richard Strever