Rethinking engagement
The recently launched Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation is looking to find new ways to engage with art in the Global South.
“We looked at a network of institutions, scholars and relationships in the Global South; and we asked ourselves, off the back of the decolonisation movement, what does the scholarship, thinking, and creativity emerging in the Global South look like? And who is narrating that story? Because although our artists exhibit around the world, curators in Europe and America are still writing our narratives. They are still the authorities over the catalogues in the interpretive space. We need to have a balance institutionally between institutions in the South and the North. That was part of our motivation to curate the show in the South, for an audience in South Africa, in Africa, in the South,” says Clive Kellner, executive director of the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF).
Opened at the beginning of 2020 with a lecture by New York University’s Goddard professor of media, culture and communications, Arjun Appadurai, after 10 years in the planning, the physical home of the JCAF is in Johannesburg’s Forest Town. Its location is a heritage site that was once an electrical tram shed, for a network of trams that ran between
1906 and 1961. “We spent three years renovating it, and basically keeping the integrity of the site,” says Kellner.
The inaugural exhibition is titled Contemporary Female Identities in the Global
South. Although it was initially planned for an end-March 2020 opening, it was postponed due to Covid-19, and eventually opened to the public on 16 September 2020, and will run until 30 January 2021. The collection of work on show is significant not only because of the striking individual pieces, but also because of its thematic significance in the choice of the five contemporary women artists: Bharti Kher (India, UK); Wangechi Mutu (Kenya, USA); Nandipha Mntambo (South Africa); Shirin Neshat (Iran, USA) and Berni Searle (South Africa), whose work is explored in various mediums from photography to video and sculpture.
It is the first of three exhibitions, which will be shown over three years. All three are curated under the theme Female Identities in the Global South. “One of the most critical issues in our world today is gender-based violence, and the rights and equality of women in society. We didn’t take an activist position
on the subject; we wanted to look at women and their contribution to art, as recognised artists of stature who are accomplished, capable intellectuals to be recognised for their contribution to society as equals,” says Kellner.
Beyond the themes and the artwork on show, a key focus of the foundation is engagement. “Most mainstream museums have what is called footfall; they want to get large numbers of visitors through the door. But when you dig a little deeper – and it’s become a problem with big museums – it’s become a spectacular culture. The Tate Modern, for example, has 5 million visitors. How many of them are locals? I think you’ll find that the majority of them are tourists, people with means to travel,” say Kellner. While it doesn’t reveal the split between local visitor and tourists, in 2019, the UK’s Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) published a list of “The top 20 most-visited tourist attractions in the UK for 2018”. The Tate Modern took the top spot, recording some 5.86 million visitors for the year.
Kellner is also concerned about projects that seem like a good way to get more people into museums but might not prove to increase engagement.
“For example, the Tate will do ‘Friday night skateboarders’ or something similar. They use it as a tool to bring people through the doors, but those kids aren’t mentally engaging with the artwork, they come in as visitors. The third issue is that most people spend more time reading the wall texts and the labels than they do looking at the artwork. When they leave the museum; what did they experience? What do they remember? And what changed in their lives? It’s become such a consumerist experience. So we looked at that and we said: ‘How can we change the visitor’s experience?’”
To that end, the foundation worked on a model aimed at creating an engaged experience. Visitors have to make a booking, which can be done via the website. They can come alone or in a group of five, which will increase to 10 once the Covid pandemic is no longer a threat. They have an hour and 45 minutes to view the exhibition.
“We personally meet, chat and get to know you. And then we explain the architecture of the building, then guides or staff members take you through the exhibition,” explains Kellner.
There are no labels or text on the wall to explain the work, and while there is a guide, Kellner says that it’s not necessarily for them to literally take the visitor from one art work to the next: “It’s more of a process of discovery, and less about consumerism. You look at the art and reflect and ask yourself questions, and then the guide is there to discuss with you. Because every visitor has different forms of knowledge, we want to unlock the knowledge they have. Of course, there will be some questions about the artist and what the work is made of. But generally, I’ve found that people are able to read aspects of the work by themselves. The guide is there to support that experience.”
The foundation’s stated mandate “to advance the public’s understanding of modern and contemporary art”, is explored through three programmes: the exhibitions, research and incorporating technology.
While there may be no labels, in addition to a touch screen at the entrance that gives context to the exhibition, they have developed an app that visitors are able to use as a companion to take them through the exhibition. Says Kellner: “It uses Bluetooth technology from beacons and pushes contextual information about the artwork to your phone. If you don’t want to use your phone, we’ve got iPad minis. You can actually go deeper into engaging with artwork, and it feels non-intrusive because if you don’t want to use it anymore, you can just put the phone away.”
While the space features museum standard air temperature control, humidity control, UV-filtered glass windows, gas-detection and fire-suppression systems, and an art storage and delivery area, Kellner emphasises that the foundation is not a museum or a gallery, nor does it aspire to be. Kellner along with the three trustees decided against building JCAF as a museum to hold their own private collections; and all the artwork currently on show does not belong to the foundation.
The trustees are all notable South African businessmen: Gordon Schachat, Adrian Enthoven and Phuthuma Nhleko.
“There is a lot of commercial activity in the South African art market, auction houses, art fairs and commercial galleries. It’s strong and it’s productive. And that’s a very good thing. But a healthy ecosystem doesn’t only have commercial activity. When you go to other big cities around the world, you’ve got big museums, you’ve got curated shows, a you’ve got biennials, and you’ve got non-profit spaces. Sadly, our public institutions have a battle on their hands. So who is mediating the intellectual interpretive space of art to the audience? In South Africa, it’s currently predominantly the commercial framework. We see our role as an institution that very much profiles art through art historical records, research, and hopefully relevant but not trendy exhibitions that are reflective of society and ask important questions, in a very aesthetic and experiential kind of way,” says Kellner. DM168
It’s more of a process of discovery, and less about consumerism. You look at the art and reflect and ask yourself questions, and then the guide is there to discuss with you. Because every visitor has different forms of knowledge, we want to unlock the knowledge they have.