Iziko upends old narrative and engages with our troubled past
The groundbreaking exhibition, Breaking Down the Walls, at the Iziko South African National Gallery sets out to explore the country’s turbulent history and challenge the traditional boundaries of the art world. The Absences room is particularly powerful.
The Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, historically exhibiting works of white colonial figures since 1872, did not acquire the work of a South African artist until 1926.
And it wasn’t until 1964 that the work of a black South African entered the collection, according to Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nocawe Noncedo Mafu.
Reflecting on its exclusionary history, Iziko Museums of South Africa closed the gallery in May for “reimagining”, to “bring Iziko right back into the 21st century” and give due attention to neglected artworks, said Jabulani Sithole, chairperson of Iziko.
On 26 October, Iziko’s new exhibition, Breaking Down the Walls, opened.
“There is an imbalance in the holdings,” said Andrew Lamprecht, the exhibition’s curator. “This exhibition reflects and considers this imbalance, while celebrating the attempts to redress in more recent decades.”
“It speaks to the decolonial agenda,” said Rooksana Omar, CEO of Iziko Museums.
This exhibition strove for more racial and cultural inclusion and a more honest representation of South Africa, but it also made a statement about the need for accessibility, Lamprecht added.
“We are at the beginning of a new era of challenging our visitors to see things differently,” said Sithole.
A unique approach
With works from the past 150 years, Breaking Down the Walls is not chronological, but each of its rooms is devoted to a topic.
Works of different times, by artists of different races, of different places and of different stories and messages – from the colonial era, apartheid era or post-apartheid era – are side by side on vibrantly coloured walls.
It depicted “commonalities and constant interplays of past and present”, said Anna Tietze, senior lecturer in art history at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
As visitors drift from room to room, they
Breaking Down the Walls encounter new topics, with titles such as “Lost and Found”, “Science as Art”, “Nation and Resistance”, “Genders and Agendas” and “Aesthetics and Prejudice”.
This “allows works across decades and continents to be brought together on the walls so visitors can make new and exciting comparisons and contrasts”, said Tietze.
The exhibition also challenges traditional definitions of art, combining it with science, archaeology and social history.
Alongside paintings, sculptures and photographs are woven fabrics, banners, maps, postage stamps, furniture, shoes, scientific images, 3D creations and more.
“Art is not only a painting on a wall, but also a performance, a memory, a living story, a comment or a protest,” said Mafu. “We use art to share our joy, sadness, anger, knowledge … culture and past.”
Disciplinary silos in museums and galleries, separating art, science and social history “limit the full expression and storytelling of South Africa’s reality”, said Lamprecht.
Breaking Down the Walls put it all in one space and “the lack of silos allows visitors to make connections, draw lines across different rooms, find their own paths … and come to their own conclusions”.
Lamprecht said his aim was to pull as much material out of storage as possible and make it available. Mafu added: “We are safeguarding and making accessible our shared and contested history.”
Lamprecht hopes to inspire young people. One room is devoted to children, with works lower on the wall and beanbag seating.
“I remember coming to Iziko as a kid,” said Lamprecht. “I want young people to come here and be moved by the lusciousness and beauty of art, like I was.”
The Absences room packs a powerful message – an empty room without any artwork, just black walls and no light. The emptiness symbolises artists from the precolonial, colonial and apartheid eras who have been erased, forgotten and neglected, according to the descriptive label on the wall.
This room was a tribute to all who were neglected in South Africa’s past “when so many were denied a proper place in society”, Tietze added.
“Breaking Down the Walls alerts us to the certainty that art collections are not easy artefacts to engage with,” said Thabang Monoa, a lecturer in art history at UCT. “This exhibition might be overwhelming, as it is an attempt to signify histories that are highly contested.”