!KAURU TOASTS AFRICA
Exhibition to help locals appreciate diversity
TOMORROW marks Africa Day and the !Kauru African Contemporary Art Project plans to celebrate and highlight the continent’s beauty and encourage unity among Africans.
!Kauru is a Khoisan word that expresses a true African vision. “I acknowledge who you are. I see you for who you and where you come from beyond the borders,” is how its meaning is explained in the exhibition.
Now celebrating its second anniversary, the project will present an art exhibition whose theme is,
which opens at the National Art Museum in Tshwane today.
Project director Tshepiso Mohlala said the theme is meant to trigger introspec- tion on who we really are.
“We need to start dialogues using art as a medium, talking about who we are, our history,” she said.
Mohlala said even though South Africa celebrated Africa Day many people did not understand nor appreci- ate its true meaning.
“Launching it here is meant to expose locals to the rest of the continent. Not just the art but the social issues as well,” she adds.
Consisting of 30 contemporary visual art pieces from 14 countries around the southern African region, curator Melissa Goba said the exhibition would question what we as Africans understood as art.
“We always try to classify our art according to western standards. We need to redefine it for ourselves so things look more real and original to each person and place,” said Goba.
Local visual artist Dineo Bopape will exhibit her work titled It’s a sixminute video of a person with a distorted face talking about the different areas around the world.
“The video highlights displacement through the ‘ alien’-like person and colonial memory through asso- ciating the name (Southbury), which is English, to the different areas,” she said adding that the distorted face is to add extra effect.
Bopape, who is originally from Limpopo, is an “experimental” artist who tries to make sense of humanity through different mediums such as painting, drawing, video and installation.
Goba also explained Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai ’ s offering.
“His work is made up of a video series titled
, which were recently filmed to show the relationship between mother and child. It also looks at the idea of death in contemporary culture where in order for there to be death, there must be life. The video will be also presented with a church hymn by Busi Mhlongo.”
The touring exhibition runs from today to June 30. –