Your guide to a great weekend
A photographic exhibition at Durban Art Gallery explores social change through art
THE opening event of Mzala Week – themed Crossroads – is a photographic exhibition and public discussion at the Durban Art Gallery titled The
Art of Activism, featuring works of three of the country’s most respected photographers and social commentators: Omar Badsha, Cedric Nunn and Rafs Mayet, opening on Monday, June 11, at 5.30pm.
The Mzala Nxumalo Centre for the Study of South African Society (MNC) is hosting a series of events for their annual Mzala Week, taking place from Monday until Saturday, with events taking place in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg.
The week starts off at the Durban Art Gallery.
As part of the opening session, the three will consider the role of
The Art of Activism in which they will be examining, analysing and unpacking the role of visual arts in disrupting societal narratives and mobilising social change, and the changing role of the arts in our current context in SA. Mario Pissarra, artist, academic, curator, writer, editor and founder of SA Art Initiative, will open the exhibition and lead the dialogue.
A self-taught, award-winning artist and photographer, Badsha played an active role in the South African liberation struggle, as a cultural and political activist, and trade union leader. He is the author and co-author of six books and, since the mid-sixties, curated numerous exhibitions. His paintings and photographs have been exhibited, locally and globally, since 1965 and his works can be found in major public collections across South Africa, and in leading galleries and institutions abroad. He is regarded by many as one of the leading and most influential anti-apartheid cultural activists, artists and documentary photographers in the country. He is the recipient of a number of awards for painting, arts, photography and history.
Cedric Nunn inhabits a similar space in the annals of our country’s archives: “I am committed through my photographs, to contributing to societal change that will leave a positive legacy for the children of Africa,” he explains.
He began photography in Durban in the early eighties, his initial impetus being to document the realities of apartheid that he thought were being ignored by the mainstream media. He moved to Johannesburg and joined the Afrapix collective and agency, working largely with NGOs. His focus throughout has been on documenting social change, and in particular rural issues. He continued to work independently after the demise of Afrapix in the early 90s. Extensive work experience was gained in media
such as newspapers, wire agencies, magazines, public relations companies all the way through to corporate, and he has exhibited
The Mzala Nxumalo Centre for the Study of South African Society was launched in December 2015 as a non-profit organisation (NPO) to commemorate the life and works of Jabulani Nobleman Nxumalo, popularly known as Comrade Mzala – an activist, soldier, intellectual and writer who died on February 22, 1991 after a long illness. The Pietermaritzburg-based Centre is inspired by the life of Mzala Nxumalo.
extensively, both locally and abroad, and conducted a myriad photography education projects.
Fellow Afrapix photographer Rafique “Rafs” Mayet was taught the basics of photography by Omar Badsha in the early 80s and he started working at the Daily Dispatch in East London, later at the New African in Durban and as a member of the Afrapix collective.
He has since participated in a number of exhibitions.
He worked for the Independent Electoral Commission during the first democratic elections in 1994, some of these pictures were published in a book called An end to waiting.
He has also done an essay on Working Women for the Worker’s College in 1995, which is still being used at union meetings and conferences.
Rafs is still living and working in Durban, and continues with his ongoing documentation of contemporary jazz musicians, while learning more about archival printing processes.
Entry is free and all are welcome to the opening and public dialogue.