My Joburg — La Maison Rouge — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 20 → September 22, 2013

My Joburg à la maison rouge Après l’exposition très réussie My Winnipeg, My Joburg succède à ce commissariat porté sur les villes dites « périphériques » insti... 1 - Pas mal Critique

My Joburg at la maison rouge continues a series of exhibitions showcasing art in cities that are not capitals, less known by French public, and which began in summer 2011 with Winnipeg in Manitoba province, Canada. My Joburg takes in a range of art from Johannesburg, with particular emphasis on young artists who have yet to come to public attention in France. Johannesburg or Joburg (affectionately termed Jozi by some) has a population of 6 million. More than 2.5 million people live in Soweto alone, the best-known of the city’s townships. It is, to quote the historian and political scientist Achille Mbembe, an “elusive metropolis”.

Johannesburg has become home to a thriving community of painters, photographers, sculptors and video artists whose work describes a city in the throes of change with a complex social, political and urban history. My joburg sets out to capture certain facets of this. While making no claims to explore every aspect of its art scene, but bringing their curiosity and fresh eyes, Paula Aisemberg and Antoine de Galbert, respectively director and chairman of la maison rouge, have developed the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue in consultation with key figures and specialists in the Johannesburg art scene. They are Nechama Brodie, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, John Fleetwood, Bettina Malcomess, Molemo Moiloa and Sean O’Toole.

Sprawling, cosmopolitan Johannesburg is a patchwork of contrasting districts, from fashionable neighbourhoods such as Melville, with bars, restaurants and vintage stores, or Sandton with its gated communities and vast shopping malls from the late 1990s, to the townships still plagued by poverty and crime that new South Africa’s twenty years of democracy have yet to overcome. Social injustice didn’t disappear with apartheid in 1994. Much remains to be done, politically and socially, before every voice is heard.

Still, the city continues to shed its old skin. Neighbourhoods such as the city centre that were once deserted now attract new populations and have become busy and even fashionable hubs: “Arts on Main” is a good example. Immigrants from neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique, looking for a new Goldmine, have also settled in the city, transforming the urban geography.

Artists have seized on this urban and social disparity. Their work sets out to grasp the changes taking place in their country and their city, portrayed differently according to each artist’s age, origins and media.

Johannesburg now has a dynamic art scene, backed by an active network of private and public structures. Galleries show South African artists outside the country and the African continent, often at international art fairs. The annual Joburg Art Fair has become a benchmark for contemporary art specialists in Africa. Private businesses, banks or broadcast channels, also support art through acquisitions, commissions and awards. Public and semi-public institutions such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery or the new Wits Art Museum, part of the University of the Witwatersrand in the centre of Johannesburg, help build this momentum. Within the space of a few years, many artists’ communities and non-profit groups have formed, such as the Center for Historical Reenactments, the Trinity Session, Bag Factory and August House, further adding to the city’s cultural network.

Several Johannesburg universities teach art and art history to a high level, providing fertile ground for the future of art in the city.

My Joburg highlights the diversity and wealth of the Johannesburg art scene by showing recent work by more than 40 artists representing the city’s last three generations. La maison rouge has also invited contributions from several members of the Johannesburg art world. Bettina Malcomess, an independent curator, and artist Dorothee Kreutzfeldt will propose works, echoing their project for an artist’s book, Not Utopia, presenting a highly personal view of their city. A room will be reserved for a selection of recent work by photographers who studied at the Market Photo Workshop, a foremost school of photography in Johannesburg which was founded in 1989among others by David Goldblatt and whose current director is John Fleetwood.

Throughout the duration of My Joburg, artists, curators and art critics from Johannesburg share their experience of their city and describe the art taking place there.