A great yes to art

FNB Art Joburg opens soon (8-10 September) at the Sandton Convention Centre for its 16th edition. A mainstay of the local art scene, its international credentials as an African art destination of note have been boosted this year by a collaborative cultural programme with the BWM Young Collectors’ Co., titled BMW Art Generation.

The initiative is a genuine step up to international quality for the local art-fair circuit, with a roster that includes the likes of Swiss curator and director at the Serpentine Galleries, Hans Ulrich Obrist; Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas; global head of BMW Group Cultural Engagement, Prof. Dr Thomas Girst; Princeton-based Nigerian artist and historian, Chika Okeke-Agulu; US collector and radiologist, Dr Joy Simmons; and globally acclaimed artist William Kentridge.

The Art Generation project launches the Open City component of FNB Art Joburg, which sees various venues and artists’ studios across the city becoming art hubs for the month. The project is essentially a weekend-long event that aims to widen the interest sparked by the 2020 launch of the BMW Young Collectors’ Co., which is a collaboration with FNB Art Joburg to develop a new generation of art collectors on the continent.

Of the new BMW Art Generation partnership, Marcelle Duncan, head of brand of BMW Group South Africa, says, “For over 50 years, the BMW Group has created valuable partnerships within the arts and culture landscape and engaged in over 100 cultural collaborations worldwide. We remain committed to showing the importance of corporate cultural responsibility through consistent and intentional investment in contemporary art and design. Our partnership with FNB Art Joburg is a proud relationship, having created great opportunities before and intending to open even more doors through the Art Generation initiative.”

The weekend will be hosted at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Maboneng, with the additional goal of regenerating that arts hub in downtown Joburg. The programme looks to create a thought experiment, led by an incredible series of lectures, conversations, and discussions among attending luminaries, but also providing access to open studios, performance art, live music, and a boutique lifestyle market with stalls dedicated to the very best in design, food, and wine experiences. The programme’s highlight will likely be the performance lecture by Kentridge on his latest theatre project, The Great Yes, The Great No.

The Talks programme in brief:

Saturday September 2

Talk 1: 10-11.30am

A Future in Focus

Kinetics of Art & History — What does the future of Africa look like? What does the 21st century hold for cultural practitioners?

Talk 2: 1-2pm

The Conversation — Hans Ulrich Obrist and William Kentridge

The Interview Project is an ongoing initiative in which Obrist conducts interviews with a wide range of creative individuals from various fields. This conversation with Kentridge, focused on his work, is unmissable.

Talk 3: 4-5.30pm

Collection Culture

A fascinating take on the practices and patronage systems around art collecting and how they are changing, led by Dr Joy Simmons and Maruping Mangwedi, a private-equity investor and BMW Young Collectors’ Co. member.

Performance lecture: 5-6pm

HOW | Showing the Making: William Kentridge on The Great Yes, The Great No

HOW | Showing the Making is an established series of lecture-based events at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, designed to provide insight into the processes, methodologies, and creative strategies of artists. In this event, Kentridge talks about the making of his latest theatre project, The Great Yes, The Great No, which follows a boat trip from Marseille to Martinique — a small island that was an important site for many important Black figures in 20th-century culture.

Sunday September 3:

Talk 1: 10-11.30am

The Unerasable Archive

This talk looks at how we can contribute to the cultural archive in ways that embrace the fluidity of African traditions and inform knowledge production in classrooms, constitutions, galleries, social media, the Web 3.0, and algorithms.

Talk 2: 1-2pm

Patronage and Practice

Dr Thomas Girst has spent the past two decades championing patronage as the BMW Group’s global head of cultural engagement. With brands increasingly turning to artists as collaborators,

This talk explores the idea of corporate patronage as a means to connect brands to people and foster relevance while creating a viable market for artists themselves: an indication of art’s enduring position within contemporary culture.

Talk 3: 4-5.30pm

The Elusive Metropolis/Johannesburg

Cameroonian historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe and South African associate professor of literary and cultural studies Sarah Nuttall’s book Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis forms the basis for an examination of the increasingly fractious dialogue created between the city and its people.

Performance: 12pm & 2pm

Gregory Maqoma

Brilliant dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma presents a performance centred around the idea of telling stories through performance.

Besides a lifestyle market with food, drink, fashion, and more, there will be exhibitions by the likes of Mary Sibande, Mikhael Subotzky, Lebohang Kganye, and Patrick Waterhouse and pop-ups by Open Studios Joburg, David Krut Workshop, Danger Gevaar Ingozi Studio, as well as iwalewabooks and Jonathan Ball Publishers. A body of prints by Ernest Cole will also be available.

The live music lineup includes acts and DJs such as Mamthug, Womlambo, The Brother Moves On, Ms Niksta, Just Themba, Jab A Jaw, Sweeter Brown, Umlando, Bathini, and Abathwebuli Trio.

Tickets

artjoburg.com