Joburg+ Schedule of Events
RSVP to this address for all events: rsvp@Imrelations.com
Curated by Johannesburg-based artist Siwa Mgoboza, “The Demonstration” experiences will focus on the theme of “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past,” which aligns with the Smithsonian-wide initiative to address systemic racism and racial inequity in the U.S. and globally.
Beginning Sept. 15, members of the public are invited to an exhibition designed to support and amplify South African artists whose work pushes boundaries and provokes important conversations. Featured artists include Blessing Ngobeni, Patrick Bongoy, Luke Radolff, Nelisiwe Xaba & Mocke Jansen van Veuren, and Ayana V. Jackson.
September 15
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
Fake News Performance
19:00 Old Fort Deck – The Demonstration experience will kick-off with a performance of FAKE News by InfluenzArt
September 16
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
Poetry for Malika
18:30 Old Fort Deck – Patrick Bongoy – Patrick Bongoy’s latest work Unmarked Graves is yet another evolutionary exploration of materials (rubber and hessian) he has been working with for over a decade. Reinterpreting themes of ongoing human and environmental erosion, violent economic extraction and exploitation and fragility of homes and memory. This work amplifies the haunting effects of past atrocities in his home country DRC. This new work continues to unveil the inextricable and myriad ways in which these devastating historical impacts relentlessly shape the present and threaten future prospects for true recovery. In many countries the inhumanity of slavery and war has led to thousands of missing people, never to return to their homes and kin.
September 18
AAH: Race & Identity
18:00 Flame Studios – African Artists Host…A conversation on he impact of race and culture on the sense of self, confidence, intersectionality and the individual’s place in the world. Inspired by Luke Radolff’s exhibit for The Demonstration.
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
AAH Race & Incarceration
17:00 Flame Studios – African Artists Host…A conversation on Systemic Racism – the systems, including laws, that drive mass incarceration in South Africa, inspired by Blessing Ngobeni’s work for The Demonstration, and by his own experience with incarceration
September 19
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
September 20
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
September 21
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
September 22
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
September 23
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
AAH Race, Media & Representation
14:30 Flame Studios – African Artists Host…A conversation on discssion on Stereotypes, erasure and self-representation, inspired by Nelisiwe Xaba’s performance for The Demonstration
AAH Race & Migration
17:00 Flame Studios – African Artists Host…A conversation on Race & Migration, inspired by Patrick Bongoy’s piece for The Demonstration. During the discussion, panelists will explore Xenophobia and the immigrant experience in South Africa
Fashion Show
18:30 Old Fort Atrium & Courtyard – Uniform ZA – Using the foundations of his brand, UNI FORM By Luke Radloff, the installation will be further exploring his perspective on everyday uniforms in relation to the brand’s physical location, Johannesburg, South Africa. Through a series of individual installations, Radloff creates a greater dialogue around the themes of identity, race and the intersectional conversations as they relate to uniforms and to himself as a White South African. The work utilizes specific iconography and totems of uniformed and industrial environments from across different so-called class and racial systems as they pertain to contemporary Johannesburg. From the uniformed construction worker surrounded by cement and bricks, to the suit wearing office employee, sitting on bespoke corporate furniture. They are all environments that exist within this uniformed city.
September 25
AAH Race & Resistance
12:00 Flame Studios – African Artists Host…A conversation on Race & Resistance, inspired by Ayana V. Jackson’s piece for The Demonstration. During the discussion, panelists will explore the question, How do we resist historical and present-day racism and oppression?
Curator Tour
14:00 Old Fort – During the week, guests who pre-book will be led on guided tours of the exhibition by Guest Curator, Siwa Mgoboza
Nosisi & DJ’s Performance for Ayana
14:00 Old Fort Atrium – Ayana V. Jackson and Mbalo along with SA editor Eran Tahor bring to life three figures based on the artist’s interpretation of the myth of Drexciya. In this world Jackson blends historical fact and speculative fiction by imagining that the pregnant women who were routinely thrown overboard slave ships as “sick cargo” during the middle passage encounter water spirits/mamiwata’s who are somehow able to midwife these babies while the mothers were dead or dying. These projected animations are accompanied by sound design created by South African musician Nosisi Ngakane and Zimbabwean producer Marc Blaze. This work asks the audience to consider the way the myth of Drexciya is “a revisionist look at the Middle Passage as a realm of possibility and not annihilation” as the late cultural critic Greg Tate put it.
