MOPP time ---

Vansa website is live

www.vansa.co.za
the doors to the international
colourful world is open

FREE LECTURE- by ZAYD MINTY

IZIKO’s WINTER PUBLIC PROGRAMME

Lectures, Film screenings, Workshops and Walkabouts

at

IZIKO MUSEUMS OF CAPE TOWN

7–30 July 2007

LECTURE ONE

“An Examination of Doul’ Arts Culture and Urban Transformation Processes” – Presented by Zayd Minty

Date: Tuesday, 10^th July 2007 Time: 17h30 for 18h00

Venue: Whale Well, Iziko SA Museum Entrance- Free

This paper is an examination of Doual’art’s culture and urban transformation practises, using the neighbourhood of Bessengue Akwa as a case study. Doual’art is a non-profit cultural initiative involved in a range of urban interventions in the Central African city of Doualla, drawing on culture to engage the city and its citizens in an act of re-imagination. A pilot community development project in Bessengue in conjunction with a French NGO and the city council of Doualla 1 resulted in two creatively enhanced pieces of basic infrastructure: a water pump and foot-bridge, as well as a series of art interventions taking place on a patch of ground in the extreme north end of the neighbour-hood. Analysing these three projects provides material to understand the organisation’s methodology conceptually as an act of insurgent urban practise that stimulates the residents to reconsider their agency as citizens and provides the impetus for thinking about the connection between imaginaries and transformation in an urban context.

For confirmation of attendance and further information contact: Wandile Kasibe at 021 481 3804 or fax: 021 481 3991 / cell: 083 335 6461. You can also e-mail:publicprogs@iziko.org.za

Consult http://www.iziko.org.za for more details.

TED.COM something to inspire

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/127

folow this link, u gonna
be blown away.

The fabulous plum shirt

Christopher du Preez, Abdul Dube and Andrew Lamprecht on Robben Island

What what waht whts whats wathst

Poison ALL CURATORS with

manic it was

but we made it happen. Again i think the important thing is , as Bisi mentioned is do to it and then make changes, growth and change is constant, we are now in the begining stages of geting the MOPP road show on the go, we have managed to design a catalogue(portable exhibtion) that we are donating to libraries around the cape flats, north south east and west, if u have extra time on ur hands and wanna get involved, drop us a email ghettogether@gmail.com

www.arternative.co.za/MOPP%20intro.html

the link will give u alook at the opening nite if u missed it.

many thanks to all involved

and a special thanks to the khamissa kollecktive members

Rozanno

Issi

Francois

Yasser

Mandla

thanks for the post,storm

hola vanie kaap, just wanted to let u all know wat is wat with the MOPP,
its been a learning curve of note,
The ''new'' is always exciting, we as the collective do this for the love photography , exploration and
the cheek of making it happen against all odds..

we juggle( encrouching crime,making the rent,feeding the brain and the soul) , we pick up and back up who ever or where ever its needed, this is not a solo marathon
Every interaction has become a lesson in life , in the way we see each other, in the way we interact with the world around us,

come and enjoy or be shocked by the ordinary seen extraordinarily.

peace + love + respect

abdul dube.

ABDUL doing a MOPP DROPP

MOPP PRESS RELEASE

MOPP - Month of People's Photography is an independent visual art movement , we showcase visual artist that would otherwise never exhibit their work . Encouraging individuals to become part of the bigger picture, thus to engage a wider audience to our annual photo exhibition.

MOPP has created a situation in which the man on the street can share in the magic of photography. We use this month long exhibition to highlight the differences that separate us and the similarities that connect us.

Now in its 3rd year, MOPP - month of people's photography will yet again be bringing photography to the people of Cape Town . Cafes and Restaurants in and around the city " CBD" will host photographers young and old, taught and self taught.

OUR THEME: "I SPY WITH MY THIRD EYE"

Come share in our visual feast on opening nite , come get for yourself a MAPP and indulge on a visual treasure.

DATE: 14 FEBRUARY 2007
VENUE: arternative, 112 long street, CAPE TOWN
TIME: 19HOO

FOR MORE INFORMATION FEEL FREE TO VISIT www.nativesoul.blogspot.com
or send an email to ghettogether@gmail.com

Bisi's Got a Blog!

Check out a new addition to blog world with curator Bisi Silva's chronicles of recent experiences and travel in Africa. Find it at http://artspeakafrica.blogspot.com.

Rijksakademie Call

The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam is a working and meeting place for young professional artists from all over the world. Fifty studios are available for resident artists who can work for one or two years on research, projects and production. A work period at the Rijksakademie is most valuable with three to five years of professional experience, following an art study programme.
Focus on the work, reflection and discussion are central to the residency. In addition to advice from internationally-practicing artists, curators and other art professionals, facilities include extensive technical workshops, a library, artist’s documentation and art collections.
Resident artists pursue all major contemporary visual art disciplines: painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, video, film, sound and new media, and links with other disciplines such as architecture, theatre, music, dance, literature and film are possible.
Applying
Each year approximately twenty-five artists are invited for a residency. Artists can apply for the residency from January to December 2008 through the online application form. The deadline for application is 1 February 2007.
More information: http://www.rijksakademie.nl



De Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam is een werk- en ontmoetingsplaats voor jonge professionele kunstenaars uit de hele wereld. Er zijn zo’n vijftig ateliers beschikbaar waar resident artists één tot twee jaar werken
aan onderzoek, projecten en productie. De praktijk wijst uit dat een werkperiode aan de Rijksakademie drie tot vijf jaar na een opleiding het grootste effect heeft. Concentratie op het werk, reflectie en discussie staan centraal op de Rijksakademie. Resident artists worden ondersteund door internationaal actieve kunstenaars, tentoonstellingsmakers en andere professionals. Daarnaast biedt de Rijksakademie uitgebreide technische faciliteiten, een bibliotheek, kunstenaarsdocumentatie en kunstcollecties. Er wordt gewerkt in alle disciplines en technieken: schilderen, tekenen, grafiek, beeldhouwen, video, film, geluid en computerkunst. Ook de relatie met andere disciplines komt aan bod, zoals architectuur en openbare ruimte, theater, nieuwe media, muziek, dans, literatuur en film.
Aanmelden
Ieder jaar worden ongeveer 25 kunstenaars uitgenodigd voor een residency. Kunstenaars kunnen zich aanmelden voor de residency januari–december 2008 via het online aanmeldingsformulier.
De deadline voor aanmelding is 1 februari 2007.
Meer informatie: http://www.rijksakademie.nl

Greetings to you all, and hope that 2007 is succesfull. My first post for the new year is the long promised bibliography which were not included in the reading packs. It does not conform to any standard format, so please pardon the flouting of the Harvard and other methods.

Storm.

BIBLIOGRAPY

1. Luke, Timothy W. “Shows of Force: Power, Politics and Ideology in Art Exhibitions. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992

2. Coombes, Annie E. “Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture, and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England”. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.

3. “Thinking about exhibitions”. Edited by Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson, and Sandy Nairne. London: Routledge, 1996

4. Glusberg, Jorge. “Cool Museums and Hot Museums: Towards a Museological Criticism”; with original drawings by Luis Benedit. Buenos Aires: Centre of Art and Communication, 1980

5. “Museums & History in West Africa”. Edited by Claude Daniel Ardouin & Emmanuel Arinze. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, Oxford: James Curry, 2000.

6. “Words of Wisdom: a Curator's Vade Mecum on Contemporary Art”. Edited by Carin Kuoni. New York: Independent Curators International: Distributed worldwide by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 2001.

7. Thea, Carolee. “Foci: Interviews with Ten International Curators”. New York, N.Y.: Apex Art Curatorial Program, 2001.

8. Schubert, Karsten. The Curator's Egg: The Evolution of the Museum Concept from the French Revolution to the Present Day”. London: One-Off Press: Distributed by Christie's Books, 2000.

9. “Art Gallery Exhibiting: The Gallery as a Vehicle for Art”. [compilation, Paul Andriesse, Mariska van den Berg]. [Netherlands]: Paul Andriesse/Uitgeverij De Balie, 1996.

10. “What do you expect from an art institution in the 21st century?” Directeurs de publication, Jerome Sans et Marc Sanchez; edition prיparיe par Vincent Honorי; textes rיunis par Eric Binnert ... et al.] 3. ed. Paris: Palais de Tokyo, site de crיation contemporaine, 2003.

11. O’Doherty, Brian (ed.). “Museums in Crisis”. New York, George Braziller, 1972.

12. Cook, Sarah; Graham, Beryl; Martin, Sarah (ed.). “Curating New Media: Third BALTIC International Seminar”. United Kingdom, Baltic Crumb, 2001.

13. O’Doherty, Brian. “Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space”. Santa Monica, The Lapis Press, 1986.

14. Staniszewski, Mary Anne. “The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installation at the Museum of Modern Art”. Massachusets, MIT Press. 2001.

stop and think befor u toss that next filter...

decon >> EyE CAnDy >

wishin all a simple new Year>> simply simplify

price hikes. BUY ART

Filling in the Gaps

So we all got stuck on the island on Friday afternoon after our last session. We happily packed and got ourselves and big luggage to the harbour for the staff ferry back to the mainland at 3:45pm, only to find out that all the tourise boats to the island have been canceled due to rough sea conditions - which meant that angry Robben Island Museum staff and a very tense group of curators had to wait a long time for one boat to make the trip several times to get home.

A couple of very tense hours followed, getting people off the island to catch busses, planes, loved ones, jobs etc on the other side. We were too late for some (Angie and Motseokae missed their bus to Bloemfontein and spent the night sleeping over) and others made it in time (the Joburg flight was substantially delayed, thankfully).

I am in the process now of reconciling everything - including accounts, my professional life, documentation etc. and making sense of the past two weeks. Hopefully others will contribute to the blog once the dust has settled and help make sense of the experience.

Till next time,

Storm

back on the main land...

the last few minutes felt really weird, ``the want`` for getting home was like
no other,A Rough sea and the tummy ``upside down u turn me``
feeling was lekker KAK ...

reflections of the two weeks on Dat - island "try this ""

Week Two Day Four: Lovely lovely people

Today everyone got stuck in their proposals again. They are taking it so seriously. I am impressed. I am also slightly worried. Had an intense day again, packed with detailed presentations on fundraising and marketing in the morning. After lunch we set a task which required everyone to write a proper proper proposal, with budget and powerpoint presentation - and about five hours to complete it in. It kind of put a damper on the farewell braai that is currently still underway. Music blaring, quiet island life temporarily disrupted.

Last night Abdul showed a very violent Japanese film - set on an island, 8 km in circumference. The same size as Robben Island. In the film 30 school kids have to kill each other for a single one to survive. For a moment we thought it almost an apt metaphor for the curators workshop... in the cutthroat contemporary art world, with 14 emerging curators in the same small space... cooped up for two weeks...

On a serious note, the two presentations todat were quite informative. Joseph Gaylard had some memorable quips about funding and fundraising. Did you know, that the per capita government spend on arts and culture in Mpumalanga in 2005 was an astronomical 3c, compared to R34 in the Western Cape?

Deborah Weber came in to deliver an impressive presentation on corporate sponsorships and marketing, and provided tools for bridging the gap between contemporary visual arts practice and leveraging corporate support. She also explained how to quantify Returns on Investment (ROI), and a number of good tips on accesing oppertunities within marketing and social investment budgets.

Tomorrow morning everyone will present their final proposals, and they seem very nervous about it. Virginia MacKenny said on Tuesday that we are too kind on people...

Ps. No blogging by bloggers. Useless.

Week Two Day Two: Bloggers on Strike

We just finished the second day of the second week - its ten at night - with an intense group conversation on relationships with artists. A subject that we have somehow not given any attention to during the past ten days. Quite ironically I think.

Some hillarious anecdotes surfaced - and some tragic ones. Yvette spoke about the difficulty of working with artists with no physical addresses nor telephone numbers and Andrew once desperately bartered artwork for a curated show with a sixpack of beers.

Before supper a decidedly unbalanced game of soccer was played with kids on the island. Big curators pushed small children around on the field, but they got their asses kicked by the motley crew of little ones. Cindy got whacked on the ear. Its still red and half the size of her head. Storm had a beer and occasionally shrieked half heartedly "go team, go team". Joseph permanently damaged his inner thighs.

The formal sessions were fun too. Everyone had to present their projects after yesterdays proposal writing exercise. Some intense feedback ensued - the thread throughout the day were the brutal honesty with which everyone critiqued each others work.

Stacy Hardy presented an intense paper on education processes - which were really interesting and off the wall. She packed in concepts and ideas, peppered with really interesting obsevations and appropriate expletives. Its great hearing such strong convictions and opinions being expressed - on a subject, education, that is usually tacked on most art projects as an afterthought. She urged the enthralled audience to think about educational possibilities at the inception of their projects.

Brendon Bell-Roberts, a very busy guy, presented on his art publishing experience. Getting him to the island proved a logistical nightmare. I will one day write a book. Urgent calls to the director of the RIM finally got access to a later ferry, as Brendon has an important meeting earlier in the day and could not rock up at 7:30 am.

Virginia MacKenny gave a well-oiled talk on basic priniciples of writing media releases and curatorial statements. A 'nuts and bolts' presentation that went down really well, with very usefull 'how to' tips. She's bright. An exercise was set late in the afternoon, and I expected a riot to errupt from a very tired and exhausted group. Only Rita stormed out.

After a while everyone regrouped, strangely energised and all eagerly read back their five line media releases. And here came the brutally honest feedback. No one held back, nor from presenting, nor from criticising. I liked the maturity of everyone and also the honesty with which this was handled. Mavis I think, offered an interesting and rounded reading of her project.
Supper included, unusually on this particular island menu, rice and stewy stuff. I am finally gaining weight, after 34 years of unsuccesfull dieting.

Ps. The documenting teams are useless. They have not blogged a single line for two days. Only Abdul, but he's blogbefok.