SHOWCASE

"The Black Stars of Ghana, Art District" now also on Africa is A Country

In watching the videos you are left with the impression of a cohort of artists who make work out of passion, who do whatever they have to in order to find the means to focus on their aesthetic practices. And you also get a sense of how true artists try to link their work to broader social concerns and daily practicalities. By Jesse Weaver Shipley / Africa is A Country

Three Signs of Ghana’s Art Times Ghana is currently experiencing a surge of contemporary performing and visual arts. Here are some notes on goings on about Accra-town. I. Song of the Pharaoh A new play, Song of the Pharaoh by lead...

The newest release of Berlin-based curatorial research and production platform SHOWCASE is "WIM BOTHA -- Beauty is a difficult concept", a film interview with South African visual artist Wim Botha. The film interview was premiered on 22 October 2013 at Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin in the context of Wim Botha's solo show "PREDICATES" which was shown at Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin: http://www.jette-rudolph.de/

WIM BOTHA was born in Pretoria in 1974 and today lives and works in Cape Town. He has received numerous awards for his work and is also included on Imaginary Fact: South African art and the archive, the South African Pavilion at this year's 55th Venice Biennale.

WIM BOTHA creates sculptures and installations from various materials including paper, encyclopaedic books, wood, furniture, styrofoam and fluorescent light tubes. The use of paper and books for the creation of busts, the traditional portrait of a human head and shoulder, not only rejuvenates an established form of sculptural expression, but also intensifies its artistic impact by revealing the bust's complex meaning of memory, mask and metaphor for human life, death and ultimate oblivion.

In a conversation with Safia Dickersbach during the exhibition "PREDICATES" at Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin, Wim Botha talks about his recent artistic work, his rediscovery of the visual aspect as the primary access to the conceptual meaning of an artwork and how he got back to "very basic artmaking without the encumbrance of the expectation of significance".

Wim Botha strives in his work to stimulate the mind at the first visual impact and let the effects unfold gradually. The more compelling the visual object and its impact on the viewer is, the more other processes will happen in the back of the viewer's mind.

The visual aspect of Wim Botha's work is not about aesthetics in the traditional sense. Beauty is a difficult concept, because it sits so closely to ugliness, as he puts it. Pleasure and pain are very closely connected and this translates into fascinating visual experiences for the viewer starting at the first glance, but not diminishing after seeing the art works for many times thereafter.

This interview project is part of SHOWCASE's initiative to feature exciting contemporary art from regions of the world located outside of Europe and North America and from art scenes which are often disregarded in the Eurocentric discourse on art. It follows on SHOWCASE's recent project "The Black Stars of Ghana -- Art District", a series of videos featuring leading representatives of the contemporary art scene in Ghana.

Event images by David Picard

Bureau Africa & SHOWCASE // Website: http://www.showcaseint.com

WIM BOTHA - Beauty is a difficult concept

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS4KsIvFqs0

WIM BOTHA - Beauty is a difficult concept The newest release of Berlin-based curatorial research and production platform SHOWCASE is "WIM BOTHA -- Beauty is a difficult concept", a film interview wit...

THE BLACK STARS OF GHANA - Art District

" There are a number of private and public art collections in Ghana. These include private collectors, national museums, the presidential palace, major bank headquarters, luxury hotels and government offices. There you don’t find the work of Ghanaian artists, such as El Anatsui, Philip Kwame Apagya or Lynette Yiadom-Boakye all of whom are well-known in Europe or the U.S. Rather you find the work of artists such as those who are the protagonists in my documentary film series: Professor Glover, Wiz Kudowor, Larry Otoo, Gabriel Eklou, Kofi Setordji, Marigold Akufo-Addo and so forth. So there are different perspectives, whether you look from abroad or whether you look from a local Ghanaian perspective. It was important, for my project, to capture the Ghanaian perspective in Ghana. I did not want to impose any Eurocentric decisions, views or interests on the contemporary art scene in Ghana. All of these issues and questions informed my selection process". Interview with Safia Dickersbach by Yvette Greslé on FAD magazine UK

http://bit.ly/1e25Klu


Artwork image: Ndugu, Triptych, acrylic on wood, 2009
http://www.nduguart.com/