South Africa Celebrates Art & Soccer

South Africa Fri 21-05-2010

South Africa Celebrates Art & Soccer
By Caroline Kaminju

With less than three weeks to go before the historic first FIFA World cup on the African soil, the soccer fever is evidently catching up. If it is not the flags of the participating countries displayed on cars and businesses, soccer related art has flooded the market.

Understandably, most exhibition spaces in the host cities, have taken advantage of the fact that some of the visitors will want a taste of culture and diversity that the continent offers.

The Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg will host an exhibition titled ‘Halakasha’ (a celebratory cry after a goal is scored) to run concurrently with the World cup. According to the curator Fiona Rankin-Smith, the exhibition is a ‘celebration of art and soccer’.

^{2010 AFA From the 2010 Fine Art Collection}

It will feature a wide range of soccer related artwork from African artists as well as international artists. Some of the artworks that will be exhibited include the popular makarapas (colorful soccer helmets) vuvuzelas, clothing and bumper stickers, local cartoons, costumes, masks and drums from Angola; photographic essays as well as video installations and street art signs by Ghanaian and Congolese artists.

Some of the artists work that will be featured include Kenyan photojournalist Antony Kaminju’s portraits of supporters of local soccer teams Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs and Nigerian filmmaker and photographer Andrew Dosunmu’s pictures of other African supporters that he has documented over the last eight years.

Soccer has always been associated with ritual practices performed by isangoma (traditional healers) to ensure their favorite team wins. ‘Halakasha’ will also feature examples of items associated with this practice.

^{OAT - Painted Barber Sign is from the Halakasha exhibition}

Across town at the Museum Africa in Newtown, “Space: Currencies in Contemporary African Art” is currently showing until 11 July.

The mixed media exhibition showcases works by artists from all over the African continent among them Kudzanai Chiurai, Gabrielle Goliath, James Muriuki, Mary Sibande, Nandipha Mntambo, Peterson Kamwathi, Miriam Syowia Kyambi, Berry Bickle, Willem Boshoff, Godfried Donkor.

The exhibition represents both the space in which ideas and meaning are produced and the pace or speed in which change takes place. The exhibition occupies three levels of the iconic and spacious Museum which is next to the Mary Fitzgerald square.

Three exhibitions are lined up at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) from May to August 2010. On 23 May, a contemporary Afro-Cuban Art titled Without Masks will open at the gallery. According to the curator Orlando Hernandez, the exhibition will be “the largest and most diverse exhibition of its kind ever to be staged anywhere in the world” since it will focus on Cuba’s African heritage.

The works explores religious beliefs and practices brought by the African slaves from West and Central Africa which still thrives in Cuba today and the ongoing issue of race.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Marta Maria Perez, Belkis Ayon, Manuel Mendive are among the 26 artist that will be part of this exhibition. It will be interesting to see how South Africans will engage with some of the issues that this exhibition will raise during the debates and discussions with Hernandez.

The exhibitions that will follow include Borders, from the 2009 Bamako Biennale and a video installation by William Kentirdge.

In Durban, the entire 2010 Fine Art collection will be exhibited at The Zone at Suncoast Casino & Entertainment World from 1 June. The collection will use art to promote African culture and artists.

Kenyan painter Josiah Waiguru Gitau-Taju, Portugal’s Gustavo Fernandes and South African photographer Clinton Strydom works will be on show. It is the first time in eighty years that the FIFA World Cup has licensed a fine art display of this scale. The exhibition ends on 31 July.

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