FOREX

June 2009 - July 2010

Foreign exchange, or Forex, typifies the interconnectedness of global networks of information. This project series uses Forex as a metaphor for an exchange of artistic ideas with a world beyond Africa.

Themes prevalent in South African art - history, politics, marginality and, more broadly, the human condition - appear to differ starkly from the dominant concerns of international contemporary art. Looking at Europe and the United States (still the heart of the art world, despite its internationalisation) from elsewhere, it can be difficult to relate to the coldness, cynicism and self-referential nature of much of the work and the surrounding debates. As a result, it is tempting to retreat into an oppositional stance, one that pits concerns of the periphery against those of the centre, the outsider against the system.

The system, however, is kaleidoscopic in nature. When we start looking carefully, we see glimpses of ourselves in the little pieces of coloured glass that make up the larger pattern. Artists (and curators) exist whose concerns parallel our own, and who are operating within the museums, galleries, art fairs and biennales that make up the mainstream art world. By bringing minds like these to South Africa, FOREX aims to seek out affinities, illustrate shared frames of reference and explore intellectual kinship.

The FOREX series

  • 22 April - 29 May 2010
    Glenn Ligon

The FOREX programme will culminate in a group exhibition, This is Our Time, opening 3 June 2010. The exhibition uses the parallel elections of Obama and Zuma as a framework to survey our world today, and brings together art from elsewhere in which we South Africans see glimpses of ourselves, and works by South African artists that resonate within an international framework. Collectively, the show will offer an uncynical look at the world, an approach that intertwines hope and conviction with dissection and critique. Artists include Marc Bijl (the Netherlands), Helio Oiticica (Brazil), Akram Zaatari (Lebanon) and Meschac Gaba (Benin) alongside Penny Siopis, Nare Mokgotho, Mohau Modisakeng, Zanele Muholi, Sabelo Mlangeni, Pieter Hugo and Serge Nitegeka, among others. This exhibition will be accompanied by a publication documenting the FOREX project.

FOREX builds on the increasingly international nature of Michael Stevenson's programming. In 2006, the exhibition Distant Relatives looked at African artists working elsewhere, and included works by Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu and Odili Odita, among others. Disguise, in 2008, showed local artists alongside international counterparts such as Yinka Shonibare, Kalup Linzy, Yto Barrada, Youssef Nabil, Natasja Kensmil and Candice Breitz. Over the past three years, the gallery has hosted solo exhibitions by Meschac Gaba, Nabil and Odita, in addition to its South African artists.