Robin Rhode, Yard, 2011. Digital Animation. Courtesy the artist and Stevenson Gallery
Fiction as Fiction
(or, A Ninth Johannesburg Biennale)
29 November 2012 – 12 January 2013
at Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town
Artists: Yto Barrada, Yael Bartana, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Peter Clarke, Ângela Ferreira, Yang Fudong, Nicholas Hlobo, Robin Rhode, Penny Siopis, Frohawk Two Feathers, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Fiction as Fiction (or, A Ninth Johannesburg Biennale) is the third exhibition in the year-long Trade Routes Project, in which the gallery pays tribute to the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale.
The idea of a fictional biennale is a rewarding one when examining the history of the Johannesburg Biennale. Its second edition, organised by Okwui Enwezor in 1997, was also its last. How would (local) art history have been altered if the Johannesburg Biennale had not ceased to exist? What if we imagine there was a third incarnation in 1999? A fourth in 2001? A fifth, after some delay, in 2004? A ninth in 2012?
Jacques Lacan famously said that truth has the structure of fiction. In this exhibition, 12 artists from Africa and elsewhere allow us to imagine the boundaries of that structure. Where does fiction begin, and where does it end? [read the full text here]
Stevenson Gallery
Buchanan Building
160 Sir Lowry Road
Woodstock 7925
Cape Town
South Africa
stevenson.info
Opening hours
Monday – Friday: 9h00 – 17h00
Saturday: 10h00 to 13h00
Kemang Wa Lehulere, Exit permit 1, 2 and 3 and I can’t laugh anymore, when I can’t laugh I can’t…, 2012. Mixed media. Installation view Courtesy the artist and Stevenson Gallery
Yto Barrada, Hand-Me-Downs. 2011. Single-channel video, sound. Courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg and Beirut
Yang Fudong, Ye Jiang (The Nightman Cometh), 2011. Single-channel video, 35mm b&w film transferred to HD, 5.1 soundtrack. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman, New York and Paris