SCRATCHING THE SURFACE VOL.1
Scratching the Surface Vol.1 combines new and re-visited visual and performance work by artists creating individually and in collaboration.
As the first curatorial initiative of manje-manje projects, selected artists and their works employ a play on the contemporary that is as current as it is elusive. “Manje” is a Nguni word meaning “now”. Said once, the word has an urgency that becomes ambiguous once it is repeated. Thus, manje-manje, in relative terms, refers to the immediate past, the present as well as a time to come.
Triggered by a desire to obliterate/reveal/satisfy/mark/damage, Scratching the Surface Vol. 1 facilitates the performance of Hip-Hop rituals, mapping skin conditions, repeated memory cycles, uncontrollably itchy feet and marks produced by sound.
The show serves as experiential experiment in exhibition making across continuously blurring artistic disciplines. Much like the dated experience of writing lesson notes onto a slate, the curatorial process becomes a loop of scratching, re-membering, learning and erasing.
In collaboration with manje-manje projects and as a development of its cooperative curatorial experiment, L’appartement 22 in Rabat, Morocco hosted a concurrent exhibition and presented a selection of works from Scratching the Surface Vol.1 by showing the video works of Simone Leigh (USA) and Dineo Bopape (SA).
- Curators: Gabi Ngcobo and Mwenya Kabwe – manje-manje projects (m-mp)
Assistance: Lerato Bereng – Cape Africa Platform Young Curator - FEATURED ARTISTS
- Dineo Bopape
Gugulective
Bandile Gumbi
Julian Jonker & Garth Erasmus
Donna Kukama
Kemang Wa Lehulere
Simone Leigh
Thando Mama
Zanele Muholi
Kalinosi Mutale
Robin Rhode
Ruth Sacks
Sean Slemon
Alude Mahali, Katy Streek & Penny Youngleson
Ernestine White
Mlu Zondi - Sponsors and Partners: AVA Gallery, National Lottery, Goethe Institute Johannesburg, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, Swiss Agency for Development and Coorperation, L’appartment 22, Cape Africa Platform, Spier, Café Mozart
