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This text represent a typed version
of a recording documenting Nthabiseng Rachel Montshiwa's thoughts
around the recent NEO Emergence Art Exhibition which she has curated
and is on show at the Pretoria Art Museum until 29 October. Great
care has been taken to translate the recording verbatim from audio
to text. Herein the reader will gather Mme Montshiwa's journey from
being an art student to curator, her philosophy as to what being
a curator means, her thoughts on what South African art should focus
on as far as content and context are concerned. It is also hoped
that the reader will come to appreciate the fact that the writing
tries to center around the interviewee; so the questions were constructed
with economy to provoke undiluted calculated responses. Lastly the
text is inclusive of verbal interruptions and drop ins of Se-Sotho
words to retain verbal nuances and moods as the interaction develops
and moves.

- Mmutle Arthur Kgokong:
Today we live in a situation where you having this idea of contemporary
art in South Africa or cutting edge and I am wondering what’s
your idea in terms of contemporary art, and in terms of cutting
edge as far as young artists are concerned in South Africa, um briefly
you know, your own opinion, what you think?
- Nthabiseng Rachel Montshiwa: I think South African
contemporary Art should always mark the social politics there should
not be a compromise by the author on what kind of subject matter
you focus on and also your technicality must not be compromised
because you are looking into new media you should always base your
media or medium into what kind of financial background you have
and also do not apologize for what you are doing technologically
extravagant focus on South African social politics in current issues
there shouldn’t be a compromised on in terms of the artists
media or technicalities base you media into what financial background
you have. And also Do not apologize for wanting to be technologically
extravagant, I think art is a history tool, it is a historical tool
and in this case one should always focus on what’s current
what’s affecting us in terms visual language, because an aesthetic
is not technicality. An artwork is a message not necessarily a good
aesthetic where people should always be enjoying your work but also
the reference to it is more important than what you see in a gallery
but also taking into consideration that however materials you choose
you should always think about presentation because that also puts
a space into sort of international market irrespective of what you
use you should always have a formal presentation.
- MAK: So the presentation is very important
in terms yah the visual art object in an art exhibition and how
the artworks are presented?
- NRM: So material and technicality aspect is never
really an issue because you can always take a rumble and make sense
out of it whereas it’s still looks like a rumble. What I like
behind each artwork which I present in most cases is the story behind,
I don’t like focusing on technicalities or the genres or focusing
too much into the historical content of or categories you want to
fall in, because we are busy moving forward art is a progress and
it’s process, so that kind growth should always be taken into
consideration and not necessarily the academical issues because
we have also artists from the townships which are not academically
awarded so you have these issues white cubes and also presentations
of artists who coming from the townships and then you have the privilege
already you have a barrier in between that because the way you approach
an artwork will never be the same irrespective of where you are
coming from artists coming from the townships and artists coming
from, so that is why I like the stories because the stories puts
everything so clear in the social context rather than looking at
the material which an artists use.
- MAK: Now
the recent exhibition the neo emergence art exhibition which is
on at the Pretoria Art Museum at the moment. What is the vision
behind this exhibition, more especially as far as the future is
concerned? What is this exhibition addressing? We know today we
have lots of exhibition taking place, why is this exhibition important?
- NRM: First all Neo Emergence means new or neo
in terms of a gift, and also we are not a competition and we are
in competitor with any of the other exhibitions that are taking
place, either around the museum or in galleries. What we are trying
to do is I am a young curator I am trying to be an agent to young
emerging artists who have not been staged professionally by any
of the art institutions even if they have been shown but not actually
under a contract of some sort with any gallery and in this sense
it means we are developing the business sense to it where an artists
can always approach the business side of it which is Dikaletsa for
a website to present their works free of charge and also to get
recognized easily because nowadays everybody uses a lot of technology
so in this sense in stead of the artist sourcing a representing
gallery which is very hard to tap into Dikaletsa is that stage a
free floating space where artists can actually market themselves
also under my mentorship ‘cause that is my role that is my
responsibility to make sure that that these artists are marketed
well and also are recognized well whilst they are still young you
know. It is like you should recognize a fresh thing before it rots,
um so that is what we are doing and in future what we are trying
to do we wanna grow as a mentorship space where artists can actually
suggest different kinds of art projects either educative or in terms
of exhibitions whereby I can always formularise a concept behind
an artist’s work and have an exhibition dedicated to that
and free of competition or free of too many contracts you know so
it should be use friendly to any of the artists that come and approach
us to have an exhibition for and we are focusing on um self taught
artists, young artists, we are focusing on craftsman we are focusing
on emerging artists in a sense that you have been in production
for the past three years or four years of your life but have not
had any formal exhibitions in your life so that’s where we
are coming in and source either funding or source spaces , source
the right marketing tool this is where the data base also comes
in because a database is the market which will follow an artist
you know so as long as you get recognize within this kind of formality
where we are a brand then people can easily recognize us by any
of the projects that we have because we will be having a logo on
top of that so that logo will be a brand in future for other projects.
- MAK:
Now today,… in your own opinion, what do you think the role
of the curator is?
- NRM: I think…
- MAK: having done the rehearsal exhibitions
having participated in the For Sale Exhibitions and now with the
Neo Emergence exhibitions and having had the opportunity to go abroad
and come back specifically in south Africa, I know in the beginning
you alluded to the fact of creating opportunities to artists…I
am not sure whether that’s part of the answer; what is the
role, what do you think is the role of the curator in South Africa
- NRM: I think, first of all I think a curator
might be a wrong word currently for my opinion I think we should
look into another beautiful word for a curator for it creates a
lot of expectations and we are currently changing a lot of approaches
in terms of how we present artists therefore I think a curator should
be a good administrator of artists, irrespective of the background
and should be a good manager of artists, should take care of them
as if they’re your own babies and shouldn’t compromised
on talent just because an artist is not being able to produce something
or come up with a product you should always leave some sort of a
loop, a space for the artists to come back and prove themselves
that’s why I am saying you should be a good administrator
because whatever projects you have had you should always return
back to them and I’ve always told my self that it is hard
to be a curator because south Africa does not have any a schools
for curotorial studies but since I have done the For Sale Project
Exhibition as an artists and as a co-curator and I’ve done
the Rehearsal Exhibition where we were rehearsing our presentations
and formalities as artists and also coming to Neo Emergence Exhibition
which is now like the matured product I’ve realized that it
is not necessary, it is not very necessary to go to school to acquire
some sort of a paper or a certificate to be a curator you should
just manipulate your way through in terms of how you do your administration
and how also do you do your management in everything in a project.
I think that answers it.
- MAK: ...In a way you are alluding to the
fact that besides the arts administrator’s responsibility
to the exhibition slash curator should, you know eh, work towards
a hands on experience…that’s what you mean?
- NRM: It is more like when you do an experiment
even as an as an artist starting off with your career you’re
still finding your self, you’re still finding elements which
work in your canvas, so eventually it goes with maturity because
you cannot make it in the first few years of your life, it needs
to be a process and it does not have to be a habit it’s a
career because what ever you do, what ever you dream about it goes
must be another project and you must get better every time you know,
so it is more like polishing each of the projects every time you
do it, do it better, you know, so that’s how you grow as a
curator, so you don’t have to have anybody with a different
background to influence you too much because every body has a personal
taste in how they want to do administration in how they want to
do, you know, logistics. It is actually an art making process in
its own self because it’s a creative mode where you are thinking
about the kind of artwork you want of have in the space, the kind
of artist, the respect that they have towards their artworks, that’s
also you know, sort of things you need to look into for any of the
projects, so you might not go too well with any of the projects
that you doing currently but it will,…in the other…in
the next project then you grow better, then you know who to look
into, you know who is focused enough to produce enough artworks
for each of the projects. And Also how you source funding plays
a major role because who acquire funding from, because sometimes,
it is more like patronizing who when that somebody, funding you,
is not entirely buying into your idea but is more in it for a personal
…whereas they’re not part of the project; its more like
giving the money, but becoming better it means who do you want to
become a patron for your projects, you need people who will follow
you up in terms of financial support or any of the logistical support
to any of the projects that you are doing, so that’s also
part of the growth into curatorial functions.

- MAK: .. in the present exhibition the Neo
Emergence Exhibition…what informed the selection of the artists
that are shown in the exhibition?
- NRM: That’s a very long one… already
via smaller exhibition..we, as a curator, I already had a number
of artists that I have grown into from the previous exhibitions
and also from the Tshwane University which have been a part of its
recognizable talent already there artists which were in a stable
in a stable to actually select from but also you were looking into
the efforts that they have put in any of the previous exhibitions.
And then we realize that the funding that we were going to acquire
from the SANAVA and the Lottery were actually for a foreign exhibition
, we realize that that we should be having a number certain number
of foreign artists to be able to acquire funding, that’s when
I also looked into my network and databases to say I have dealt
with artists from professional institutions so in this case we do
not have to focus any more into Pretoria as I have done it before
so I’ve also contacted the bag factory in Johannesburg, personally
with the artists, and also I’ve gone to the Artists Proof
Studio to source whether it was not validated to actually have prints
as one of the aspect as art making process in South Africa and then
I went to the Market Photo Workshop because we realize that we needed
photographers because it is also very well supported medium of art
making in South Africa currently and then I’ve also combined
different in Africa so it was Nigeria, Kenya and then, South Africa,
it was Johannesburg and Pretoria we can even go to Eastern Cape
and Mpumalanga for currently Gauteng is more like a cultural hub
where people come from different spaces and look for opportunities.
It was easier to source artists from Gauteng Province because then
you can have different artists representing all the localities in
South Africa. I also had to look into a personalized invitation
to each of the eight artists presented in Neo Emergence but is was
very informal just to source how they work what’s their medium
whether it will be suitable to be part of the exhibition so each
one of them has also shown a capability of production. So they were
chosen under the basis that they had artworks readily available
which have not been shown in any of the previous exhibitions. Ke
bua thata kelebetse le gore ne ke reng.
- MAK: No don’t worry we are on track,
so artists production and their activeness was a major point in
selection or the invitation of the artists to participate in the
exhibition?
- NRM: Yes, it can suicidal to source people due
to their personality, being in their studios personally also made
me realize that these people are also hard workers and people who
tend to enjoy their labour in art making for me it made them professional
artists irrespective of whether they have shown in professional
galleries or not.
- MAK: Thank you. Now after practicing as an
artist you’re self during your fine arts studies what compelled
you to go into curatorship?
NRM: (laughs) eh that’s a tough one,..
MAK: What compelled you…?
Nthabiseng Rachel Montshiwa: What happened is let
say from my first year as an art student it was not easy studying
to be an artist because of financial reasons, and then in the long
run you get commission because of the efforts you put into your
own school work, you know, and then eventually you get to the communication
class, and then you get this fun cheerful lecture like Abrie Fourie
who at one gave us an assignment, I think it was in second or third
year, that he gave us an assignment that said ‘go and find
out what a curator does’ his constant motivation, now I remember
very clearly, was you have to recognize your self as an artist who
will be showing in galleries you know so you have to visit art galleries
and see how they do presentations so that sort of changed my mind
a bit to say that now if I make artworks I have to think about presentations
and then I visited the Pretoria Art Museum to do my assignment on
the curator and then I spoke to Mrs. Dirkie Offringa and then she
gave me a huge file of curatorial functions more like what the curator
needs to fill up before they get a job done and it was like a hundred
something page long document and at that time I thought maybe this
is a difficult work but it sounded interesting because the way she
explained it is that you just have to look into what interests you
more into the documents. And then it starts talking about a museum
worker who displays artworks and then the thinking process into
how you put artworks from artists it is different than just hanging
them in a easy curio shop
.
And from then on I started….well because it was an assignment
it only ended me making a good report on the assignment because
of the documentation that I got from the Pretoria Art Museum, but
none the less because I was also a volunteer, I was an Education
Assistants at the Pretoria Art Museum, it also enticed me into curatorial
studies, well it was a study because it is a thinking process and
then we did exhibitions ko Centurion Art Gallery where did For Sale
which was a lot of fun to see everybody put up their own artworks
from different kinds of subject matter but also that presentation
of measuring a wall, the relationship on how a viewer will walk
in, you know, and see the artworks from different angles and not
hiding anything behind any walls, I thought it was a beautiful thing
to do, and then in the later year you still do the same thing which
is the For Sale and then you get better at it, you know, although
I was not there for the second For Sale, I was already in Germany
for the Germany South Africa Bilateral Exchange Project, it already
became a big shoe for me because I had not had any, what I will
call a formal practice like when you are in a museum where you follow
up or you are being shadowed by a curator; it was nothing like that,
so I took the opportunity because I have already done space curating
but not knowing that it actually falls under curotorial studies,
so the German trip, the two month stay in Germany also alarmed me
a lot, a lot, where you get into a foreign country you realize that
fellow curators recognize you as a curator from Africa and then
there is an expectation that you should know certain elements (chuckles)
and that every topic in a coffee shop or in any meeting its about
at and the you get very frustrated because you haven’t done
any of the practices before, you know, so if they talk about storage,
yes you understand storage but you do not understand restoration,
you don’t understand paper, you don’t understand handling
of artworks, you don’t understand when artworks sits in the
gallery on the floor you have to start putting them on the wall
or thinking where everything should be and then that’s when
we did a show from south Africa when we were in a museum in Bochum,
in Germany, it was called Reality Check, it was South African photography
showing the progress of South Africa in 2007…
we were stunned, my companion Nontobeko because the artworks were
delivered in the space and this other guy from the museum tells
us can we start. We did not know how to start, we did not know what
he meant, you know and then we tried to see where everything will
fit which was almost enjoyable but uncomfortable because you don’t
know what the other person wants or what are they looking for...
And then we found out on
the following Monday that all the artworks were reshuffled (chuckles),
it was…we could not put anything the way, and then we started
visiting Documenta, we started doing all these other trips to different
galleries and then as walked into this kind of process you realize
that Documenta is not a fair in terms of market fair like in a vegetable
fair, but curation, everybody talks about curation, wherever you
get criticism its about the curator having made a mistake about
presenting something, so and so and then you realize that the seminar
which actually encompasses the whole project…helps the curator
to grow and get better from their project; where do you fix things
and then we started talking with my companion that maybe this is
worth considering also to see the Munster Sculpture Park because
it’s a sculptural thing and I also studied sculpture which
was even more…
I was keen to visit the sculptures in public space which was something
that I haven’t experienced before any wherein the world. Then
we started looking into things on how artworks are presented, what
is the suitable way; the whole formation – if you have a map
how things are placed and that’s why now I am more obsessed
about presentation because without a good presentation you’re
not a good curator. You may have crappy artworks but its up to you
to make it work, because you’re the middleman between the
viewer and the artist, and also you speak for the artists at that
time because then the artist might not be available but you should
be able to defend the show on a good basis, …looking back
today the experience in Germany was a wakeup call to say you either
have to make a decision to be an artist or a curator.
And I chose to be a curator
because I found my joy in resenting artists. And then that’s
I started also…when I came back we decided to do a show in
order to demonstrate what I had gleaned from the experience abroad.
That when we did the Rehearsal Art Exhibition, which was a good
show, well attended, well recognized, its not very easy to get good
buyers on a first chance you get in terms of presenting artists,
that’s when Dr. Ralf Seippel ga a ne a reka spane sa Danelle
Janse van Rensburg and Wayne Vivier which was good because it shows
that you put effort into it and was working and also in the meantime
because they had seen that show, it was a test, because that’s
how I got the job yak o Nairox Foundation to be a young curator
there…(silence)…so it means if I done a crappy job ka
Rehearsal Art Exhibition they would’ve said that maybe it
was not a good idea to suggest this girl, she’s crappier than
we thought (laughs)….
Mmutle Arthur Kgokong: Thank you Nthabiseng,
that’s it. That’s the end of our interview.
Subtext:
Opening New Pathways
The German South Africa bilateral programme was formed with the
aim to support upcoming artists as well as to develop new curators
both in South Africa and Germany through an exchange programme.
Its board members first met in Cape Town, Kleinbosch in 2006 to
deliberate on the challenges that the arts are facing in terms of
new curators coming into the fore specifically as private practitioners
as well as opportunities for new emerging artists. The emergence
of new curators, it was seen, would be ideal in stimulating the
contemporary art scene by discovering new artists as well as have
candidates who would be ideal for positions in art galleries should
positions be available in the future thus curbing out the problem
of institutions having to employ curators who are not properly trained
practically.
The intention of the assembled board was to propose a solution to
these challenges. At the end of the first symposium:
- The board members decided to nominate candidates who will be suitable
to be part of the exchange programme in 2007.
In 2007 Nthabiseng R. Montshiwa was selected together with Nontobeko
Ntombela to participate in the exchange programme as part of the
South African pair. Christian Ganzenberg and Matthias Schamp represented
Germany. The South African pair had the opportunity to visit Germany
to be expose to the art scene in Munster, Kassel (Documenta), Cologne
as well as Berlin. The German pair in turn were expose to South
African art through visiting Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and
Cape Town. The trainee curators later met in Germany to begin to
conceptualize an exhibition which will showcase contemporary art
of South African and German artists which was to be schedule to
tour both countries in 2010 to coincide with the FIFA 2010 World
Cup in South Africa. Unfortunately in 2009 due to logistical problems
the Bilateral Programme flopped before it could reach its maturity
which will have seen an impressive exhibition of contemporary art
of both South Africa and Germany at a time when the world’s
attention was focus on South Africa.
The Pretoria Art Museum is proud that the return of Nthabiseng R.
Montshiwa from the encounters of the exchange programme saw her
take strides in developing as a curator. This is evident in the
Rehearsal Art Exhibitions that she curated both in 2008 and 2009
at the Centurion Art Gallery, these exhibitions focused on art students
studying fine arts at Unisa, TUT and University of South Africa
as well as self taught practitioners. Nthabiseng has since moved
on to be a curator at Nirox Foundation located at the Cradle of
Mankind.
With the support of the Pretoria Art Museum’s Education and
Development Programme she has now brought together diverse artists
into a group exhibition entitled Neo Emergence Art Exhibition which
focuses on professional practicing artists based in Gauteng.
21 September
© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010
Should the reader be interested
in other works by the writer they may link below
http://bluesuit.wordpress.com/
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