Digital Diaspora at the Cape of Good Hope

On Sunday the 12th of October 97 the 2nd Biennial of South Africa was
opened in Johannesburg in the Newtown cultural precinct. This Biennial
should be complimented for looking at the multiple implications of
globalisation from an African point of view, thereby adding a new twist
to the ever popular discussions of the global/local problematic. It
reversed the usual South to North direction of cultural import, with
more than 50% of the participating artists being born in the Southern
hemisphere.

The 2nd Biennial was an ambitious project, an attempt to put
Johannesburg on the map of true "world exhibitions" with more than 300
participating artists and conference speakers from all around the globe.
The exhibition was spread out over four different venues in Johannesburg
alone plus two more places in Cape Town. The artistic director and main
curator Okwui Enwezor and his assistant Octavio Zaya developed the
Biennial theme of "Trade Routes - History and Geography" in their
curatorial statements and in the main exhibition "Alternating Currents".
The works of 85 artists were shown in a huge building called "Electric
Workshop" - a former power plant refitted to the needs of the Biennial.
Five other curators also took on subjects of trade routes,
post-colonialism and globalisation in their own exhibitions, namely Yu
Yeon Kim (Transversions), Hou Hanru (Hongkong etc.), Gerardo Mosquera
(Important and Exportant), Kellie Jones (Life's Little Necessities), and
Colin Richards (Graft). Additional projects using billboards and media
as well as a conference and a film programme complemented this
mega-project which came together under unique and difficult
circumstances in a country caught in the process of transformation.

[…]

During the Biennial I recorded many conversations. Given the ideas
behind the Biennial, I decided to compose a collage of different
opinions rather than to write a linear text from my singular point of
view. The multiplicity of voices was one of the key achievements of this
event; unavoidably, this multiplicity sometimes resulted in a kind of
babylonic confusion. (The following quotations are based on
transcriptions of my recordings which I have slightly edited.)

Okwui Enwezor, artistic director of the Biennial who was born in Nigeria
and is based in New York:

"For me the main question was how to approach this subject of
globalisation. But not globalisation as a phenomenon unique to the 20th
century but as something which has a much longer historical trajectory.
So within this problematic of globalisation which multinationals have
sort of stolen, we have quite a few questions we think about, whether it
is migration, identity, nationalism, post-colonialism, colonialism and
so on. It was an opportunity for me to meditate on what it means at this
particular historical moment and to reflect on how economic imperatives
have produced very recent global cultural consequences."

Some of Okwui Enwezor's basic decisions concerning the organisation of
the event were supported by many artists and visitors.

"I am pretty much seduced by the fact that the national pavilions have
been abolished and that artists are not representing their countries but
are just showing works as individual artists and we are all mixed
together." - Alfredo Jaar, artist, New York/Chile, (Transversions)

"I like this Biennial because they are not looking for artists who are
from this country or from that country, instead they invited artists who
fit with their concept. They try to break down this idea of nationality
and I feel very comfortable with this." - Juan Carlos Robles,
Berlin/Spain (Alternating Currents)

[…]

Okwui Enwezor's idea that the Biennial should "build a kind of five
point star in which different cultural and aesthetic positions can
mingle in a complex way letting each other know what we do", seemed to
work. Not only young artists but even Dennis Oppenheim, one of the stars
of the exhibition, apparently enjoyed the communicative spirit of the
Biennial. Oppenheim told me that he particularly liked that different
events were "infiltrated" by young South Africans who were all eager to
see and to learn. He also pointed out that the curators of the mayor
U.S. museums were present, along with the representatives of the leading
art publications. Alfredo Jaar, another "name" in this exhibition,
shared this feeling:

"Almost a third of the artists are from SA, we are all mixed together,
they have a strong presence, we are meeting people, we are becoming
shown around and we are becoming friends."

[…]

The questions of identity and its formation provoked endless discussion
which did not arrive at any resolution. When Catherine David, the
curator of documenta X, said during "The Politics of Mega-exhibitions"
panel that she prefers to think about identity as a lifelong process of
identification rather than a fixed category, she was attacked in a very
emotional way by parts of the audience. The argument of her opponents
was that in order to be able to choose an identity you need some degree
of agency, but in Africa many people lack this power and are getting
"identified" without being able to respond.

Catherine David later said in a private conversation: "I am tired of
this grocery shop idea of identity. It is a very Anglo-Saxon notion: be
what you want but stay where you are. I am coming from a very republican
regime. I prefer the idea of citizenship to isolated communities."

[…]

There is no final judgement about this Biennial and there cannot be any
yet. The show will be going on for 11 more weeks and we can only hope
that it will have some long lasting effects on the public in SA and that
it can also contribute to the difficult process of transformation in
this country. The Johannesburg Biennial offered an intense experience
for whose able and willing to attend. Please go and listen…

+ + +

This abridged article originally appeared in the net.culture magazine
Telepolis and may be read in full at
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/sa/3125/1.html. Also of interest
is the English interface for Telepolis found at
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/default.html.