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Parallel Play v.2 commences in our gallery.
Between exhibitions, itâs a time to measure, mend, test, archive, and make, working in parallel with artist colleagues who are invited to create mobile studios on the gallery floor.
Pictured here is 1) sculpture unpacking, 2) with assistance from
A4 Arts Foundationâs Curatorial Connective (CX) 2022 is now accepting applications from emerging curators.*
Successful applicants will have in common a demonstrable commitment to the arts and concerns of South Africa and the Global South regardless of where they are currently based, and the role of the curator (broadly defined but not excluding the traditional) in activating this work for the public.
CX 2022âs programme takes place in person, over seven days of conversations, seminars, and exchanges, at A4âs laboratory in Cape Town.
Dates: 11â18 December 2022.
Place: 23 Buitenkant Street, District Six, Cape Town.
Deadline for submission: Friday 4 November 2022.
CX 2022âs seminars in Cape Town will be led by A4 Arts Foundationâs 2021 Fellowship recipients Mark Godfrey and Kerryn Greenberg, together with Rudi Minto de Wijs.
CX 2022 explores five research topics:
How artists relate to technology;
Environmental justice;
Spirituality, ritual and myth;
Censorship and self-censorship;
Restitution.
*Application to the CX 2022 is open to emerging curators. âEmergingâ is a broad category that we at A4 use to refer to an early-career curator who may or may not have formal training or qualifications. We recognise that curators play a myriad of roles â and must wear multiple hats â in arts ecologies that are less well-resourced. We will prioritise applicants that make work happen, activate local ecologies, engage artistic communities and commit to both conservation and innovation: caring for artists and artworks while working in maverick and curious ways.
A warm thank you to all who attended the openings of Model in the Reading Room and Funhouse in Goods, and to those who participated in Saturdayâs chess tournament at proto~ for the launch Brett Seilerâs chessboard. Congratulations to the winner who was awarded the coveted âTop Cockâ trophy, courtesy of the artist đ
Pictured: (1) The chess trophies briefly join A4's about wall in anticipation of the prize-giving; (2) Photographs from Phumzile Khanyileâs âPlastic Crownsâ series (2016â) in Model; (3) Visitors engage with Guy Simpsonâs âEeyoreâ (2022), a colour-by-numbers work included in Funhouse; (4) The final match of the tournament sees Rowan play against Claude. All images © for A4 Arts Foundation.
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Let the games begin! â
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A Mend offering â assembled on the last day of Customs by an anonymous visitor â makes a bid for permanence. Glued to the table, is it a farewell gift or a quiet protest against endings?
Customs is now closed. We disassemble Yoko Onoâs âMend Pieceâ (1966/2018) until some future time. Our thanks to all who participated in Mend (âwith wisdomâ, âwith loveâ, âwith your whole heartâ, as Yoko Onoâs poetic instructions entreat) as contributors to the public performance and sculptural artwork, to the artists who participated in Customs, and Sumayya Vally, who curated the exhibition together with Josh Ginsburg.
Our Gallery now lies fallow until Summer, but there is still plenty to come see at A4. This Saturday, 15 October, Nkhensani Mkhari curates Model in the Reading Room, Funhouse considers artworks as games in Goods, and Brett Selier together with proto~ our store launches his chess set. All between 10â2 on Saturday.
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Last chance to visit Customs curated by Sumayy Vally and Josh Ginsburg.
âAs we began to gather artworks [for this exhibition], we were pursuing a shared interest in practices that recognise âinarticulableâ knowledge. I say inarticulable, not because they are not being articulated, but because their articulations counter dominant bodies of knowledge and categorisation. They offer other entry points to engage, and hold other systems and logics embedded within them.â â Sumayya Vally
Our foundation is always free to visit. Opening hours are:
MondayâFriday 10amâ5.30pm
Saturday 10amâ2pm
The exhibition closes this Saturday 8 October at 2pm.
Pictured: (1) Moshekwa Langa, âWhat is a home without a motherâ (2008); (2) Kapwani Kiwanga, âVumbiâ (2012); and (3) George Hallett, âPeter Clarkeâs Tongueâ (1979) with Peter Clarke, âAnxietyâ (1969) on the far wall; seen throughout is Dor Guez, âDouble Stitchâ (2022).
Come visit
Saturday 11â2 in Goods.
Hanna Noor Mahomed maps the social geography of Cape Townâs artistic landscape by collaging, drawing, painting, and pasting monotypes over the wall installation that marked the beginning of Social.
Informed by Noor Mahomedâs experiences as a young artist and woman of colour, Disruption is a playful-but-serious critique of Cape Townâs art ecosystemâs âperceived bubble of exclusivity,â according to curator Khanya Mashabela. âArt worlds mirror and respond to the sociological imbalances of their broader contexts.â
Working with, through, and upon Goods, Noor Mahomed expands upon the ever-shifting function of the space by using it as an artist residency and visual microcosm of the city.
(Presented in the previous iteration of Goods and curated by Khanya Mashabela, Social is a growing archive of graphic material submitted by practitioners through an open call. Socialâs posters, flyers and photographs record independent artist initiatives in Cape Town.)
About Goods
Goods is a project space for work in process and thinking aloud. Creative practitioners are invited to rapid prototype exhibition-making through offerings that are shared with visitors. The locationâs transitory nature as a thoroughfare is reflected in Goodsâ fast-paced, open-ended, multi-disciplinary programming. The small scale of the physical space encourages a light-footed navigation of curatorial and artistic practice in its many forms.
Coordinated by
Entrance to A4 is always free.
Gentle reminder to submit material evidence (be these flyers, posters, photographs) of your independent, practitioner led projects. Khanya Mashabela is building a digital archive of the independent arts ecology, to become a public resource, for Social.
Images are installation shots of a first staging of Social towards the building of an archive, in Goods, on 6 August.
đłSubmission form on our web and link in bio.
You are invited to celebrate the launch of âPanya Routes: Independent art spaces in Africaâ, with UCTâs African Centre for Cities.
The author, Kim Gurney, will be in conversation with Neo Muyanga.
Tomorrow, Thursday 11 August | 5:30pm for 6pm.
As Gurney puts forward in her book, âPanya Routesâ, published by Motto Books, is about the do-it-yourself, do-it-together working principles of independent art spaces on the continent. Such spaces are built for purpose not profit and act as urban indicators in fast-changing cities of flux. Art is embedded into everyday life; itâs not only for saying things but also for doing things.
Beer and snacks kindly provided by
Please DM us to let us know youâll be attending, or email
[email protected]
The book will be for sale via snapscan and card.
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Itâs a National school holiday tomorrow!
Our team have been working hard so weâre following the example set by the kids. A4 will be closed tomorrow, together with the public holiday on Tuesday that follows.
A4 reopens on Wednesday.
Enjoy the break!
Image: Binelde Hyrcanâs âCambeckâ (2011).
Tomorrow: Saturday! 11â2
Join us for Social, an ongoing project curated by with coordinating.
âAlongside Cape Townâs more formalised network of commercial galleries and institutions, is a dynamic history of artist-initiated projects. Collaborative processes create independent spaces, exhibitions, events, and publications which are often momentary, but which have the potential to bloom into long-lasting, generative relationships.
Social is an invitation to gather and to contribute to a visual archive of posters, physical and digital flyers, installation photographs, exhibition texts, and zines made in support of artist initiatives.â
Link in bio to submit to the digital archive.
Georgia Munnik at .a4 ~, working with distillations of blue carbon paper for tinting rose petals, lichen, kelp lace, leaf trace and locust wings, and with the colour of yearning (where the artist designates blue ink as the excess of western taxonomic hierarchies for naming the world in order to know it better).
.booch kombucha
Animation:
A new round of repairs begins.
đ«¶đ
Customs reopens August 19
Goods is open this Saturday
11â2
for Social, kicking off an open call for material that records independent, practitioner-led exhibitions and projects in Cape Town.
Georgia Munnik is in proto~ our museum store on
Saturday 11â2 with âA book written for the viruses in your bodyâ, light-box sculpture, âOutside Organsâ Tees and limited edition Hartford Carriers.
Come visit!
Serving kombucha from .booch
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đNotification
Customs will be temporarily closed from today,
3 August and will reopen on
Friday 19 August.
The exhibition will be extended beyond 24 September, updated closing date to follow soon.
Unfortunately, our building has to undergo some emergency waterproofing repairs that are beyond our control.
The good news!Our Library, Reading Room together with Yoko Onoâs âMend Pieceâ (1966/2018) as well as Goods and proto~ remain open.
Come visit us this Saturday for Social in Goods and Georgia Munnik in proto~, 11â2.
Images:
All installations views of Customs, curated by Sumayya Vally and Josh Ginsburg.
Artworks LâR
1) Dor Guez
âSamiraâ (2020); Kapwani Kiwanga
âGroundâ (2012); Steve McQueen
âRemember Meâ (2016);
and seen on floor and walls throughout Customs: Dor Guez, âDouble Stitchâ (2022).
2) Binelde Hyrcan
âCambeckâ (2011)
3) Moshekwa Langa, âWhat is a home without a motherâ (2008)