A4 Arts Foundation

A4 Arts Foundation A4 is a free to public not-for-profit laboratory for the arts of Southern Africa

To book, follow the link in bio, or scan the QR code.
06/09/2023

To book, follow the link in bio, or scan the QR code.

‘Not knowing is a good place to start’ – Dor Guez and Josh Ginsburg talk within the framework made by ‘Double Stitch’ – ...
06/09/2023

‘Not knowing is a good place to start’ –

Dor Guez and Josh Ginsburg talk within the framework made by ‘Double Stitch’ – the first work chosen by co-curators Sumayya Vally and Josh for the exhibition Customs.

The curators built Customs from the fabric that ‘Double Stitch’ (2022) spread across the foundation’s floors and walls.

Guez’s ‘Amid Imperial Grids’ saw ‘Double Stitch’ transposed and translated for the architecture of the Felix Nussbaum Haus Osnabrück.




Come visit Busted HeadSaturday 10am–2pmBusted Head, the title of Boytchie’s residency in Goods, explores the ability of ...
31/08/2023

Come visit Busted Head
Saturday 10am–2pm

Busted Head, the title of Boytchie’s residency in Goods, explores the ability of objects to evoke both aggression and fragility.

Saturday’s presentation begins with a sculpture: an abstracted figure holding an axe and sitting in a chair.

In conversation with A4 curator Mitchell Gilbert Messina in preparation for Busted Head, Boytchie and Mitchell discussed the sculpture – “To me, the figure is not doing anything, it's just sitting on a chair. But it's perceived as ready to attack.” The adjectives they found to describe it: precarious, dangerous, broken. Imagining the sculpture walking, they could only picture it falling – or tripping, perhaps, over the stigmas of violence, connotations of aggression, and structures of toxic masculinity that Boytchie investigates. These investigations begin, more often, with drawing – “I always think back to scratching into a school desk or doodling on a textbook…making that begins unconsciously, and becomes more conscious.”

A number of moments – installations comprising the artist’s sculptures, paintings, notational works and sketches – will take place in the project space over a fortnight.

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 location’s transitory nature as a thoroughfare is reflected in Goods’ 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.



You’re invited! Walkabout of You to Me, Me to You, Wednesday, 23 August, 12 pm. Before he returns to Mexico City, curato...
20/08/2023

You’re invited!
Walkabout of You to Me, Me to You,
Wednesday, 23 August, 12 pm.

Before he returns to Mexico City, curator Francisco Berzunza will be walking about the exhibition.

Please join us for this opportunity to hear about the curator’s process.

Please DM us if you’ll be attending the walkabout.

A4 is always free/ no entry fee.

L–R
Iñaki Bonillas, ‘The Return to the Origin’, 2010/2023
Moshekwa Langa, ‘Index Drawing (you give me the creeps)’, 2004

Image credit: courtesy A4 Arts Foundation

bonillas


Come join us tomorrow (Saturday)for the opening of You to Me, Me to You. Walkabout with the curator at 12pm followed by ...
11/08/2023

Come join us tomorrow (Saturday)for the opening of You to Me, Me to You.

Walkabout with the curator at 12pm followed by a musical arrangement.

Pictured on the facade of A4:
James Webb, ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ (isiXhosa), 2017.

Kukho Ukukhanya Okungasoze Kuphele.


10/08/2023

Exhibition installation with artist-in-residence Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo and curator Francisco Berzunza.

You to Me, Me to You
opens Saturday.
10am–2pm

Walkabout with the curator at 12pm followed by a musical arrangement.

A4 is always free: no entry fee.


Come visit us on Saturday as we celebrate the opening of You to Me, Me to You, curated by Francisco Berzunza. 10am–2pmWa...
09/08/2023

Come visit us on Saturday as we celebrate the opening of You to Me, Me to You, curated by Francisco Berzunza.

10am–2pm

Walkabout with the curator at 12pm.

Musical performance of an arrangement by Philip Miller.

RAQ radio will be streaming live from A4 during the event, chatting with participating artists.

Iñaki Bonillas and Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo are both in residence at A4 in preparation for the exhibition.

Image: Bas Jan Ader, Bulletin 89, in search of the miraculous (songs for the north atlantic ), 1975, included in You to Me, Me to You, courtesy of a private collector in Mexico City.

A4 is always free: no entry fee.

We’re serving coffee.



Please join us to celebrate the opening of You to Me, Me to You, a love letter in the form of an exhibition, curated by ...
31/07/2023

Please join us to celebrate the opening of You to Me, Me to You,
a love letter in the form of an exhibition, curated by Francisco Berzunza.

Saturday 12 August
10am–2pm

“Love can be the desire – and the frustration – of becoming one with another,” says Berzunza, addressing the perils of unrequited love. The political and social barriers against loving are multiple, and multiply. Are practitioners averse to dealing in love as a subject of discursive study? Art, averse to sentimentality, may fear touching the word itself – that ‘love’, glibly used, is loosed from any meaning.

To love, and to be loved, is to risk; love’s climb the highest and headiest we may know, with little prospect of accruing any perspective en route.

The exhibition marks a return for Berzunza from his home in Mexico, to South Africa. Having lived in Cape Town in 2014 and again in 2016, Berzunza became intimately connected to the city and its artistic practitioners. On his return to Mexico, he determined to begin a dialogue between artistic communities working from and around these two countries. His efforts produced the first iteration of Hacer Noche (Crossing Night) in Oaxaca, 2018, which asked after practices of death and commemoration.

You to Me, Me to You includes artworks from:
Bas Jan Ader
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Iñaki Bonillas
Dineo Seshee Bopape
Sophie Calle
Miguel Cinta Robles
Dexter Dalwood
Georgina Gratrix
Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo
Pieter Hugo
Graciela Iturbide
James Ivory
Moshekwa Langa
Thato Makatu
Philip Miller
Tina Modotti
Jo Ractliffe
Dayanita Singh
Slavs and Tatars
Pedro Slim
Kemang Wa Lehulere
James Webb

“Love,” in Berzunza’s telling, “may well be the act of sharing our loneliness with each other.”

RAQ radio will be broadcasting live from A4 Arts Foundation at the event.



bonillas
hugo.official














Come visit on Saturday as we prepare to close Common, curated by Khanya Mashabela. Walkabout with at 11am, followed by ...
19/07/2023

Come visit on Saturday as we prepare to close Common, curated by Khanya Mashabela.

Walkabout with at 11am,
followed by Matthew Partridge’s RAQ radio at 12pm.
At 1pm, Nyauist will be interacting with a selection of vinyl from Kudzanai Chiurai’s ‘The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember’ (2017–) included in Common, during a special set taking place in the gallery among the works, and hosted by RAQ radio.

If you’re unable to attend in person, RAQ will be live streaming Matthew and Nyauist’s sets.
Follow the link in bio to stream, Saturday 22 July 12–2pm.

Downstairs .a4, there’s a book launch from the index collective: Paul Wallington’s ‘Out of Eden’ and ‘Two Toads & Other Poems’ by Emily Rae Smith Labuschagne.

A4 is always free; no entry fee.
We’re serving coffee.






We’re hiring!Download the PDF in our bio for details on the role and responsibilities, and for how to apply.
14/06/2023

We’re hiring!
Download the PDF in our bio for details on the role and responsibilities, and for how to apply.

Last year, we were fortunate to host this jam in Basel with these exceptional cats. The feedback we received from the au...
09/06/2023

Last year, we were fortunate to host this jam in Basel with these exceptional cats. The feedback we received from the audience was of the exhilarated and euphoric variety – stuff like, “This is the bloody best thing in Basel.”

Which is to say: we’re doing it again this year. The band is back together for this special performance, brought to you by A4.

Come spend Monday evening with us: immaculate vibes, no cover charge/ free entry, 7–10pm.




Editor Keely Shinners has invited ArtThrob’s founder, Sue Williamson, together with former editors Sean O’Toole, and Mat...
05/05/2023

Editor Keely Shinners has invited ArtThrob’s founder, Sue Williamson, together with former editors Sean O’Toole, and Matthew Blackman, to come together to celebrate that it’s been 25 years of ArtThrob, and there’s an extraordinary book of collected writings to prove it.

The ‘Eds’ will be sharing anecdotes and personal reflections on each’s time at the helm.

Books will be for sale.
Spier is kindly serving wine.

Hope to see you tomorrow! You’re welcome to DM us to reserve your seat.

Explore Common in our gallery from 10am–2pm, then come upstairs for the book launch.
Common is curated by Khanya Mashabela.
shinners



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Wednesday 10:00 - 17:30
Thursday 10:00 - 17:30
Friday 10:00 - 17:30
Saturday 10:00 - 14:00

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