Weekly Mail Reporter
READY or not, Africus: The Johannesburg Biennale — South Africa’s debut on the global fine arts circuit — will be throwing open its doors to the public on Tuesday, February 28.
With luck, buildings and roads will have been completed, a dignitary secured to make the opening speeches, and art works will be in place, in time for the opening at 6pm, in the forecourt of the Electric Workship, one of the core Biennale venues in Newtown.
Exhibitions of work by artists from more than 60 countries will be on view in Newtown — at MuseumAfrica, the Electric Workshop, the Old Fuba Building and environs — as well as on shows at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Gertrude Posel Gallery at the University of the Witwatersrand, Sandton Art Gallery, the Standard Bank Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Foundation and a number of other venues.
Fringe events and shows will be taking place concurrently, with a “trek” leading on opening night from the Electric Workshop to the nearby Laager, where 14 local artists will be exhibiting work in huge shipping containers in the shape of a laager. Dance, music, pupperty and performance will culminate in a free rave.
Among a host of events extending throughout the rest of the week, on Wednesday March 1 artists and curators will discuss their work at MuseumAfrica from 10am till 4pm, while a group exhibition, Taking Liberties: The Body Politic, will open at the Gertrude Posel Gallery at 5pm with a bash featuring body builders, pop videos and a performance by storyteller Gcina Mhlope.
A three-day conference on the visual arts — titled Bua! Emergent Voices — will kick off at Mega Music Warehouse in Newtown on March 2.
Don’t miss the Weekly Mail & Guardian’s Biennale supplement — a critical guide to what’s on where — next Friday. For information about the main Biennale events, phone 838-6407; for details of the fringe, call James de Villiers on 834-3711