Son[i]a #231
Kendell Geers
Kendell Geers ran away from home at fifteen, leaving behind the oppressive environment of a highly authoritarian working class Afrikaans family. This early experience also led him to develop a deep mistrust of power structures in general, and eventually ended up shaping his ideas about art and the way he connects concepts through his practice.
In the mid-eighties, just before going into exile for political reasons, he was a member of KOOS, a post-punk band with a cult following founded by artist Neil Goedhals and actor Marcel van Heerden: an explosive mix of dissent, poetry, and the rejection of a system that was clearly on the brink of collapse. “Any form of power for me is something that needs to be questioned and challenged. Today I’m still concerned with that same question of how power manifests and how an artist may intersect with those structures of power.”
Involved in the anti-apartheid movement from a very young age, his work reflects a context with many layers of conflict, and acerbically points out the social and racial imbalances of South African society and its colonial history. At first, in his early works along the lines of readymades and conceptual art – always shocking and provocative (like his bomb threat that ended up at Documenta) – and later turning towards exploring the spiritual realm and altered states of consciousness.
SON[I]A talks to Kendell Geers about terrorism, linguistic violence, Africanness and socio-political tensions before and after apartheid.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some outtakes from our conversation with South African artist Sethembile Msezane, who riffs on our disconnection from nature. Movement, water, ancestry and spirituality also come up, along with some side notes on the different types of relationships that institutions and public space make possible.
Sethembile Msezane
Working from the foundations of historical narrative and its constructs, African knowledge systems, and a contemporary take on colonial wounds, South African artist Sethembile Msezane has an interdisciplinary practice that goes beyond critique. In this podcast, Sethembile talks about her rejection of modern throwaway culture, convinced that the history and experiences of ancestors contain clues and know-how that allow us to imagine different futures. She believes that good omens must enter through spirituality and dialogue with ancestors. Art is simply a tool.
Anti-racism and anti-colonial resistance from the perspective of people of African descent
We talk with Lucía Piedra Galarraga, Diego Falconí Travez and Karo Moret from the Study Group on Afro/Black Ideas, Practices, and Activisms about altars, ekekos, nefandos, Saint Barbara, and Valdivia's Siamese twins. They turn their attention to the politics of hair, talk about sugar as the star product plying the Caribbean routes, and acknowledge the usefulness of ashes in proving the extermination of the ancient Andean sodomite communities.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with Kendell Geers that we were unable to include the first time around.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with Christoph Draeger that we were unable to include the first time around.
Christoph Draeger
Christoph Draeger talks about disasters and disastertainment, surveillance, copies and originals, critical distance, reenactments, layers of meanings, and provocation.