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Curatorial Connective 2021
Research 12 April–28 May 2021
Design element for the 2021 rendition of A4’s Curatorial Connective. Photographic fragments of the storage racks in A4’s archive are arranged across the page.
Design element: Curatorial Connective, April 12–May 28, 2021. Image courtesy of A4 Arts Foundation.
Title Curatorial Connective 2021 Dates 12 April–28 May 2021 Location Curatorial Studio Tagline Emerging curators are supported by A4 to attend a programme of workshops and seminars intended to facilitate access and encourage, among other things, exchange between curators and collections. Credits

Participants:
Amina Lawal Agoro
Essé Dabla-Attikpo
Amarie Gipson
Bethuel Githegi
Misha Krynauw 
Khanyisile Mawhayi
Nkhensani Mkhari
Lou Mo
Nkgopoleng Moloi
Frida Robles Ponce
Julie Reiter
Petra Swais

Contributors:
Igshaan Adams
Kevin Beasley
francis burger
Zipho Dayile
Nolan Dennis
Ziphozenkosi Dayile
Tandakazi Dhlakama
Wendy Fisher
Hendrik Folkerts
Melissa Goba
Thembinkosi Goniwe
Ashraf Jamal
Bonolo Kavula
Pulane Kingston
Jova Lynne
Portia Malatjie
Khanya Mashabela
Athi Patra-Ruga
Mitchell Gilbert Messina
HacerNoche
Sean O’Toole
Bhavisha Panchia
Jo Ractcliffe
Daniel Rautenbach
Robin Rhode
Alexandra Ross
Penny Siopis
Herman Steyn
Emile Stipp
Sumayya Vally
Piet Viljoen
Mfundi Vundla
Valentine Umansky

Participating collections:
Tshabalala Kingston Collection
Emile Stipp Collection
Vundla Collection
Scheryn Collection

Convenors: 
dr heeten bhagat
Josh Ginsburg
Kathryn Smith

Curatorial advisors:
Josh Ginsburg
Melissa Goba
Kathryn Smith

Producer (A4):
Sara De Beer

Producer (for patrons/ collectors):
Brett Scott

Portal design:
Ben Johnson

Librarians/ resource compilation:
Lucienne Bestall
Margot Dower

The Curatorial Connective (CX) was developed in response to the question:

How do we grow the critical middle between commerce and the academy?

Envisioned as a capacity and network-building programme for emerging curators on the continent, or for those working with a focus on the Global South, the first CX took place online.

Following an application inviting an ‘expanded definition of the curatorial’, twelve curators were chosen by an appointed selection committee to participate in a programme consisting of bi-weekly intensive online seminars. The CX sought to create opportunities for ‘access’, negotiated here as a significant obstacle to curatorial work in the region. Over thirty cultural practitioners working across the arts ecology shared their projects, processes and practices with the cohort through conversations and exchanges that took place over nine weeks.

Including ‘collection as practice’, the CX sought to build relationships between the participating curators and private collectors. The Scheryn Collection, Wendy Fisher, Pulane Kingston, Emile Stipp and Mfundi Vundla, each offered their support to the initiative. Engaging with the curators in online exchanges, the participating collectors selected works from within their private collections to share to an online Portal created for the programme. As a resource hub, the Portal became a central node within the CX; part library, part interactive environment where artworks that do not necessarily enjoy the opportunity to be researched and engaged with as those held in public collections might, could be shared and shown, albeit digitally.

The twelve curators were asked to enter the programme with a research question that could be developed throughout the programme. Iterations and wholesale shifts in research focus occurred throughout the process, with a research project shared at an online Symposium held to celebrate the close of the CX. Works from the Portal were shared and shown alongside works from the curators’ own regions, spaces, and places of interest, invigorating the works of South African artists through new and unexpected pairings and combinations. 

Ambient online ‘Kitchen’ sessions stood in for the more incidental, unscheduled encounters (passing a colleague in a shared studio on the way to make a cup of tea) that can be missed in the online environment.

The CX facilitated interactions with curators, artists, collectors, and arts workers to establish sites of intersection, build relationships, and create networks of exchange en route to exhibition making. 

CX key aims:

Provide emerging curators with access, information, and the opportunity to form partnerships within the arts ecology of South Africa.
In turn, collectors/ art patrons have the occasion to discuss works held within collections and explore their individual collecting methodology and practice. 
Facilitate conversation and knowledge exchange about artworks held in personal custodianship to enable curators and collectors to share these works with publics.
Establish an alumni network of curators from the African continent and beyond. Through this, we hope to create dialogue and connections between South African-based curators, curators on the continent and international curators.

A list of recommended readings for each session is included in the session descriptions below.

Session 1: Thinking Through the Curatorial Arts

Kathryn Smith & Josh Ginsburg

Recommended Reading

Elena Filipovic. 2017. ‘Introduction (When Exhibitions Become Form: On the History of the Artist as Curator)’. In The Artist As Curator: An Anthology. E. Filipovic (Ed). Mousse Publishing: Basel. 7-14.
Enwezor, Okwui & O'Neill, Paul. 2007. ‘Curating Beyond the Canon’. In Curating Subjects. P. O'Neill (Ed). Open Editions: London. 109-122.
Raqs Media Collective. 2010. ‘On Curatorial Responsibilities’. In The Biennial Reader. E Filipovic, M van Hal and S Ostevo (Eds). Bergen Kunsthall and Hatje Cantz: Bergen and Ostfildern. 276-289.
Richter, Dorothee & Drabble, Barnaby. 2015. ‘Editorial’. In Curating Degree Zero Archive: Curatorial Research. Available online.
Session 2: What Are You Collecting?

Ashraf Jamal

Recommended Reading

Elena Filipovic. 2017. ‘David Hammons: Untitled (Knobkerry)’. In The Artist As Curator: An Anthology. E Filipovic (Ed). Mousse Publishing: Basel. 261-281.
McClusky, Pamela. 2007. ‘The Unconscious Museum: Collecting Contemporary African Art Without Knowing It’. In Collecting the New. B Altschuler (Ed). Princeton University Press: Princeton. 115-129.
Perec, Georges. 1978. Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One’s Books. Available online.
Woolley, Dawn. 2020. ‘Shoplifting from Woolworths and Other Acts of Material Disobedience’, an exhibition of work by Paula Chambers. Available online.
Session 3a: Curating and the Digital

Alexandra Ross & Daniel Rautenbach

Recommended Reading

Connor, Michael. 2020. Curating Online Exhibitions, Part 1: Performance, variability, objecthood. Available online.
J Bernardi & N Dimmock. ‘Creative Curating: The digital archive as argument’. In Making Things and Drawing Boundaries. Sayers, Jentery (Ed). University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis. 87-197.
Richter, Dorothee. 2020. Curating the Digital – A Historical Perspective. Available online.
Wallerstein, Wade. 2019. Circumnavigating the White Cube: Digital Curatorial Practices in Contemporary Media Landscapes. Available online.
Session 3b: Relationships Over Time and Space

Hendrik Folkerts & Igshaan Adams

Recommended Reading

Bennett, Jane. 2016. ‘Vibrant Matter’. CSPA Quarterly. Vol. 14: 7-11.
C Condorelli & JF Hartle. 2013. ‘Too close to see: Notes on friendship, a conversation with Johan Frederik Hartle’. In Self-Organised. S Herbert & AS Karlsen (Eds). 62-73.
Fox, Dan. 2013. Being Curated. Available online.
Schuppert, Mirjami. 2021. Learning to Say No, the Ethics of Artist-Curator Relationships. Available online.
Session 4: Artist and Institution

Athi-Patra Ruga & Khanya Mashabela

Recommended Reading

J Doubtfire & G Ranchetti. 2015. Curator as Artist as Curator. Available online.
Malcolmess, Bettina. 2019. ‘don’t get it twisted: queer performativity and the emptying out of gesture’. In Acts of Transgression. J Pather & C Boulle (Eds). Wits University Press: Johannesburg. 193-218.
Mashabela, Khanya. 2017. Zeitz MOCAA: Who is Your Audience?. Available online.
State of the Art. 2016. State of the Art ft. Athi-Patra Ruga, Nandipha Mntambo and Zanele Muholi. Video clip. Available online.
Session 5a: What is Legible?

Nolan Oswald Dennis & francis burger

Recommended Reading

Arkette, Sophie. 2009. Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. Available online.
BubblegumConnects. 2021. Sumayya Vally in conversation with Nolan Dennis Oswald. Video clip. Available online.
Glissant, Édouard. 2004. ‘For Opacity’. In Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture. G Mosquera & J Fisher (Eds). MIT Press: Cambridge. 252-257.
Greiner, Malakai. 2019. Voids of Understanding: Opacity, Black Life, and Abstraction in What Remains. Available online.
Meet the Artist. 2016. Nolan O Dennis. Video clip. Available online.
Syntalk. 2014. The Ways Of Knowing. Podcast. Available online.
Vvork. 2016. Search: Language. Web page. Available online.
Session 5b: The Independent Space and the Institution

Zipho Dayile & Tandazani Dhlakama

Recommended Reading

African Centre for Cities. 2019. Beyond our borders: Independent art spaces as a lens on city futures. Podcast. Available online.
De La Puente, Gabriella. 2019. The Problem with Tiny Galleries. Available online.
H Gregory & K Robertson. 2018. ‘No small matter: Micromuseums as critical institutions’. RACAR: Canadian Art Review. Vol. 43(2): 89-101.
Lind, Maria 2013. ‘Why mediate art?’ In Ten Fundamental Questions of Curating. J Hoffmann (Ed). Mousse and Contrappunto: Milan. 99-126.
M Mohren & B Herbordt. 2017. ‘Performing Institutions: A catalogue of performative practices’. In Performing the Digital: Performance Studies and Performances in Digital Culture). M Leeker, I Schipper & T Beyes (Eds). Transcript Verlag: Bielefeld. 213-225.
Smith, Kathryn. 2011. ‘The Experimental Turns in the Visual Arts’. In Visual Century: South African Art in Context, Volume Four. T Goniwe, M Pissarra & M Majavu (Eds). Wits University Press: Johannesburg. 118-151.
Session 6a: Exporting Ideas

Robin Rhode

Recommended Reading

G Filinta & S Hardy. 2019. “Who No Know, Go Know”: How to Shift Knowledge about/of Africa. Interview with Stacy Hardy – Chimurenga Magazine. Available online.
Koloane, David. 2003. ‘South African Art in the Global Context’. Présence Africaine. Vol. 167: 119-126.
McGee, Julie. 2007. ‘Primitivism on trial: The “Picasso in Africa” exhibition in South Africa’. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. Vol. 52: 161-167.
Murg, Stephanie. 2015. Powerful statements, modest means: Robin Rhode’s ’Borne Frieze’. Available online.
Rhode, Robin. 2020. Multidisciplinary artist Robin Rhode brings his drawing process to life. Video clip. Available online.
Session 6b: Curatorial Collaboration

Portia Malatjie

Recommended Reading

De Wachter, Ellen Mara. 2017. ‘The Future: What the World Can Learn from Co-Art’. In Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration. EM De Wachter (Ed). Phaidon: London. 222-227.
Edjabe, Ntone. 2016. Why you don’t see people collaborating on building hospitals and 4 other thoughts on collaboration. Available online.
E Krivanek & G Ngcobo. 2019. Interview with Gabi Ngcobo. Available online.
Ram, Rosie. 2015. The curatorial and the collective. Available online.
Session 7a: Hybrid Practice / Disciplinary Translation

Sumayya Vally & Sean O’Toole

Recommended Reading

Bastos, Flavia MC. 2006. ‘"Tupy or Not Tupy?“ Examining Hybridity in Contemporary Brazilian Art’. Studies in Art Education. Vol. 47(2): 102-117.
Smith, Kathryn. 2004. ‘Keeping it Real’. In Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture. G Mosquera & J Fisher (Eds). MIT Press: Cambridge. 278-285.
Syntalk. 2015. The Firstness of Ideas. Podcast. Available online: Syntalk. 2017. Norms and Conventions. Podcast. Available online.
Syntalk. 2017. The Shapes and Forms. Podcast. Available online.
Syntalk. 2017. Norms and Conventions. Podcast. Available online.
WochenKlausur. 2015. Let’s Talk About Another Concept. Available online.
Session 7b: Curatorial Collaboratives

Jo Ractliffe & Hacer Noche

Recommended Reading

Enwezor, Okwui. 2008. Exodus of the Dogs. In Terreno Ocupado. J Ractliffe. Warren Siebrits: Johannesburg. 84-89.
Gioni, Massimiliano. 2020. Songs of Mourning, Songs of Resistance. In Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America. Phaidon: London. 186-191.
Mail&Guardian. 2018. Mexico with its take on the dead. Available online.
Miller, Philip. 2018. Hacer Noche / Crossing Night. Video clip. Available online.
Ractliffe, Jo. 2010. As Terras do Fim do Mundo. Stevenson: Cape Town.
Session 8: Project discussions #1
Session 9a: Discovering Within One’s Collection

Penny Siopis with Herman Steyn & Piet Viljoen

Recommended Reading

G Olivier & P Siopis. 2014. ‘Conversation III: Installation and Collection’. In Penny Siopis: Time and Again. G Olivier (Ed). Wits University Press: Johannesburg. 108-125.
Law, Jennifer. 2014. ‘Commentary III: The Artist’s Will’. In Penny Siopis: Time and Again. G Olivier (Ed). Wits University Press: Johannesburg. 126-137.
Reilly, Maura. 2018. ‘Mining the Museum curated by Fred Wilson’. In Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating. M Reilly (Ed). Thames and Hudson: London. 118-123.
Sjöholm, Jenny. 2014. ‘The art studio as archive: tracing the geography of artistic potentiality, progress and production’. Cultural Geographies. Vol. 21(3): 505:514.
Session 9b: Collecting the Immaterial

Valentine Umansky & Emile Stipp

Recommended Reading

C Chris & J Simon. 2015. ‘Surveying Videoscapes: The Politics of Distribution in Tiered Visual Economies’. Art Journal. Vol. 74(4): 5-20.
Corrigall, Mary. 2018. From a collector’s perspective. Available online.
E Jordan & V Umansky. 2019. Valentine Umansky: The LagosPhoto Festival Curator Pushes for Accessibility and Representation. Available online.
Frohne, Ursula Anna. 2013. ‘Art In-Formation: American Art under the Impact of New Media Culture’. American Art. Vol. 27(2): 38-43.
Meyer, James. 1966. ‘Marcel Bochner: Working Drawings and Other Visible Things On Paper Not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art’. In The Artist As Curator: An Anthology. E Filipovic (Ed). Mousse Publishing: Basel. 35-50.
Session 10a: Collector as Practitioner I

Pulane Kingston & Melissa Goba

Recommended Reading

Adam, Georgina. 2021. Pulane Kingston on collecting black African female artists. Available online.
KM Moist and D Banash. 2013. ‘Introduction’. In Contemporary Collecting: Objects, Practices, and the Fate of Things. KM Moist and D Banash (Eds). Scarecrow Press: Langham. Ix-xiii.
Kouoh, Koyo. 2017. Defining a Canon: On the Pigozzi Collection. In The Insiders: Selected Works (1989-2009) from the Contemporary African Art Collection of Jean Pigozzi. G Robinne (Ed). Éditions Dilecta: Paris. 244-247.
R Cardinal and J Elsner. 1994. ‘Introduction’. In The Cultures of Collecting. R Cardinal and J Elsner (Eds). Reaktion Books: London. 1-6.
Rogan, Bjarne. 1998. ‘On Collecting as Play, Creativity and Aesthetic Practice’. Etnofoor. Vol. 11(1):40-54.
Session 10b: Collector as Practitioner II

Mfundi Vundla & Thembinkosi Goniwe

Recommended Reading

Breitz, Candice. 2011. Extra. Available online.
Goniwe, Thembinkosi. 2018. The sour pleasure of the art industry. Available online.
KM Moist and D Banash. 2013. ‘Introduction’. In Contemporary Collecting: Objects, Practices, and the Fate of Things. KM Moist and D Banash (Eds). Scarecrow Press: Langham. Ix-xiii.
Kouoh, Koyo. 2017. Defining a Canon: On the Pigozzi Collection. In The Insiders: Selected Works (1989-2009) from the Contemporary African Art Collection of Jean Pigozzi. G Robinne (Ed). Éditions Dilecta: Paris. 244-247.
R Cardinal and J Elsner. 1994. ‘Introduction’. In The Cultures of Collecting. R Cardinal and J Elsner (Eds). Reaktion Books: London. 1-6.
Rogan, Bjarne. 1998. ‘On Collecting as Play, Creativity and Aesthetic Practice’. Etnofoor. Vol. 11(1):40-54.
Session 11a: Resonance / Dissonance

Jove Lynne

Recommended Reading

Gurney, Kim. 2015. ‘Curating the Ephemeral City’. In The Art of Public Space: Curating and Re-Imagining the Ephemeral City. K Gurney. Palgrave McMillan: Cape Town. 17-40.
Cichocki, Sebastian. 2008. ‘I didn’t promise you it would be nice. An institution in a dying city’. In The Mousetrap Book: On Dealing with Art Institutions in Contemporary Curatorial Practice. A Szyłak & A Szczerski (Eds). Wyspa Institute of Art / Wyspa Progress Foundation: Gdansk. 39-44.
L Ossei-Mensah, J Lynne & J Ginsburg. 2019. Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context. Exhibition. Available online.
Sitas, Rike. 2012. ‘Becoming Otherwise’. In 2010 Reasons to Live in a Small Town. J GayLard (Ed). Vansa: Cape Town. 45-51.
Session 11b: Importing ideas

Bhavisha Panchia & Kevin Beasley

Recommended Reading

Art21. 2019. Kevin Beasley’s Raw Materials. Video clip. Available online.
Bestall, Lucienne. 2020. What Remains: Kevin Beasley’s ‘without a clear discernible image’. Available online.
B Panchia & LM Tawil. 2020. Noise and Nation. Available online.
Panchia, Bhavisha. 2020. Imagine you are in a museum: What do you hear? Audio. Available online.
Session 12: Project discussions #2

Mitchell Gilbert Messina & Bonolo Kavula

Recommended Reading

Syntalk. 2015. The Having of Fun. Podcast. Available online.
Z Cahill & P von Zwek. 2014. ‘The artist as double agent’. Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry. Vol. 36: 64-73.
Session 13: Symposium
Session 14: Critical Friends and Reflections




Supporting and extending the Connective’s virtual sessions, the purpose-built Portal offered a hybrid resource environment with selected works shared by participating collectors, a library of recommended readings, a detailed programme with introductions to each contributor, and a collaborative, real-time document for note-taking and -sharing.

Made after the online programme concluded, the Curatorial Connective Workbook draws together summaries and insights from the weekly sessions and the participating curators’ presentations. Sent via post to each curator – from cities in the USA to Taipei, Nairobi and Dakar, among others – the Workbook offers a physical record of the Connective’s digital engagements.

What is an 'arts ecosystem'?
The A4 team

A view into the key roles and relationships that support and promote the making and sharing of art. – May 16, 2024

Path page
What is an 'arts ecosystem'?
The A4 team
A view into the key roles and relationships that support and promote the making and sharing of art. – May 16, 2024
Path page

At A4, our use of the word 'ecosystem' – and oftentimes 'ecology' – signals the interrelation of practitioners who are essential to any arts community and form complex networks that support the production and dissemination of art.


We define 'arts practitioners' as a broad category of people invested in the arts ecosystem. The phrase expands on the more familiar idea of 'cultural workers' to include not only those who produce art, exhibitions, writings or research but also those who support and sustain these processes. Our articulation of an arts ecosystem recognises the mutual dependencies and responsibilities of these various roles in relation to one another, the contributions of each, and their necessary differences.


This path, which follows Bella Knemeyer's visualisation for our About Wall as part of the commissioned project Staging an Institution, offers a tool for understanding the relationships within an ecology, with its natural limits.

Different combinations of practitioners create different forms of infrastructure within the arts ecosystem. We have simplified arts practitioners into the following roles: artist, dealer, curator, and patron.

artist + dealer = gallery


dealer + patron = market

curator + patron = organisation


artist + curator = knowledge production

Other pairings might include patron + artist and curator + dealer. Taken together, these constitute an arts ecosystem. A4 encourages intersections across these relationships, imagining an arts ecosystem robust to external pressures.


The results of these varying dynamics often resist easy categorisation but we keep them in mind as we continue to deepen our understanding of the ecology, both on the ground and as abstraction.

Learn more about A4's articulation of the arts ecosystem on our About Wall, which forms part of Staging an Institution, a commissioned project designed by practitioner friends Bella Knemeyer with Ben Johnson.


You can also explore A4's role within the ecology by visiting the About page on our website or by joining the team in an enquiry into 'arts work' as part of our exhibition WORK.

Installation photograph of the A4 About Wall that maps out the various ways in which A4's curatorial studio interact with practitioners, organisations, context and artworks with wall text and objects sitting on shelves.
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