Courtesy of the William Kentridge exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town.
Moments
Quite unusually for
me, my one-month sojourn in South Africa from September into October, whilst beneficial
for my wellbeing and love life, it was one in which my blog was hardly a window
into the experiences I had. I had taken to what might be called photo-blogging,
posting groups of pictures on Instagram
with some text to accompany my perspectives.
None of that covered
to any detail the various insights of the historical and cultural tapestry of
South Africa, this was mainly in Cape Town. For all we got to do, there is much
more to do and see.
Insight
On one of our
outings, we visited The
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) on the Victoria &
Alfred Waterfront, in Cape Town, this was a reconstruction that came of out of
old grain silos, the height of which once registered as one of the tallest
freestanding structures in Africa.
As we paid our
entrance fee of ZAR 200 each, I noticed that the annual membership was ZAR 290,
having learnt from visits to other museums as the Voortrekker Monument,
Liliesleaf Farm and
Castle of Good Hope,
we have never been able to complete the tour of exhibits with the information
provided in one visit.
Experience
The absence of
booklets, brochures, pamphlets, or guides covering the exhibits meant that we
had to consider returning if we needed to gain the full knowledge and
experience of the place. Now, I do not know how many people would get the
opportunity to visit South Africa as frequently as I have been able to. My
visit in September was my fourth in a year.
We got to visit
Liliesleaf Farm again, but there is at least one more visit to go, but back at
the Zeitz MOCAA we decided on the annual membership and soon had membership
cards to flaunt. We believe we would be returning to visit soon.
Knowledge
Our visit introduced
us to the major exhibition of the work of South African artist, William Kentridge, which
occupied a couple of floors, much of which we did not get to see, but will soon
again, as the exhibition titled, ‘Why
Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings To Work’ runs from the 25th
of August 2019 to the 23rd of March 2020.
We hope then to get a better understanding of the narratives, yet, on learning more about him, we
came upon the legendary story of his father, Sir Sydney Kentridge KCMG
QC who only clocked 97 on the 5th of November.
Trivia
Former lawyer and
judge, member of first the South African bar and then the English bars,
represented 3 of the 4 Nobel
Peace Prize laureates of South Africa, Chief Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela
and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he also represented the family of Stephen Biko at the inquest
into his death, his cross-examination so thorough, it exposed the culpability
of the Apartheid regime.
At least, I had to
let the significance of that sink in, and then understand how the scion of a high-profile
personality can forge a career in a completely different direction and still
make a significant contribution to national history. By coincidence, William
Kentridge has an exhibition
at the Tate Modern in London, running until the 17th of November. Father
and son have left footprints in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Some inspiration I
gained from the exhibition in Cape Town, will inform some future blogs.
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