NEWS
NIROX has a range of events, exhibitions and workshops available during the year.
NIROX x BANDABANDA AGENCY
PEACE CONCERT
On Sunday 22 May NIROX and BANDABANDA AGENCY host a tranquil day of music and poetry under the trees on the NIROX Main Lawn. Coinciding with the NIROX Winter Sculpture Exhibition 2022 themed “Good Neighbours”, it is a concert dedicated to PEACE.
With over 20 nations worldwide currently embroiled in conflict, there could not be a more fitting time for peace to resonate from the Cradle Of Humankind.
The afternoon’s program sees performances by:
Mario Laginha and Keke Mabusela
Keenan Meyer
Spha Mdlalose
Modise Sekgothe
Flex of He & I
Smiling Lion will spin an eclectic selection of jazz-infused tunes throughout the morning.
The Epicurian Emporium of gourmet food traders will offer culinary delights from the Water Pavilion.
Bernie’s Bar at The Lawn Pavilion will ensure optimum hydration with an assortment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages for sale.
Entry Fee: R400
Doors Open: 10:00
To purchase tickets, click here here.
PRESS
RELEASE
NIROX Foundation presents Good Neighbours, an exhibition that extends its partnership with local universities to public and private institutions across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, and Botswana to co-develop and present an evolving programme of exhibitions, residencies, workshops, talks, and a concert.
Following the successful inaugural OPEN LABORATORY Winter Sculpture Exhibition in 2017, NIROX has invited universities across the country to each appoint a curator to develop their own take on Good Neighbours, as well as private and public institutions in neighbouring states to submit contributions that examine the subject from their perspective. The result envisaged is a diverse conversation made cohesive by the guidance of NIROX’s curatorial team.
Held across NIROX Sculpture Park in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Good Neighbours provides a timely reflection on the relations amongst South Africans and our neighbours. The exhibition and its supporting programmes interrogate and encourage relations amongst South Africans and our neighbours to foster peace and commonwealth in the face of growing global instability.
One question posed by the exhibition has to do with the word ‘good’: What makes for a ‘good’ neighbour? And does neighbourliness not in itself suppose some kind of communal responsibility, some sense of shared space? Or is neighbourliness today more closely aligned to the view outlined in Robert Frost’s poem that ‘good fences make good neighbours’?
The three dictionary definitions suggest that a neighbour is someone who lives next door to, or in immediate proximity of, another. This is the most common definition, but it can also extend beyond the individual to encapsulate the relationship between communities or places — say, a neighbouring town or country. Neither suppose collegiality or compassion, yet the third definition—‘any person in need of one’s help or kindness’—speaks more directly to an underlying ethics that seems apposite within the context of this exhibition.
Another productive avenue when considering the meaning of neighbourliness can be found in the word’s etymology. Broken down into its constituent parts — nigh (meaning ‘nearby, close together, adjacent’) and *bheue- (‘to be, exist, grow’) — the idea of neighbourliness seems to imply a certain relation that enables others the space and means to flourish. This understanding is also echoed in the isiZulu word for neighbour, umakhelwane, where -akha means ‘build,’ but the question posed by this exhibition remains: what is it that we want to build, and how can the various and divergent aspirations of a people best serve each other?
The exhibition supports the work of more than 30 artists, 24 of whom have received production grants from The Claire and Edoardo Villa Will Trust to produce new work that reflects on the given theme. Collaborating institutions include the University of Cape Town, University of Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria, University of the Free State, Tshwane University of Technology, ELA-Espaço Luanda Arte, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and the National Gallery of Namibia. The exhibition is also supported by the Portuguese Embassy to South Africa.
The opening weekend of the exhibition is the 7 – 8 May 2022. It will include a series of curator-led walkabouts, performances, and screenings, with other satellite exhibitions, workshops, and talks programmes scheduled throughout the course of the exhibition, which runs until 31 August 2022.
Opening Weekend:
The opening weekend (7 – 8 May 2022) will include a series of curator-led walkabouts; performances by Bontle Tau(Spirit to Spirit – Dust to Dust), Janine Allen (The Brusher) (On the shoulders of giants), and a collaborative sound performance by Daniel Gray, Tubatsi Moloi, and Andrei van Wyk (Slow Sonics). It will also include screenings of films by Liam Brickhill and Anel Wessels (Petrichor), Dane Armstrong and Linzi Lewis (De|Composition), Carla Busuttil and Gary Charles (Mosquito Lightning), Timothy Gabb (Lost Carts of the Karoo) and Sifiso Khanyile(Reclaimers).
CURATORS:
Yusuf Essop (NIROX)
Sven Christian (NIROX)
Wilma Mutize (University of Johannesburg)
Genre Pretorius (University of Pretoria)
Tshegofatso Seoka (Tshwane University of Technology)
Tammi Mbambo (University of the Witwatersrand)
Lyrene Kühn-Botma (University of the Free State)
Jade Nair (University of Cape Town)
COLLABORATORS:
Dominick Maiar Tanner (Espaço Luanda Arte)
Obed Mokhuhlani (Botswana)
Guiyani Monteiro (Mozambique)
Fadzai Muchemwa (National Gallery of Zimbabwe)
Ndeenda Shivute-Nakapunda (National Gallery of Namibia)
Collen Maswanganyi (South Africa)
Farrell Ngilima (Visual Art Forum for Educators in Southern Africa)
To purchase tickets for the opening weekend, visit:
nirox.howler.co.za/goodneighbours
Press Contacts:
For NIROX Sculpture Park
Katie Coetzee – LUME Agency
Tel: +27 81 851 2765
Email: katie@lumeagency.co.za
Curators:
NIROX Foundation
Co-ordinating co-curator
Yusuf Essop
Co-curator
Sven Christian
University of Cape Town
Jade Nair
University of Johannesburg
Wilma Mutize
University of the Witwatersrand
Tammi Mbambo
University of Pretoria
Genre Pretorius
University of the Free State
Lyrene Kühn-Botma
Tshwane University of Technology
Tshegofatso Seoka
INLAKS-NIROX RESIDENCY
NIROX Foundation, in partnership with Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation and the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa (CISA), are pleased to announce an exciting new residency opportunity for artists based in India.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Nirox Foundation and the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation will support an Indian artist at the Nirox Residency, South Africa, for a period of 4 – 8 weeks.
ABOUT INLAKS SHIVDASANI FOUNDATION
The Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation was established by Indoo Shivdasani in 1976 as a permanent platform for his philanthropic activities. The Foundation focuses on providing scholarships, grants and awards in any field to outstanding young Indians to develop their professional, scientific, artistic and cultural abilities. It prides itself on being open to a wide range of subjects, many of which are not covered by other fund-giving bodies. Over the last four decades, more than 460 scholars have benefited from overseas scholarships while 600 others have received awards and Take-Off Grants in India and abroad. The list of Inlaks alumni reflects the diversity of scholars that the Foundation has supported.
In response to a vibrant and flourishing art scene globally and within India, the Foundation has increased its support to young practitioners in the field of Fine Arts. Significant painters and sculptors supported by the Foundation include Jagannath Panda, Rekha Rodwittiya, N.N.Rimzon, Gigi Scaria, Manisha Parekh, Sonia Khurana, Sheela Gowda, Shaina Anand, Sakshi Gupta, Hemali Bhuta and Sahej Rahal all of whom have contributed considerably to the fabric of Indian art. While some of these artists have been recipients of the Inlaks scholarships to universities abroad for graduate degrees in the Fine Arts, others have been recipients of the Inlaks Fine Arts Awards that aid them to commence their artistic projects within India. The Foundation has collaborated with the Royal College of Art, London , for several years and supports artists at residencies such as Gasworks and Delfina Foundation in London, Darling Foundry in Montreal, Cittadellarte-Fondazion Pistoletto and Mahler and Lewitt in Italy, Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, ISCP inn New York and Skowhegan in Maine – USA, and Ashkal Alwan in Beirut.
Within India, artists were supported at KHOJ in New Delhi, Sandarbh in Partapur, Rajasthan, What About Art , CONA and Studio 118 in Mumbai and Taj-Ske residencies, BAR1 and I Shantiroad in Bangalore, The Foundation also supported a curatorial lab in the School of Art and Aesthetics, at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Applicants are expected to submit:
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A written proposal of 250 – 400 words, outlining your interests and intentions for the residency, and how this fits into your research / work as a whole. The proposal can be submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF format;
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A CV detailing recent projects, exhibitions, workshops and residencies;
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At least 10 high-quality images of your previous projects or exhibitions, which could include unrealised proposals and / or preparatory illustrations of the proposed work.
Please submit only electronic copies of the above documents to the following email address: gladys@ inlaksfoundation.org by no later than 1 June 2022.
THE SELECTED ARTIST WILL RECEIVE
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A 4-8 week residency at NIROX Residency, South Africa, including one return, economy-class flight, and an allowance for materials;
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Full board, residency and studio space, with curatorial and practical support;
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The residency provides opportunities to engage with other artists-in-residence and practitioners working in the field. NIROX’ reach into local life also provides opportunities for engagement with museums, institutions, galleries, academia, artists and other communities, and to visit Johannesburg and its thriving art scene. It also enables exposure to a wide range of programmes hosted at the Sculpture Park, from music and performance, to culinary activities, yoga, talks, poetry, fashion and related activities;
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In addition to the Sculpture Park, the residency provides access to the new Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, under development on the property (scheduled for completion June 2022) and to the adjoining 1000 hectare Khatlhamphi Private Nature Reserve, a wilderness of hills and valleys populated with a diversity of local game and birdlife.
PRESS
RELEASE
THE SPIRAL OF CONTAINMENT: RAPES AFTERMATH
An experiential multi-media exhibition featuring 24 photographic portraits of rape survivors, debuts in South Africa at the INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR.
CAPE TOWN, 17 February 2022
AFRICA CONTEMPORARY ART, with support from the NIROX FOUNDATION will be exhibiting four key photographs from THESPIRAL OF CONTAINMENT - RAPE’S AFTERMATH, by Mexican-born photographer, cinematographer and foreign correspondent, Elisa L. Iannacone, on the INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2022.
An immersive, experiential exhibition, THE SPIRAL OF CONTAINMENT was first exhibited at The OXO Tower Bargehouse Gallery in London in 2018, and includes photographs, soundscapes and installations.
A radical re-working of the representation of sexual violence and rape, each of the 24 images features a rape survivor, and was co-created by the subject and the photographer into a magical-realist portrait - reframing the original traumatic experience into one of heroic identity, empowerment and agency.
The portraits were photographed in a range of locations and countries, including seven in South Africa. Elisa consulted with a therapist to produce the work. The Spiral project, and method, evolved from her own experience of rape.
Elisa's magical-realist photographic style draws from her Mexican roots, coupled with her work in conflict zones, as well as her training as a cinematographer – both fiction and documentary. Iannacone’s SPIRAL portraits eschew the grainy realist conventions of documentary photography, which, inevitably, encompass raw pain and tragedy, (unintentionally) evoking voyeurism, horror or pity. Her images also circumvent the studied self- consciousness of the studio portrait of old, and the social media portrait of today. Instead the elaborate mise-en-scene, and luscious imagescapes, encompass the rich and fantastical creativity of fiction filmmaking, coupled with the sensory luxury of fashion photography - establishing a unique, evocative documentary genre.
From, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, the full body of work will travel to Gauteng, on the first leg of a proposed global tour.
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From March 2022, International Women’s month, Elisa will be in residence at Nirox Foundation, where she will re-engage with the SPIRAL PROJECT, exploring the interface of art and law, with the view to establishing a sustainable art and social justice legacy project, in collaboration with community, social activists, legal, therapeutic and creative practitioners. The project promises to incorporate a significant and sustainable intervention – both a programme and a permanent structural element.
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Also in March 2022, to commemorate South African Human Rights month, the entire original SPIRAL exhibition will be reconstructed at Constitution Hill as part of the Human Rights Festival.
Throughout her two month residency at NIROX, Iannacone, a TedX and motivational speaker will be conducting workshops with therapeutic, creative and legal professionals, focusing on the intersection between rape, sexual violence and trauma. The multi-disciplinary outputs of Iannacone’s two month residency, will be on view at NIROX SCULPTURE PARK during, and, following, her residency.
The South African SPIRAL project is a collaboration between NIROX and Africa Contemporary Art in South Africa, and Iannacone’s UK-based Reframe House.
Workshop facilitation and community projects are managed by Just Art, in association with Impact4Good
The project is funded in part by the National Arts Council.
ENQUIRIES:
KATHY BERMAN
+27 82 808 3712
RESOURCES:
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Daily Maverick Article by Kathy Berman: https://bit.ly/3fw1wrv
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High Resolution Images available on request
ABOUT ELISA L. IANNACONE:
https://www.elisaiannacone.com/
Elisa L. Iannacone was born and raised in Mexico. She studied at universities in the UK (City University London) and Canada (York University). She lives in London currently ,and is married to a South African.
As a cinematographer, she has worked in six continents for BBC, Newsweek, and National Geographic, at times covering conflict zones and humanitarian crises.
Elisa L. Iannacone is a published author (The Spiral of Containment: Rape's Aftermath), guest lecturer (York University, University of Dublin), speaker (TEDx, PSA, Global Speakers Federation), and the podcast host of the global campaign Conversations on Consent to advocate for equality and human rights.
Elisa founded Reframe House media agency to shift views on social justice through multi-media.
A recent assignment, on Cameroonian refugees, shot at Constitution Hill prior to lockdown is featured in Newsweek and BBC (“Humans of the Forgotten War”, June 2021, www.humansoftheforgottenwar.com).
ABOUT AFRICA CONTEMPORARY ART:
https://www.instagram.com/africacontemporary.art/
Africa Contemporary Art was established by Kathryn L. Berman (Kathy), a veteran of the arts, innovation, and impact sectors. Over the years, the team has worked across the board - from academia, television and print arts journalism, through to corporate consulting and large-scale project initiation and implementation in both design and visual arts.
ACA was formalised in 2021 as a hub for representation for visual and multi-media artists – with a key focus on social justice projects (with www.justart.internationl).
In 2021, during lockdown, ACA curated a debut group exhibition at the Jaffer Modern in Cape Town. The exhibition, The Art of Everyday Objects introduced fashion designer, Masa Mara as artist Nyambo Masa Mara with an exploratory photographic and sculptural installation, Beyond Borders. Other artists on exhibition include established artist Kevin Colllins (ceramic portraits); emergent Cephus Nono (Amazing Ace), clothing artist and Coast and Koi (shoes) and woodcarver Petrus Sekele. With Impact4Good and Just Art, ACA remains committed to working with marginalised and emerging creatives, in art and allied disciplines.
The SPIRAL project has been in incubation since early 2019, and was originally slated for 2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair with an exhibition at the Castle. With lockdown lifted, plans have shifted to 2022.
In 2022, ACA will be exhibiting at two global art fairs.
NIROX
NIROX Sculpture Park nestles in the archaelogically rich Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, and consists of 30ha of sculpted lawns, fields, waterways, and wetlands, adjoining a 1000 hectare Private Nature Reserve.
The Park hosts more than fifty permanent and long-term installations by artists from across the globe and is home to at least one annual large scale curated exhibition, plus an ongoing programme of art installations and performances, effected in collaboration with NIROX’ wide circle of global partners and curatorial affiliations.
Since its inception, NIROX has hosted more than 300 artists in residence. During residency, artists are housed in one of two houses and studios, and are encouraged to interact with each other, and local communities, and to collaborate and create compelling experiences. At the conclusion of their residency, Residents are required to leave an artwork or other suitable record for lodging in the NIROX FOUNDATION archives.
FORMS Gallery, in collaboration with NIROX, is pleased to present Hedwig Barry's first solo exhibition, Here Is Where We Meet. The exhibition brings together a collection of new sculptures and paintings brought to completion during Barry’s seven-week residency at the NIROX Sculpture Park. Shifting between two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, Barry’s work invites us to think about the formal and physical limits of, and intersections between, painting and sculpture
Borrowing its title from a novel by John Berger (Here Is Where We Meet, 2005), the exhibition echoes several of the themes and sentiments that emerge in the book: playfulness, remembering, journeys, mourning and desire. And like Berger’s prose, Barry’s work searches for a language to mediate between feeling, metaphor and visuality.
The exhibition extends from the covered gallery space at the NIROX Sculpture Park to the park grounds, and until 4 February will be supplemented by smaller-scale works and exploratory video pieces on show in and adjacent to the studio in which Barry has been working for the duration of the residency.
Please join us for the opening on 22 January, from 11am. RSVP to anthea@forms.gallery. The exhibition runs until 13 March.
Read more about the exhibition here.
Hedwig Barry (b.1969, Bloemfontein) is a Johannesburg-based artist working at the intersection of drawing, painting and sculpture. A long career as a producer, director and educator across artistic disciplines has led her to a dedicated studio practice that is rich, confident and prolific. Probing the metaphors of “grounding” and “groundlessness,” Barry’s work explores the politics of love, desire, care and repair. She situates her practice at the interface of the personal and the public, the emotional and the intellectual, and the bodies, grounds, materials, desires and gestures which give meaning to these relationships.
In 2020, Barry graduated cum laude with an MA in Fine Arts from the Wits University, and, through a collaboration between Wits and BMW, was commissioned to create two large-scale outdoor interventions for the BMW headquarters in Midrand, South Africa. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Nirox Foundation and has a solo exhibition opening at the Nirox Sculpture Park in January 2022. Barry will present a newly commissioned sculptural work Night Crumple at Spier Light Art in March 2022. Later in the year she will spend time at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve as an artist-in-residence.
For information on how to access the NIROX Sculpture Park, click here. The park is open on weekends and public holidays from 10am to 4pm, and charges an entrance fee of R120 per adult (R60 per child between 2 - 12 years old). This fee goes towards maintaining the park and sustaining the Nirox Foundation, which is a non-profit organisation for the benefit of the arts.
EVENTS
ANNOUNCEMENT
AND THEN THERE WAS FIRE...
ANNOUNCEMENT
We will be open from Thursday 15 July 2021.
Due to the lockdown regulations, we are limited to a maximum of 50 people at a time in the restaurant.
Bookings are essential. Please book your seat at bookings@andthentherewasfire.com
We’ll see you soon!
Open-studio weekend with Sibusiso ArtIs3.
Sibu’s residency since late October culminates this week with the opening of his studio at NIROX showing his prolific output under the title ‘I TRUST MY STROKE’.
"We can slowly turn to the paintings of Sibusiso ArtIs3. A young abstract artist, who has radically broken the contemporary mould of black portraiture, the defining culture of the moment." Read the full essay by Ashraf Jamal here.
Sibu is a self-taught artist born in KZN, now living and working in CT. He comes to NIROX through the gentle prompt of Ashraf Jamal and others - as an emerging talent tearing at the boundaries of black expression.
This intense work is abstract, grounded in figuration, suffused with the artist's unconstrained spirituality. His comfort with imperfection, raw emotion, and spiritual presence, enable his mastery of a poetic abstracted world, confidently occupying space with bold stroke-making.
Sibu will be present in person to show his works and talk to visitors from
9th - 11th December between 11:00 - 17:00.
13 July 2021
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
A WORK IN PROGRESS
THE PANOPTICA - ST. JOHN FULLER
The Panoptica dome, designed and constructed by St.John Fuller, is currently under construction at NIROX. The artist describes the Panoptica as a "coming together of maths, science and art - a geodesic dome formed of hundreds of camera obscuras."
The dome is a work that thrives on interactions. As a result, the artist encourages the public to ask him any questions they may have about the dome on his various social platforms.
04 July 2021
EVENTS
