Programme Director
Our artists
Our partners, the National Arts Festival whom we have appointed to curate and stage our country’s exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen.
In 2011, after a long period of absence, South Africa participated at the Venice Biennale.
To us this was a significant development because it was for the first time since freedom and democracy that we were able to participate officially, with our own pavilion, at that important event on the international arts calendar.
We are delighted that Mary Sibande, whose exhibition was featured at the South African Pavilion in 2011, continues to do us proud as one of our country’s finest young artists.
As you all know, she recently won the 2013 Standard Bank Young Artist Award.
She tells us that since her participation at the Venice Biennale in 2011, she has been invited to exhibit her work extensively in Italy, France, America, Reunion Island and Holland, to name a few.
After our participation in 2011, we made a commitment that we will return to Venice; with a bigger exhibition once more to showcase the work of our most talented artists on this major world stage, and open up new opportunities for them.
Programme Director, we meet here today therefore to deliver on the commitment we made; that we will return to Venice.
More specifically we are here to announce some of the artists who will proudly fly the South African flag in Venice this year.
I take this opportunity to thank officials in my department for the work they have done to secure South Africa’s participation at the Venice Biennale.
We also thank the National Arts Festival for working with us on this project and for bringing their passion, energy and expertise to bear on it.
This year our exhibition is titled “Imaginary Fact; Contemporary South African Art and the Archive.” The exhibition aims to showcase artists who use materials of the past to comment on the contemporary.
The exhibition is about the protection and preservation of our national heritage and the symbols and artifacts of that heritage.
It is also about using the arts to question and challenge our reading of the past, to reach a new understanding of it and to craft a new and inclusive narrative for our country.
The voices contained in this exhibition are as rich and varied as those of the citizens of our country. They are bold and they are brave.
Some are already celebrated internationally, some are beginning to make their voices heard. All are immensely talented and, as a nation, we are proud of them and of the opportunity to showcase them to the world.
Today, we are announcing the names of 12 artists but I am told that there are one or two more surprises in store once final negotiations are complete.
Programme Director, our participation at the Venice Biennale is not an isolated event.
It is part of implementing our vision as the Department of Arts and Culture, working together with our stakeholders, to raise the profile of the local cultural and creative industries; ensuring that they contribute meaningfully to the national effort to grow the economy, create jobs and build sustainable livelihoods for our artists.
This vision is outlined in our Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE) Strategy; whose implementation we are this year accelerating, since we have declared 2013 as the year of MGE.
It is our belief that by participating in events such as the Venice Biennale we are offering massive opportunities for our artists to showcase their talent on the world stage.
Like in the case of Mary Sibande, we are also opening access to new markets for our artists and thus strengthening trade in local cultural goods and services.
We have no doubt that those who will be representing us at this year’s Venice Biennale, will do so with pride and distinction.
We once again hold out our hand to the sector; urging you to work with us, so that together we can reach more milestones in our ongoing quest to strengthen our sector’s contribution to socio-economic development.
I wish our artists a successful 2013 Venice Biennale.
Thank you.
