THIS IS
THE JOBURG FRINGE
2011
tto all artists, artist initiatives and associations as well as galleries!
here’s announcing the next
Joburg Fringe
which will take place in september 2011, as usual concurrently with the Joburg Art Fair.
we will be offering affordable exhibition spaces in an exciting venue characterizing the crest-of-the-best of the art market. submit a proposal to us of what you want to exhibit.
we will have a special feature show of jury-picked work: theme to be announced shortly.
n.b.: we only show the best of the edge: so if you are not serious then forget it!
any questions? email us
want to know more?
we are proud to inform you about the Joburg Fringe.:
WHAT is?
the Joburg Fringe is an independent art fair that came into being in 2008, to coexist with the first art fair in Africa – the JoburgArtFair, in happy reciprocity. it is an artist’s initiative run on high enthusiasm and a low budget: hence still in its formative stage.
its first show titled Esikhaleni – Spatial Practices was a collaboration with the Dead Revolutionaries Club and the Afrika Cultural Centre. It consisted of a curatored show and four galleries from the vanguard of the South African art scene.
In 2009 the Joburg Fringe together with Right on the Rim staged a Pre-Exhibition in the raw building site of the now completed Arts on Main, Joburg.
World Cup year 2010 the Joburg Fringe staged VIDEOart! : a two team line-up of local and visiting video artists at various venues around the city during the Joburg Art Fair.
(see below for the full 2010 story)
WHO is?
Claudia Shneider artist, founder of the Joburg Fringe
Frances Potter co-founder of The New Basket Workshop, concept designer
Sarie Potter curator, picture researcher, founder member of South Photographs, S.A.
Garfield Taylor p.r.o.
Willy Weeks advisor and word sculptor
here's the long version, simultaneously
the Joburg Fringe offers the opportunity for some great artistic extra curricular activities to be viewed – taking chances not risked at the art fair.
galleries pay huge amounts of money to formally participate in art fairs. galleries being there to make money from sales – ergo they are naturally inclined to show works capable of generating serious commercial incomes.
not so for a fringe – it can pop up and vanish – strut its stuff on floor space that costs a fraction of the fair’s. at the fringe it’s mainly the artists – those up and coming, those ignored by commercial galleries, the discoverables who relish the possibilities for exposure. established and well-known contributors often join fringe events giving themselves an edgy platform to be shown on and new talent to show with. fringes and fringers are by their nature opportunistic – they happen around the buzz that is generated by the staging of an art fair – busking to the audience who came for the fair. the stage is set, the public is in an art-frame-of-mind and the international buyers are in town looking for cool work looking to the fringe for new little-seen-before talent.
globally fringes have gained a special place – like the fringe at the Edinburgh Festival. and anyway what respectable art fair doesn’t have its fringe? with time art fairs are linked to their fringes; Art Basel (Liste, Volta4 and Scope), Art Cologne (Rheinschau, Tease Art), Art Basel Miami Beach (Nada, Pulse, Scope, to name 3 of 23+ accompanying fairs!) and Art Forum, Berlin (Kunstsalon, Berliner Liste, Preview). locally - the Grahamstown Arts Festival and her gorgeous fringe draw the crowds with their double bill performance.
irritating as fleas to the body of the great talking dog act, it can’t be denied the scratching stimulates growth.
in 2008 when it held its first group show titled Esikhaleni – Spatial Practices in a collaboration with the Dead Revolutionaries Club and the Afrika Cultural Centre – the Joburg Fringe emerged from the wings of the country’s cultural dressing rooms. contributors to the first fringe included fearless exhibitionists from the vanguard of the South African art scene – Blank Projects, Spaza Art Gallery, Outlet Gallery, Worldart, Gugulective and The Bag Factory. artists performing solos included Johan Thom, Sharlene Khan, Claudia Shneider, Senzo Nhlapo, Bev Price, Dinkies Sithole and Jonathan Garnham.
Blank Projects commissioned a manic fresh road video piece filmed by Jeremy Puren and Daniel Naude “the movie” - en route to the fringe. it epitomised fringeness.
reflecting the zeitgeist of 2009 the Joburg Fringe retreated to a one man show in a collaboration with Right on the Rim and Arts on Main to stage a Pre-Exhibition fringe event in the raw theatre presented by the incomplete building site of Arts on Main. Claudia Shneider built the Living and Dying in Africa installative dead elephant sculpture from global shoppers. again little reviewed by the main stream art press its memory lives on in the minds of those lucky enough to see its brief existence next to the deceased lift shaft at Arts on Main.
this year’s list of venues included the wall opposite the entrance of the Sandton Convention Centre (thanks to Maraschino’s Restaurant), The Bioscope, Canteen at Arts on Main, The Bag Factory, Mofolo Art Centre Soweto and Anglo Gold Ashanti. the idea behind the spread of venues followed the principle of ‘ if the public doesn’t come find us, then we go find the public!’.
curatorial direction was kept to a minimum. participants had no set themes to follow and no time limits imposed. the works provided diverse viewings of what is out there; eye candy, serious short narratives, lyrical non-performances based on various messages and some classical gems from the masters of contemporary European VIDEOart!
one day this fringy fringe will expand to the whole continent –
says founder Claudia Shneider: “Joburg Fringe will eventually provide an African venue for exceptional, under-exposed work”.
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