William Kentridge
January 10 – February 29, 2004
The Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia 10098 Rivoli (Torino)
tel. 011.9565222/280
fax 011.9565231
www.castellodirivoli.org
Press preview Thursday January 8, 2004 – 11.30 a.m.
Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
The Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea is currently organizing a restrospective dedicated to the work of William Kentridge (b. Johannesburg, 1955). Kentridge’s art is an expressive attempt to address the nature of human emotions and memory, as well as the relationship between desire, ethics, and responsibility. Whilst he has throughout his career moved between film, drawing and theatre, Kentridge’s primary activity remains drawing. He has gained international recognition for his distinctive animated short films, and for the charcoal drawings based on ‘erasure’ that he makes to produce them. Kentridge investigates how our identities are shaped through our shifting ideas of history and place, looking at how we construct our histories and what we do with them. His is an elegiac art that explores the possibilities of poetry in contemporary society, and provides a vicious satirical commentary on that society, while proposing a way of seeing life as process rather than as fact.
The exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli will be a major survey of all his oeuvre with a particular focus on recent works such as Sleeping on Glass (1999), Shadow Procession (1999), and Zeno Writing (2002). 7 Fragments for Georges Melies (2003) and Journey to the Moon (2003) are new experiments reminiscent of the world of early film. On the occasion of this exhibition, the artist will also premiere a new animated film (Tide Table, 2003-2004) in which he returns to the character Soho Eckstein, so prominent in earlier works such as Mine (1991). A unique installation of his drawings and sculptures, designed by the artist, will also be included.
Kentridge participated in documenta X in Kassel in 1997, and a survey show of his work was hosted by the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, touring to Barcelona, London, Marseille and Graz. In 1999 he was awarded the Carnegie Medal at Carnegie International. In 2001-2002, a survey exhibition of Kentridge’s work travelled to Washington, New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Cape Town. He was awarded the prestigious Kaiserring Prize in 2003.
The exhibition, organized by Castello di Rivoli Chief Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, will be accompanied by a major new publication, including artist’s writings, an anthology of critical writings and new essays by the curator and by South African writer and cultural historian Jane Taylor. The exhibition will subsequently travel to K20 K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Duesseldorf (March 27 – May 31, 2004); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (September 1 – November 28, 2004); Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal (February 10 – April 23, 2005) and the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg (July 1 – October 31, 2005).
For information
Press Office, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, ph. +39/011.9565209-211, fax +39/011.9565231, e-mail: press@castellodirivoli.org
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