![]() Such was the collision of time and space for a Norwegian art fan, one of the 25,000 attendees, who, on the Friday of the art fair, found herself in the booth of South African artist Zandile Tshabalala’s solo show Umcimbi, standing on an earth-colored vinyl floor paper reminiscent of a childhood home in Soweto. With over 106 exhibitors from across Africa and the diaspora, coming together for several panels and a number of exhibition openings across museums and galleries in Cape Town, the art fair made a generous space for an influx of devotees to reflect on disparate ideas of time itself. ![]() The 10th edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (ICTAF) took place last weekend on the southernmost tip of the continent where the black gold of the sun sets late and the ‘notion of time’ becomes an apt theme for Africa’s largest gathering of contemporary art. Perhaps experimental art is not as bold a proposition here as one would imagine.The years have been good to the art fair, which celebrated its tenth anniversary this past weekend and staged its most inspired show to date. Afterwards, Wara discussed her work in the context of blushing, likening the involuntary bodily process to a “face boner”, to which the Queen replied: “I blush all the time”. However she did, according to Dahl, take particular interest in a peformance given by Agata Wara, which involved the artist ascending a set of stairs and leaving behind imprints of red paint. The most prominent patron to have made a visit to the space, Queen Sonja of Norway, is yet to purchase a work from the show. Courtesy of KUK TrondheimĪnd while Trondheim still might not seem the most likely location for the art trade, a number of artists cut deals on the gallery's opening weekend, including the Berlin-based artist Constantin Hartenstein, who sold a blue resin wall-hanging work based on popular images from East Germany to a Trondheim-based collector. "Prior to the KUK I can't imagine where I could have sold a work like this in Norway without going to Oslo," she says.Ĭonstantin Hartenstein's resin works refer to popular imagery from his childhood in the German Democratic Republic. Her work, located by the downstairs toilet, shows a video projection of the artist observing her body in a mirror. Born and raised near Delhi, India, Kukreja relocated to Trondheim three years ago to study. Among the youngest artists in the inaugural show is a recent graduate of the academy, Samrridhi Kukreja, who practises under the alias Tuda Muda. ![]() To this end, it has established a partnership with the Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, allowing its graduates to show in the space. She adds that it is “complementary, not competing” to the ambitions of the kunsthalle. However, while the kunsthalle tends to stage exhibitions by more established names in the contemporary art world, the KUK focuses on “emerging and younger, experimental voices”, says its artistic director Cathrin Hovdal Vik. "For Trondheim to now have a space where artists can sell experimental work is indicative of how much it’s evolving.” This local swell of interest in contemporary art is one that precedes the KUK's arrival as Dragset points out an actual kunstalle dedicated to contemporary art opened in Trondheim in 2016. “When I was a kid we didn’t even have an art museum here," says Dragset, who grew up near the city. These include the Berlin-based painter Elizabeth Ravn, who shows intimate interior scenes composed from broad brushtrokes, and the British artist Nikhil Vettukattil, whose moving image installation fills the gallery's basement level with the thumping sounds of hardcore techno music.Ī gallery converted from a former auto shop at the KUK Trondheim. Spread across eight galleries, many of the artists on show are yet to receive a solo institutional exhibition, and some have no commercial representation. Organised by the Scandinavian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset (better known together as the duo Elmgreen & Dragset), and the Danish curator Rhea Dahl, It's Just a Phase (until 13 February), brings together new and recent works that respond to life stages such as birth, death, ageing and coming out. ![]() True to form, the KUK's exterior is now emblazoned with an image of a woman during childbirth with her crowning newborn, by the German photographer Heji Shin, who is one of 31 artists taking part in the inaugural show. Elizabeth Ravn's painting of her partner installated in It's Just a Phase at KUK Trondheim. ![]()
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