The JAG honours fallen resistance artist
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind—
– William Wordsworth.
But how could I forget thee?
So many of us do not know about the brave, the selfless, the unnamed, the unmarked, the forgotten heroes of our past who sacrificed everything, even their lives, for us to have our freedom today. Let us NEVER forget them, but instead ensure that their names and their deeds are forever close to our hearts and minds, keeping them alive in respect and love. Make sure you get to the JAG to share this poignant retrospective of the art of the master artist Thami Mnyele who was killed at the hands of the brutality of the apartheid security forces. Do yourself and your children this favour, and feed your mind. Details below on the conference to be held pre-exhibition and the exhibition details.
From the end of November, the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) will be hosting an exhibition honouring Thami Mnyele, a South African resistance artist who died at the hands of apartheid security forces in the 1980s.
The Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition opens at the JAG on Sunday, 30 November 2008 at 6.30pm, and runs until 30 March 2009.
Thamsanqa “Thami” Mnyele (1948-1985) was a talented artist from Alexandra who was committed to bringing about social change in South Africa through the medium of art. This quest led him to exile in Botswana in the late 1970s, having decided to take a stand and actively participate in the struggle.
In Botswana, Mnyele became a cultural worker with the Medu Art Ensemble, co-founded by his friend Mongane Wally Serote. Medu had units dedicated to the anti-apartheid struggle, dealing with music, theatre, visual arts, graphics and cinema, and counted among its ranks South Africa’s current Deputy President Baleka Mbete as well as musicians Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa.
In 1982, Medu hosted milestone conferences relating to South African art, including the Symposium on Culture and Resistance in Gaborone and Culture in Another South Africa in Amsterdam. Today, the Thami Mnyele Foundation’s residency programme for African artists in Amsterdam continues to bear testament to the late artist’s far-reaching influence.
As a result of their commitment to the struggle in general, and to the ANC in particular, Medu members became targets of the apartheid security apparatus. In 1985, a day before he was due to move to Zambia, Mnyele was killed along with other activists and civilians in a cross-border raid orchestrated by the South African Defence Force in Gaborone.
The JAG will be paying tribute to the work of this seminal South African graphic artist during the retrospective exhibition, and will also be one of the venues hosting a three-day art conference for Medu members as well as members of the public. Up for discussion will be themes such as resistance art, art and education, and freedom of speech.
The conference kicks off with a keynote address on Tuesday, 2 December at the Hector Pietersen Museum in Soweto, before moving to the JAG on 3 December and to Constitution Hill on 4 December.
For more details about the Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition, or to enquire about the art conference, phone Khwezi Gule at (011) 725-3130 or e-mail KhweziG@joburg.org.za. The Johannesburg Art Gallery is located in King George Street, between Wolmarans and Noord streets in Joubert Park, and is open from Tuesdays to Sundays between 10am and 5pm.
