New and Neglected at Iziko


The boss of the Iziko museums of Cape Town (there are twelve, in case you didn’t know, and the Xhosa word means ‘hearth’), Prof Jatti Bredenkamp, was on the radio the other day taking part in a phone-in programme.

He did a great job in as much as radio requires neat sentences, well-pronounced and expressive language. And, to be fair, he made a few interesting remarks - like his staff were working on an exhibition about Table Mountain (...).

But when an angry caller asked why the folk manning the Castle of Good Hope were so unfriendly and unhelpful, he did what all politicians do: he sounded at first deeply hurt and then promised to act immediately. Like all those skilled in politico sweet-talking ways, he cunningly shifted the blame. Why was the complainant using the public media and not speaking to him personally? We all know the strategy.

As it turns out, this artful viewer had been to the Castle the very previous day (to attend one of the lesser pieces in the Spier ‘Infecting the City’ festival). The place is in a pretty tatty condition (as is the façade of the SA National Gallery grand dame in the Gardens, by the way). Yet the Iziko staff seem to be doing their best in the general chaotic circumstances of the haphazard environment.

A day later, driving past in Muizenberg, a visitor asked about the decrepit-looking building that used to be the Natale Labia museum. The complicated story about how this gift to the nation became a bright satellite to the SANG and then fell out of favour and its ornate, pristine condition, is a sad Iziko chapter (though not only their fault).

On radio Bredenkamp referred to the controversial Khoisan/Bushman diorama at the SA Museum which now has been boarded up for years. He promised that some sort of decision will be made within the next couple of months. For anyone who has been following this saga, it seems not only like an awfully long time, but plenty of procrastination. How difficult is it to put a sign up and explain the whole affair? Surely this is where curatorial suss kicks in?

Curatorial expertise, of course, is very much the talking point in art museum circles these past few months. With most of the country’s art museums within directors, one wonder whether this is a sign of the times. (Has money lured expertise away from those not-very-generous salaries? Or have public art institutions abdicated their role?)

This could be one of the reasons that Iziko took forever to find a replacement for Marilyn Martin. The colourful former director of the SA national collection retired in August as ‘director of art collections’(the bureaucratic title suited to the Iziko organogram). But one can just imagine the wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes to get the ‘right person’. (This is where art and politics cross.)

It wasn’t a happy time at the SANG without a director, but, let’s be fair, there have been some nice exhibitions (well, except the odd Intimate Distance) and the place is quite lively. (So is the SA Museum across the way.)

Just as February was ending, word got out (well, sort of - Iziko’s PR system is a little dysfunctional too and Bredenkamp didn’t announce it on radio) that Riason Naidoo has been appointed as director of art collections from May. A sigh of relief went though the Gardens. (Another, sad sigh, accompanied the departure of hardworking Cynthia Querido, Iziko’s press person.)

Not much is known about Naidoo, except, a week or so before, he featured (wearing a becoming outfit) in Jacques Pauw’s documentary about the opening of the Ahmed Baba Library in Timbuktu. We know from that that he gets along in French.

Durban born Naidoo, who has a MFA from Wits (2007), was project manager of the South Africa/Mali project which led to the building and that restoration project in Timbuktu. He has specialised in photography, having put together photographic shows on identity politics and memory. His exhibition The Indian in Drum magazine was a most recent project.

Let’s hope Naidoo brings along that boost of professional energy that Iziko (and art, in particular) can do with. Of course, the position (previously called director of the SANG) is one of great significance. Let’s wish him well.