Jacki McInnes

CAPE Africa Platform’s international art event should avoid following previous models for large-scale exhibitions which have invariably allowed their well-intentioned visions to get bogged down in a quagmire of egos and superlatives: the biggest, the newest, the best.
This is the opinion of Gavin Jantjes, Artistic Director for Cape Africa Platform’s mega-exhibition of contemporary African art to be held in Cape Town in September this year.
Jantjes believes that curators should avoid using exhibitions as platforms to voice personal opinion and should instead focus on the responsibility of setting the context and acting as mediator between art and audience.
Jantjes’ own particular bugbear stems from his observation that the western world continues to regard itself as the benchmark for modernity, failing to recognise that the rest of the world has equally valid claims to contemporaneity, and furthermore, that they have the right to represent themselves without seeking the guidance of the (perceived) hegemony.
He does make the point however, that areas such as art curatorship and administration have been so sorely neglected in this country that it would be foolish not to provide a supportive infrastructure and training.
With this in mind, he proposes that the upcoming exhibition could provide the opportunity for “one-step-at-a-time” curatorial training. This approach would provide much needed skills whilst avoiding a scenario where the teaching of curatorial courses in an academic institution might run the risk of churning out far too many supposedly qualified curators, who would then have no real hope of gaining experience in an arena with scant curatorial prospects.
Exhibitions, especially those in Africa, need to explore new ways of presenting art that allow for a greater degree of involvement, education and relevance for their audience.
To this end, Jantjes has focussed his research on South Africa’s cities and their cultural institutions such as galleries and museums. He has generally found the cities to possess an exciting sense of optimism and vitality and is particularly impressed by the ease of access and acceptance previously denied to so many South Africans.
He is distressed at the persistent exclusion of the Townships however, and would like the upcoming exhibition to help dispel the myth of Townships as “non-art spaces” by finding ways to encompass these spaces and the art practitioners living in them in a meaningful way.
As for our cultural institutions; not surprisingly, Jantjes’ overriding perception has been of worn-out, dusty spaces whose dreary interiors echo histories of elitism and exclusion. These traditional establishments fail to adequately represent the realities of a contemporary South African identity and do not encourage public participation or pride. He used a soccer analogy to describe his view that cultural institutions need to be broken down into a “super league”, “minor league” and “club” hierarchy which would allow a diversity of functions from the presentation of “master-works” to the provision of forums for art experimentation and light-hearted dialogue.
Jantjes sums up his experience thus far as both frustrating and exciting. He is frustrated at the dismal investment in the arts in South Africa and the concomitant lack of delivery in the areas of art education and appreciation.
But he’s excited at the enormous potential for artistic discovery, both for the rest of the world, and for South Africans themselves. He anticipates that topics covered in the exhibition will be forward looking and is optimistic that there will be no need to revisit hackneyed themes and stale traditions.
And he is excited about the prospect of new forms of authentic cultural communication which will go a long way towards placing Africa’s theories and facts on a par with the western world. “Good art can teach people to see things in a different way and art can give a sense of something having been learnt without being taught.”


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Jantjes was born and raised in District Six and defied convention when he became the only non-white art student at the University of Cape Town in the 1960s.
He chose the medium of printmaking for his art, partly because it suited his natural drawing ability, but more importantly because, even at this early stage he was conscious of the need to produce art that was accessible and affordable to his fellow South Africans.
He began to exhibit from an early age and always endeavoured to undermine apartheid ideology through his art. It didn’t take him long to realize however that the controlling forces at work in South Africa at that time were always going to thwart his efforts as artist and activist.
The idea that he could be more true to his career aspirations and also more politically effective from outside the system prompted him to leave South Africa in the 1970s, and thereafter followed three decades in which he dedicated himself to the visual arts in Europe.
Highlights during this time included the production of Jantjes’ “South African Colouring Book” and work for a United Nations anti-apartheid poster campaign which led to the banning of all his work by the apartheid regime.
From 1986 to 1990 he was the first black member of the Arts Council of Great Britain, a position that ran concurrently with his appointment as trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
In addition he held a senior lectureship at the Chelsea College of Art at the London Institute from 1986 to 1998. Jantjes is currently the curator for contemporary exhibitions at Norway’s National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design.
It seems strange, in light of a career as illustrious as this, that Jantjes has never been approached or involved in any previous South African art initiative - an omission that makes this “homecoming” especially noteworthy.

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