Conflicts between context and content in William Kentridge: Five Themes: a case study of the Melbourne exhibition

Abstract

Travelling exhibitions of contemporary art navigate a multiplicity of places. As they travel from one institutional site to the next, they are framed and reframed amidst shifting contexts. Implicit in this navigation of contextual frameworks is the relationship between art and place. Informed by Miwon Kwon's study of site-specificity, this article examines how travelling exhibitions might generate meaning at their sites of temporary placement. It investigates this issue by examining the touring exhibition William Kentridge: Five Themes, which completed its journey at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in March 2012. This essay argues that this instance of the exhibition, in evading its surrounding historical and cultural context, inadvertently reiterated the processes of historical erasure that William Kentridge interrogates in his work. This case study indicates that the travelling exhibition format may accrue meaning in conflict with its content.