Remembering the Pass - Exploring curatorial reenactment in PASS-AGES: References &amp; Footnotes

Jayne Crawshay-Hall

doi:10.17159/2617-3255/2020/n34a3

Abstract

The exhibition, PASS-AGES: References & Footnotes (2010), curated by Gabi Ngcobo, was site-specific and took place at the former Pass Office in Johannesburg, a space not officially acknowledged as a struggle site. Ngcobo, recognising the potential for using dynamic display formats to mobilise a curatorial concept, brought memory to the fore by installing artworks at the Pass Office as reenactments of evidence. I argue that PASS-AGES invokes traumatic memory through curatorial reenactment, and indicates the potentials for reenactment to explore repressed histories that still hold presence in a contemporary moment. Memory is thus invoked as an additional "text" to mobilise the conceptual framework, akin to how remembrance is often used in the continuous struggle for justice. Employing an autoethnographic methodology, which describes an analytical approach used to critically examine the researcher's own experiences as a means to access greater understanding of cultural experience, I allow the reader to experience the exhibition through my own account. I argue that, as a nomadic curator, Ngcobo was freed from contextual, spatial, or methodological limitations traditionally bound to a colonial logic of curatorial practice. I convey that a nomadic curatorial approach can be adopted to critique traditional or institutional curatorial paradigms. To this end, I argue that Ngcobo was able to engage care in her practice by using reenactment to interrogate memory in a manner that may otherwise have been subdued within an institutional context.

Highlights

The exhibition, PASS-AGES: References & Footnotes (2010),1 which was curated by Gabi Ngcobo to coincide with the inaugural launch of the Johannesburg-based curatorial platform, Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR 2010–2014),2 was presented just over fifteen years after the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime
Terry Smith (2012a:21) discusses the notion of 'activist curating', as often enacted beyond the venues of the art world, where the exhibition is presented as an argument and conceptual framework to spark response, highlight issues that need further engagement, and bring about political and social change
The use of space and curatorial composition in PASS-AGES imbues the exhibition with meaning, galvanising the exhibition’s potential of uncovering testimonies, and contributing to probing the manner in which society responds to these denied narratives (Ngcobo 2010:2)

Summary

Introduction

The exhibition, PASS-AGES: References & Footnotes (2010),1 which was curated by Gabi Ngcobo to coincide with the inaugural launch of the Johannesburg-based curatorial platform, Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR 2010–2014),2 was presented just over fifteen years after the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime.3 The exhibition makes direct reference to apartheid’s “pass” system in its title and served to interrogate the “ripple effect” incurred as a result of the violations the system imposed.4 Each of the artists included in the exhibition, namely Dineo Seshee Bopape, Ernest Cole (included posthumously), Kemang Wa Lehulere, Zanele Muholi and Mary Sibande, engage with historical narratives as a departure point in their artworks, question issues surrounding identity, and interrogate the role and position of the black body as well as the stigma and withstanding effects that the system of racial classification has had on them (Ngcobo 2010:2). Ngcobo foregrounds how memory work, and the remembrance of traumatic events can be used in the continuous endeavour to achieve justice for violations against human rights (Bonder 2009:63).7 I contend that through presenting the exhibition as a reenactment, Ngcobo elicits care in her activist curatorial practice by inviting the viewer to reflect critically on traumas related to the pass system, and thereby invoke empathy and understanding in this context.

Results

Conclusion