STREETKID is a horror film we created in collaboration with filmmaker Vukani Ndebele. It is the first project which CUSS has formally assumed a move to a more networked mode of practice. Vukani has always been a practitioner CUSS has been interested in, and has directly referenced in the past. The commission for the C& ART SPACE was a reason to work with him, especially after we made specific adjustments to how we saw ourselves post-BB9 (Berlin Biennale #9).

– CUSS –

The collective CUSS responds to commercial, cultural, and technological super-hybridity in contemporary South Africa and beyond. Signposted as “Triomf Factory Shop,” their installation appears to be a store filled with products for sale: including a fragrance, a beer, and LCD monitors broadcasting a TV channel, all of which are commissioned works by other South African artists. The shop serves as a virtual “front” for a back room, which is a site of production for a live program of performances. Closed to the public, these events are streamed from behind closed doors into the storefront. CUSS’ use of a shop not only speaks to the gap between official presentation and processes of creative production, but it also plays on how in the city politics and national interests that drive biennials, participants are envoys, quasi-exports, quasi-emigrants, of cultural dissemination amid a globalized, though still nationally based creative economy.