Nesting Narratives explores artists’ responses to the Johannesburg City Library and the various possibilities presented by its dual role as an active resource and cultural symbol within the contemporary urban landscape.

With: Francis Burger, Talya Lubinsky, Ashmash Blue, George Mahashe and Ruth Sacks

The artists involved have gathered embedded themes and accessible narratives from the library’s extensive collections to weave new stories and invent alternative forms of displaying knowledge. Like nesting dolls, one container (/narrative) is opened up to reveal another, then another, as a way of approaching the archive. From addressing the architectural language of the edifice itself to re-enacting new fictions, the exhibition presents creative research in a variety of forms. Francis Burger and Talya Lubinsky map particular historical trajectories, interrogating the process whereby histories are recorded and consumed. George Mahashe and Ruth Sacks look at new ways of storytelling, re-working familiar narrative threads into visual encounters. Ashmash Blue directly addresses the immediate surroundings of the site itself and its function as a public institution.

Nesting Narratives, curated in collaboration with Thato Mogotsi, follows on from a series of interventions that formed part of the project Regions A-G, which took place at the Johannesburg Public Library in late 2013.

Opening 03.04.2014, 18H30

GoetheonMain,
245 Main Street,
Maboneng Precinct

www.goethe.de