Open Studios Joburg offers art world lessons
The Open Studios Weekend was a bold and colourful initiative that saw almost 100 artists showcasing their work
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A theme of a few citywide art and design events across Johannesburg in the last few months has been the difficulty of presenting a coherent experience for clients and visitors around different sites in what remains a very disparate and unequal city.
The appeal is clear — to capture the energies and wildly different qualities of one of the world’s most frustratingly interesting and dangerous cities under the rubric of one event and an experience that offers an interested audience a memorable and therefore profitable event.
The Open Studios programming was loose, and really premised on simultaneously opening up the artists’ spaces to let the public see into the daily working reality of their creative lives, beyond glitzy openings and gallery spaces. Most of the studio spaces organised work to be shown and sold to the visitors, however rudimentarily this was presented.
The format also meant that a wide variety of types and proficiency of work was on show, some, like the three curated group shows in August House, guided by a theme or concept, or the project approach at the LAPA space in Brixton.
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While visitors might have had to search hard for the next William Kentridge, there were some very interesting works on show among the almost 100 artists who participated.
Perhaps most significantly, thousands of people booked and attended the studios, spaces and events across the two days on Saturday May 28 and Sunday May 29. It’s evidence of a popular interest in art making and artwork that is often overlooked in the clamour about international art fairs and multimillion rand works at auction.