Starting on the 1 October (First Thursdays Cape Town) Gallery MOMO will be opening a group video exhibition. Video art continues to be a growing medium in South Africa and Africa. Gallery MOMO is ardent about embracing the nuances and poetics of video work, creating a platform in Cape Town allowing it to be exposed to the broader public.
Francois Knoetze’s Cape Mongo will be performing at the opening as part of First Thursdays. Knoetze’s practice looks at issues of waste and the world’s obsession with material. His sculptured suits hold a mirror up to a side of society that is frequently hidden.
A range of diverse videos pieces will be shown throughout the gallery in the various rooms. This includes the trailer of, “Not in my Neighborhood” by accomplished filmmaker, Kurt Orderson. This documentary, currently under development, insightfully digs into the controversial forced urban removals that have been taking place in Cape Town and New York under the guise of “urban gentrification”.
Christine Cronjé’s “Weeping” is an introspective engagement into the anxious chaos that is simply about living. In executing this video, Cronjé utilised high-speed videography and large scale projection.
“Walls of Leila” by filmmaker, Amirah Tajdin, chronicles a love story set in Cape Town of a young Cape Malay girl who falls in love with an American boy. As their relationship deepens issues around the prejudice of culture, race and religion become prominent.
Revered photographer, Roger Ballen’s “Asylum of the Birds” is a psychologically powerful film rendition of his photographic project into the confines of a Johannesburg suburban house. The inhabitants of the house, most notably the birds all perform together in this theatrical film.
Maurice Mbikayi’s “Web Jacket” seeks to investigate the impact of technology on today’s world. The vast scale growth of technology has necessitated a reliance on the mining of minerals which in turn has created vast-scale exploitation in parts of Africa.
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