The event comprises a multi-channel projection installation of eight film fragments entitled I am not me, the horse is not mine, first presented to international acclaim at the Sydney Biennale in June this year. Based on the absurdist short story, The Nose (1837), by Nikolai Gogol, the installation promises to keep audiences transfixed with its mixture of self-reflective fragments, absurd cut-outs, instrumental and vocal soundscapes and projections.

In Gogol’s story, pompous government official Kovalyov wakes up one day to find that his nose has taken on a life of its own and gone for a walk around the city of St. Petersburg. In a sequence of comical scenes, the main character attempts - with increasingly ridiculous efforts - to chase after his nose, recapture it and stick it back on his face.

I am not me, the horse is not mine forms part of Kentridge’s process of developing his production of Dimitri Shostakovich’s The Nose, commissioned for the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2010.

The work reflects the artist’s ongoing interest in the roots and development of modernism: a mixture of the absurd, the self-reflective, and its many forms of fragmentation. It also deals particularly with Russia’s response to modernism in the 1930s and the histories of the terrors of hierarchy and oppression.

The title of this musical and visual piece is derived from a Russian peasant saying which denies guilt. The installation uses fragments of recently published Russian political material as well as texts from Russian writer, Daniil Kharms.

This spectacular presentation is made possible by the Goodman Gallery. A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by William Kentridge and Sue Pam-Grant will accompany the exhibition.

The Gallery is open daily from 10:00-17:00, except Mondays.

Enquiries: Pam Warne, tel: 021 467-4660, or pwarne@iziko.org.za

Image captions:

I am not me, the horse is not mine, 2008, installation of 8 projected video fragments. There are no individual captions.

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