Strengths and Convictions: The lives and times of South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela
26 November 2009 to 28 February 2010

Strengths and Convictions consists of films, photographs and contemporary works of art by South African and international artists. It is constructed around a timeline of 100 years of South African history, and visual art is used as a matrix for the life and times of the four laureates.

Visitors can expect an exhibition with three distinctive but interrelated parts: a collection of photographs portraying the four laureates, a large collection of contemporary artworks, and seven short films that contextualise the lives of the laureates.
A fully illustrated publication with essays by the author Antjie Krog, Justice Albie Sachs, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, andthe exhibition curator, Gavin Jantjes, accompanies the exhibition. Relevant seminars and cultural events for schools and visitors are planned around the exhibition.

Strengths and Convictions has been developed
by the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, in
collaboration with the Iziko South African National
Gallery in Cape Town.

Dada South?
12 December 2009 to 28 February 2010
Rooms 7, 8, 9 and 10

Founded in Zürich in 1916, the Dada movement rejected traditional artistic and cultural values. Through its radical ‘anti-art’ stance, artists associated with Dada disrupted conventions of the modernist age and had a profound impact on future forms of creative practice. The resurgence of Neo Dada movements in the 1960s rejuvenated these radical ideas.

Dada’s legacy is one of fierce political potential
through radical disruptions of accepted forms.
For some South African artists working during
the decades of oppression and isolation of the
apartheid era (1948–1994), Dada strategies
were a significant influence on their resistance
tactics, and one which is finding its way back into
the expressions of a new generation of young,
contemporary practitioners.

Curated by Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith, the
exhibition draws together works by South African
artists dating from the late 1960s to the present,
representing a range of avant-garde positions in
the aftermath of Dada, including works by Wopko
Jensma, Neil Goedhals, Jane Alexander, Lucas
Seage, Candice Breitz and Kendell Geers, among
others. In an adjoining space, original Dada works,
including films and publications, will be assembled
for exhibition in South Africa for the first time.

A series of seminars and public lectures will
accompany the exhibition as part of Iziko Summer
School 2010.

Dada South? is made possible through a partnership with
the Goethe-Institut and the support of the National Arts
Council of South Africa, Pro Helvetia, Mondriaan Foundation,
Culturesfrance and others. International loan institutions
include: Institute For Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart;
Berlin Gallery, Berlin; John Heartfield Archive of the Academy
of Arts, Berlin; Kunsthaus Zürich; De Stijl Archives, Netherlands
and Institute for Art History, Den Haag.

Enquiries: Nadja Daehnke, Tel. 021 467 4673
or email Andrea Lewis, alewis@iziko.org.za.

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