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Exhibition

William Kentridge

That Which Is Not Drawn

With animation, drawing, cinema, music and theatre, South African artist William Kentridge has built a sprawling work, combining techniques and disciplines. The exhibition is a unique chance to see some of Kentridge’s most iconic works: large-format tapestries and the full series of 11 short animation films, Drawings for Projection. The CCCB is the first place in Europe to premiere Kentridge’s latest film, City Deep.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1955, William Kentridge is one of the leading voices in international contemporary art. The drawings, films and theatrical productions of this versatile creator have been presented in museums and cultural institutions around the world. A representative selection of Kentridge’s work now reaches the CCCB in an exhibition curated by the director of exhibitions at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Jaap Guldemond.

 

European premiere of the complete series of short films Drawings for Projection

The exhibition presents for the first time the complete series of 11 animated films, Drawings for Projection, which the artist began in 1989, marking his international breakthrough in the art world. Kentridge completed City Deep, the eleventh film in the project, during confinement, and it can be seen for the first time in Europe in the CCCB’s show.

The 11 short films in the series are a critical chronicle of South African history from Apartheid to the present. Drawings for Projection are made with a laborious artisanal animation technique. Kentridge creates charcoal and pastel drawings that he modifies by erasing, redrawing and reworking the elements. He films each stage of the process and modifies it continuously, sometimes leaving “ghostly remnants” of the previous marks on the sheet. In this way, he visualizes the passage of time and the stratification of memory, one of the main themes of his work.

 

More Sweetly Play the Dance, an audiovisual moving frieze

Another of the most representative works of William Kentridge’s art and creative process on show in the exhibition is More Sweetly Play the Dance, a spectacular almost 40-metre-long moving frieze on eight screens, evoking the dynamics of a ritual procession, a demonstration of the dispossessed, a flow of refugees escaping a crisis or a medieval danse macabre.

The piece is one of the most striking manifestations of the more collective, choreographic side of Kentridge’s oeuvre, a work that blurs the boundaries between artistic installation and performing arts, where the different languages deployed by the artist are organically and hypnotically combined. It was in Room 2 at the CCCB until 17 January. Thereafter, it will be shown in the PLANTA space of the Fundació Sorigué, near Balaguer.

 

The creative world of Kentridge in drawings and large-format tapestries

The exhibition "William Kentridge. That Which Is Not Drawn" also includes seven drawings on paper that record the laborious creative process of the films in Drawings for Projection and a selection of nine large-format tapestries, which the artist produces in collaboration with the Stephens Tapestry Studio in Johannesburg, a local workshop that employs women in the area.

The tapestries feature dark silhouettes, recognisable figures that appear throughout Kentridge’s work. They show images of people carrying loads (refugees, demonstrators, pilgrims), for the author symbolizing the crises, wars and problems that plague South Africa and the rest of the world.

 

Space for reflection on power and the margins of exclusion

With this exhibition, the CCCB aims not just to explore the work and the artistic career of an important creator, but to reflect on the challenges of postcolonialism and the dialectic between power, margins and exclusion today.

William Kentridge’s creations refer to his hometown, Johannesburg, to the history of South Africa and to Apartheid, but above all they touch on universal issues: the nature of human relations, memory, domination, guilt and dissection of power.

 

"William Kentridge. That Which Is Not Drawn" is an extended adaptation of the exhibitions "William Kentridge – If We Ever Get to Heaven" (2015) and "William Kentridge: Ten Drawings for Projection" (2019), devised and presented at the Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam) and curated by Jaap Guldemond, with the collaboration of Marente Bloemheuvel.

 

Curators: Jaap Guldemond

Participants: William Kentridge

Inside the exhibition

Five insights into William Kentridge

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Report "William Kentridge That Which Is Not Drawn"

With animation, drawing, cinema, music and theatre, South African artist William Kentridge has built a sprawling work, combining techniques and disciplines. The exhibition is a unique chance to see some of Kentridge’s most iconic works.

Watch the video

New Perspectives on Colonial Memory

Moderated by the architect Laida Memba, the historian Gustau Nerín, the researcher Anyely Marín Cisneros, and the anthropologist Andrés Antebi will talk about the memory of Spain’s colonial past and the role in it played by Catalonia.

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Exhibition images

Previous activities

Bioscope in the classroom

Training for teachers of documentary animation workshops

The Stuart Hall Project

John Akomfrah

Bioscope presents: The Film

Documentary animation film matinée

“Bioscope” online

Discover documentary animation by making your own film

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"Bioscope" with your family

Documentary animation workshop and creation of a collective film

"William Kentridge" School activities

2020-2021 Course activities

New Perspectives on Colonial Memory

Short films session

Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett and Jean-Marie Teno

Skin color?

Self-portrait workshop in family

Looking for Langston / Frantz Fanon: Black Skin White Mask

Isaac Julien

#wearenotahashtag

Creation by the black diaspora of Barcelona

Kaddu Beykat

Safi Faye

Borderline

Kenneth Macpherson

«William Kentridge» in sign language

Guided tour with interpretation service in sign language

Conversation with Kopano Matlwa

South Africa after Apartheid

Bioscope projections for Christmas

Conversation with Aída Bueno Sarduy

Colonial intimacy

Conversation with Behrouz Boochani

Take Me to a Beautiful Place

Conversation with Pankaj Mishra

The World Today. Reflections on the Legacy of Imperialism

Conversation with Maria Campbell

Writing as a Halfbreed

Presentation of "William Kentridge. That Which is not Drawn"

With Jordi Costa

«William Kentridge» & «Bioscope» for teachers

Visit to the exhibition and presentation of the documentary animation film workshop

Conversation with Angela Davis

Against racism: a constant fight

William Kentridge and Nalini Malani in Conversation

In Praise of Shadow

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