by George Chapman

Intended to bridge the gap between the public and the gallery exhibits, the BMW Art Talks present a series of guest and keynote speakers discussing a variety of topics relevant to the 2009 Joburg Art Fair. Through a panel selection, Artlogic provides slots for participating galleries to provide their own speakers in order to further engage public debate within the sphere of the art fair.
What is the nature of a talks program at an art fair? With a largely uninformed public reluctant to attend art-related events in South Africa, the program seems poised to open up discussion on a range of topics, offering insight into the process of documentary photography from the artist’s point of view, dealing with the nature of collecting contemporary art in Africa or discussing the contentious subject matter of an artist’s work. While my interest was peaked at the prospect of some talks, what I found disappointing about the program was the overall lack of public engagement, perhaps indicative of a general lack of public engagement with art in South Africa.
Some of the Friday’s highlights included João Ferreira’s A-to-Z presentation on contemporary collecting, Sukari Douglas-Camp presentation of her body of work and gallerist Peter Herrmann’s ‘quest for Africa’. While Ferreira only spoke for a total of 8 minutes, his short introduction effectively did what many of the talks had failed to do: open up the floor for real discussion. With talks scheduled every thirty minutes, time is often confined and the need to converse about ideas is seldom fulfilled. Sokari Douglas-Camp CBE, speaking on behalf of her gallery representative CCA Lagos (one of the few international galleries at this year’s fair) & Gallery MOMO’s Usha Seejarim both presented their bodies of work to a largely static audience. What was interesting about Seejarim’s presentation was although she was presenting her talk on behalf of MOMO, she chose to discuss her public commissioned installation sculptures, thus promoting ideas of public intervention and ideas of public sculpture to her audience – something which is often held in underrated public opinion or often goes unnoticed.
Speaking to a representative of Artlogic, who felt somewhat unfazed by Friday’s low attendance and audience engagement during some talks, the organisers saw the program as a fundamental component of the fair, allowing the talks to attract as many or few audience members as necessary. Whether or not a talk was saturated with fair-goers was not judged to determine its success. Last year the talks program was essentially positioned as a fringe event intended to extend the environment of the 2008 Joburg Art Fair beyond the Sandton Convention Centre, yet public participation was low and ultimately unsuccessful in promoting public discussion. Fortunately organizers decided to incorporate and centralise the event within the Convention Centre, a move which has brought a larger audience to the venue.
The BMW Art Talks program is running for the duration of the art fair. I would highly recommend visitors to attend these talks, as they offer visitors the chance to engage with artists and gallerists.