Lleida,
As if they were episodes from a diary, William Kentridge’s work in his studio is a reflection of life in Johannesburg, but also of the events that happen in any other part of the world and that impact everyday life. of the artist. To give us a small idea of what this activity is like and Kentridge’s creative process, the Fundació Sorigué presents in its exhibition hall in the city of Lérida an exhibition that brings together, for the first time, all the works of the South African author that this institution treasures. in its collection, and which constitute the most relevant private collection in Europe.
For Ana Vallés, president of Sorigué, this exhibition is the culmination of more than ten years of work with a great artist like Kentridge (Princess of Asturias Award 2017), who is also a fundamental piece in the development of the Sorigué Collection.
Organized in seven rooms, the exhibition allows us to trace his artistic career from the nineties to the present, focusing, as we pointed out, on his creative process and what work and life are like in his studio; understanding the studio as a physical but also metaphorical space. Reflection on the act of creating is one of the axes of his production, through which he also raises reflections on permanence and ephemerality.
Internationally known for his characteristic animated short films, the work of William Kentridge (Johannesburg, 1955) moves at the intersection of different languages, such as drawing, film, music, dance or scenography. Considered a key figure in the recovery of his country’s historical memory, he explores through his creations the complex history of South Africa and, more broadly, the nature of human emotions and memory.
The tour of “William Kentridge. Fundació Sorigué” begins with the monumental Middle Aged Lovea work composed of four large charcoal drawings (222×130 cm), which show couples that, at first glance, seem to be dancing, but in which the artist, deliberately, by offering us a somewhat blurred vision, leaves open interpretation about what kind of activity they are doing. Maybe they dance, yes, but they could also just be hugging or even fighting.
Below, we find one of the nine episodes of Self-portrait as a Coffee PotKentridge’s latest major project, presented at the 2024 Venice Biennale (available for viewing on mubi.com). Three of these chapters have been loaned by the artist for this exhibition, whose projections are located in three different spaces of the exhibition. This first one has as its main theme the self-portrait as a way of knowing oneself; In it, he attempts to draw his own figure, while his double observes the imperfect result from afar. Later we will also find episode nine, In Defense of Optimismwhich takes us directly to his studio at the time of production of the banners and the filming process of the band that performs the music of the work More Sweetly Play the Dancewho leaves the studio to walk the streets of Johannesburg. Finally, closing the tour we can see episode one of the series, titled A Natural History of Coffeewhich can be understood as a hymn to artistic freedom, opposed to the lack of freedom of closed spaces in the digital age.
Perhaps one of his best-known works is the film Tide Table (2003), titled in reference to tide tables and in which the author presents an introspective reflection on the passage of time and oblivion. He narrates personal memories with the sea as a backdrop, of which he presents us, among others, the image of his black caregiver dressed in white or a photograph of his grandfather reading on the beach near Cape Town, sitting on a deck chair. This 35 mm film is part of Drawings for projectiona series of eleven films and drawings, two of which are also shown here, begun in 1989 and produced over more than thirty years. It stars two antithetical characters, two alter egos of Kentridge himself: the oppressive Soho Eckstein, a successful white Afrikaner businessman obsessed with power and possessions; and Felix Teitlebaum, a poet who embodies the melancholy of a inhabitant of the margins.
Kentridge’s unique way of working is curious and hypnotic: in this case, for each scene in these films he films a large drawing in charcoal and pastel, which he then partially erases and redraws. Each drawing is a kind of frame of the final piece. The moving images arise from the transformation of these drawings, in which the artist reveals the traces of previous stages, stains of erasure, as a record of the passage of time.
Another of William Kentridge’s exceptional works within the Sorigué Collection is 7 Fragments for Georges Méliés, Journey to the Moon and Day for Night. It is a set of nine films filmed in black and white, in which the artist combines real images of himself with drawings made in stop motiona constant technique in all his work. Based on the reflection on the cinema of the Frenchman Georges Méliès, he creates a set of self-reflective films in which he fundamentally explores and investigates the creative act in the studio, in addition to introducing reflections on other issues such as identity, the overlaps between art, technology and science; or universal themes such as memory, time, utopia, chaos and order…
The exhibition also has a loan from lvory Press, Tummelplatza unique two-volume artist’s book, each containing ten stereoscopic photogravures by Kentridge; and one from the MACBA Foundation, Ulysse: echo sean, slide, bottleconsisting of a triple continuous video projection that combines drawings inspired by anatomy engravings from the 16th and 17th centuries and images from ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs, and in which it presents a particular journey of Ulysses through the interior of the body .
In addition to the pieces highlighted in the exhibition, the Fundació Sorigué guards and permanently exhibits the large installation in the PLANTA complex (Balaguer, Lérida). More Sweetly Play the Dancea masterpiece in the artist’s production, composed of eight large video channels almost forty meters long. The work represents a procession starring a large number of characters, who dance, with festive and jovial music, despite the harshness of the events that the characters carry on their backs. The exhibition at the Foundation presents some of the silhouettes that Kentridge used to create this piece, arrived directly from his studio.
“William Kentridge. “Sorigué Foundation”
SORIGUÉ FOUNDATION
Mayor Pujol, 2, bis
Lleida
Until June 2025
