Exhibition branches back to controversial second Johannesburg Biennale

Phillip Raiford Johnson, Aperture, 2011, film still from multimedia installation

Opening at Stevenson, Johannesburg on 5 July, If A Tree... is an exhibition that seeks to revisit elements of the controversial second Johannesburg Biennale, Trade Routes: History and Geography, which took place in 1997. Curated by APC Masters Research Scholar Clare Butcher, this is the second exhibition in the gallery's Trade Routes Project.

'If A Tree... takes its cue from the age-old philosophical dilemma about cause, effect and the contingency of witnessing history in the making,' reads the exhibition statement. 'Presenting a mixed group of artistic generations and geographies, the exhibition traces speculative routes outwards from the second Johannesburg Biennale in order to gauge its bearing on local and transnational contemporary art practice. The artists' projects included in the exhibition alternate between intimate reflections on direct encounters with the biennale 15 years ago, and broader comments on art's political economy in the surrounding city context.'

Featured artists are James Beckett (South Africa/Netherlands), Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa), Heman Chong (Singapore) with Eduardo Cachucho (South Africa), Yvonne Droge Wendel (Netherlands), Paul Edmunds (South Africa), Simon Gush (South Africa), Nicholas Hlobo (South Africa), Phillip Raiford Johnson (South Africa/UK), Antonis Pittas (Greece/Netherlands), Colin Richards (South Africa), Robin Rhode (South Africa/Germany), Lerato Shadi (South Africa/Germany) and Kemang Wa Lehulere (South Africa).

The exhibition grapples with the question of 'how to realise the generative possibilities embedded within this contested archive of art history in the present', says Butcher, whose Masters project with the Centre for Curating the Archive concerns South African contemporary exhibition history.

During July an ancillary programme, conversations and screenings will be hosted by the independent project space, Parking Gallery (www.parking-gallery.net); additionally, a number of the exhibition works will involve direct public intervention. An informative guide will accompany the exhibition with texts on the artists and their projects, and a number of walkabouts will be scheduled. The curator and a few of the artists will be stationed at the residency and project space, Sober & Lonely Institute for Contemporary Art for the duration of the show.

If A Tree... follows Trade Routes Over Time, at Stevenson Cape Town in April/May 2012, and the project will conclude with a third exhibition at the end of the year in Cape Town, accompanied by a publication containing archival documentation and research essays.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 5 July, from 6 to 8pm, and runs until 4 August.