Story #4, Storm Janse van Rensburg, 2012
Berlin, 13 April 2012
Dear Abrie,
Good chat earlier. Just got home and thought to quickly jot down some thoughts. I really like your idea to ask a couple of people to bring a story to the talk on the afternoon of the opening, instead of you doing a presentation. You are right, the work will be up in the space, and speak for itself.
That said, I am curious about your insistence not to speak to and about the work, given that you are interested in the relationship between photographs and words (Ivan’s text in your monograph is a case in point). Somehow this means your voice, your story is absent. Couldn’t we do an interview with you for the catalogue? (Somehow I expect this won’t happen.)
To come back to hosting an afternoon of conversations: should we also ask people to bring an image or two? In an oblique way we will then search, together, for that link between images and memory. We should just be careful that it doesn’t turn into some hippie workshop.
Please send me the list of people who you would like to invite. Definitely the South Africans in town, and as you said others that have a connection to South Africa. We will have to rely on your network here, as I am just starting to get to know people.
Our meeting with J.S was great, and I think he could provide an interesting historical context to the afternoon’s discussions.
How formally should we conduct the proceedings?
One last thing, I have been thinking about the poster campaign. I’m smirking that you edited out the poster with your text. So for the first one we will definitely have Ivan’s quotation, ‘Google him’. It’s kind of cheeky. And I like Sean’s too - ‘Subtle but nonetheless violent’. The only one I don’t think will read well – and is perhaps too oblique – is ‘Maßnahme’. The other posters will function in the streets without much context, but this one I feel says too little. It’s hardcore in relation to Ivan’s larger text. We understand it because it is now forever lodged in our heads in relation to the horror it describes. But, for someone on the street, it’s just a word.
Lets catch up tomorrow after my German class. Will see you around 3pm. Storm
Ps. I did not realise that ‘heimat’ still had such negative associations, as Ella mentioned the other night. I will read up about it. I guess some things can’t be cleansed. I am still intrigued by it though. Is there a translation for it in Afrikaans?