William Kentridge: Ursonate
Perhaps best known for his stop-motion charcoal-drawing animations depicting the sociopolitical convolutions within contemporary postcolonial society in South Africa, Johannesburg artist William Kentridge interrogates Performa 17’s historical research theme of Dada in this new performance based on Kurt Schwitters’s seminal 1932 sound poem Ursonate.
The multimedia artist mixes film, drawing, and sculpture in his practice; this is his second Performa Commission. Recent solo exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, MoMA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His theater performances, created with Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company, have been presented at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metropolitan Opera House, and Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris.
Image credit: William Kentridge, Ursonate, 2017. Photos © Paula Court. Courtesy of Performa.
Role: Associate Producer
Curated by RoseLee Goldberg
Esa Nickle: Producer
Raul Zbengheci: Associate Producer
Set Design: Sabine Theunissen
Set Fabrication: Hatchet Design and Build
Video Design: Janus Fouché
Video Engineer: Brendan Bercik
Lighting Design: Wild Dogs International, Andre Ferreira
Audio Engineer: Anthony Fraser