Kentridge opens Johannesburg space for artists to learn by failing

The South African artist William Kentridge has set up an arts foundation near his studio in Johannesburg, providing a “safe space for uncertainty, doubt, stupidity and, at times, failure”, he says. 

The artist has called his foundation the Centre for the Less Good Idea—a reference to the process of creation, which often sees artists derailed from exploring their initial idea and focusing on “secondary ideas that emerge during the process of making”, he says. 

He set up his foundation in the Arts on Main complex, a converted warehouse in central Johannesburg, which houses his studio as well as other art spaces. It aims to answer a real need in the city and across the country for alternatives to beleaguered public art spaces. 

“There’s a sense in Johannesburg and South Africa that the public funding of institutions is collapsing,” Kentridge says. “The Johannesburg Art Gallery, the gallery of my childhood, which has a wonderful collection of South African and African art as well as Rembrandt prints and other things, closed down in February. It had a new roof put up, but this was made of copper, which is a highly desirable material, so the roof was removed by thieves in the night, and then the rain came and did irreparable damage to many of the galleries.”

The new centre’s inaugural season of performances, film screenings and art displays took place in March, organised by the theatre director and playwright Khayelihle Dominique Gumede, the poet, author and activist Lebogang Mashile, the dancer-choreographer Gregory Maqoma, and Kentridge himself. It brought together 60 participants including actors, dancers, poets, writers, artists, composers, film-makers and boxers. They worked together to create a series of public performances, including the staging of four plays by Samuel Beckett, a work by the Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, a parade, and a series of performances in collaboration with a local boxing club.

“It’s a small arts centre, the budget is modest, but it should enable us to have two seasons a year, the seasons being defined by the different curators who run them,” Kentridge says.

According to reports in the South African press, Kentridge has committed to fund the organisation with R3m ($229,000) a year for the next three years, but he declined to confirm the figure.