William Kentridge praises the less good idea
JOBURG – The Centre for the Less Good Idea launches with a season of outstanding collaborative work created by more than 60 Johannesburg-based multi-disciplinary practitioners.
Founded by William Kentridge last year, The Centre for the Less Good Idea name derives in part from a Tswana proverb: If the good doctor can’t cure you, find the less good doctor.
The centre aims to nurture artists in finding the less good idea and creates and supports experimental, collaborative and cross-disciplinary art projects.
“Often, you start with a good idea; it might seem crystal clear at first, but when you put it to work the cracks and fissures emerge in its surface and they cannot be ignored. It is often the secondary ideas, those less good ideas found in trying to address the cracks in the first idea, that become the core of the work.
“The intention is to provide a forum for these less good ideas – arguing that in the act of playing with an idea, you can recognise those things that you didn’t know in advance, but knew were somewhere inside you,” Kentridge explained.
The centre is a space to follow impulses, connections and revelations. It’s a physical space for artists to come together over two seasons every year and for the curators of these seasons to bring together text, performance, image and dance because an ensemble sees the world differently to how an individual does.
It’s a safe space for failure, for projects to be tried and discarded because they do not work. It’s a space for short-form work that does not have a natural home in a theatre or gallery, work which can show the jumping from context to context one does in their need to make sense of the world.
Season 1 brings together more than 60 practitioners (actors, dancers, poets, writers, composers, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers and boxers) under the guidance of curators, Khayelihle Dominique Gumede, Lebogang Mashile, Gregory Maqoma and William Kentridge.
The programme comprises performances and films showcased in three different venues in the Arts on Main complex, as well as site-specific performances at the Kwa Mai Mai market and installations in the surrounding neighbourhood.
Make sure to book for one or all of the exciting events from 1 to 5 March at The Centre for the Less Good Idea.
Details: www.lessgoodidea.com
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