Carla Fendi Foundation and Mahler & LeWitt Studios host The Centre for the Less Good Idea for an exhibition at the Former Baptistry of the Manna d’Oro and a workshop residency.

Founded by William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace in Johannesburg, South Africa, The Centre nurtures collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects, with a particular focus on supporting artists from the African continent. Their unique strategy is to encourage artists to pursue the ‘less good idea’: i.e. that idea which first appears on the margins, as a result of creative blockage or chance, but which subsequently permits a more vital exploration.

The exhibition Unhappen Unhappen Unhappen – Pepper’s Ghost Dioramas at the Ex-Battistero Manna d’Oro will premiere four Pepper’s Ghost performance dioramas developed by Anathi Conjwa, William Kentridge, Micca Manganye, and Sabine Theunissen. Pepper’s Ghost is a Victorian theatrical illusion technique which has become one of The Centre’s signature performance tools for investigating the way memory and history are transformed and distorted over time. (Click here for Kentridge’s brief video introduction to Pepper’s Ghost). The dioramas combine the Pepper’s Ghost technique with table-top theatre and puppetry, creating a layered and perpetual performance space in which long dormant archives can be re-activated and contested histories – relating to apartheid and colonialism, for example –  are retold.

The Centre will share their philosophy and methods in a series of workshops and events, including a practical introduction to Pepper’s Ghost techniques, a live-composition workshop with silent film archives, and a lecture by William Kentridge.

The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s residency at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, curated by Guy Robertson (Curator and Co-Director, Mahler & LeWitt Studios) and produced by Carla Fendi Foundation, is part of a network of related events at the Spoleto Festival 68, including performances of Kentridge’s The Great Yes, The Great No which was incubated at The Centre. Kentridge will also have a solo exhibition at Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto’s gallery of modern art. 

EXHIBITION

Opening: 28.06, 11.00–19.00

28.06 -13.07 Monday to Sunday 11.00–19.00

(closing time may vary according to Festival events)

An introduction to the Pepper’s Ghost 

01.07, 18.00–20.00, Sala Pegasus 

Sounding Pictures – live scores to silent films

02.07, 10.00–13.00 / 15.00–18.00, Sala Pegasus

An introduction to the Pepper’s Ghost 

Sounding Pictures – live scores to silent films

What happens when we look at a silent film collectively and collaboratively, responding with live, improvisational sound, performance and text, and how does this influence the narrative of the film? With a central investigation into a dramaturgy of sound, Sounding Pictures takes a series of contemporary, short silent films as the provocation for musicians who, in many instances, will be encountering them for the first time, in front of a live audience. This is a process that requires a deep listening on the part of the artists.

“Artists have to be listening deeply and responsively to what the visuals are suggesting as a narrative. They have to be creative, and collaborative, and they have to, in a sense, work telepathically with one another to create a live score,” says The Centre’s Impresario, Neo Muyanga.

In watching a specific film with two or three different scores, and subsequently with two or three different narratives or interpretations, the hope is that there is a difference in the narrative of the film, and a discovery made in the gap between intention and interpretation.”

Apply: email info@mahler-lewitt.org with subject title ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ Open to all artists, curators and researchers. Please send a short description (max 250 words) explaining why you would like to participate along with a CV, portfolio and links to any relevant work.

BIOGRAPHIES

Anathi ‘Ithana’ Conjwa is a singer-songwriter, theatre-maker and mental health advocate. Conjwa is the co-founder of the theatre company Intsusa, which has gone onto write and perform the international award-winning theatre piece ‘A Place of Knowing’. A frequent collaborator of both The Centre for the Less Good Idea and William Kentridge, Conjwa has worked with various artists in numerous international performances between Paris, the United Kindom and the United States of America. As a musician, Conjwa is well-known as ‘Ithana’. Conjwa merges her skills as a musician and a theatre maker to produce rhythmic and compelling musical performances for staged theatre works.

William Kentridge is a draughtsman, performer, filmmaker, and is the founder of The Centre for the Less Good Idea. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre, and opera productions. Embracing collaboration and cross-pollination of various media and genres, including performance, film, literature, and more, his work frequently responds to the legacies of colonialism and apartheid, within the context of South Africa’s socio-political landscape. Erasure, play, uncertainty, and a process-led methodology are also central to his practice. A background in theatre, as well as his early experimentations with stop-motion animation continue to inform and characterise much of the work he produces today, be it for the stage, the gallery, in the studio or the lecture hall.

Bronwyn Lace is a visual artist who has collaborated with William Kentridge on the founding and establishment of The Centre for the Less Good Idea. For Botswana-born Lace, who currently works between Austria and South Africa, her artistic practice is concerned with the relationship between art and other fields such as physics, literature, philosophy, museum practice, education, and more. Site-specificity, responsiveness, and performativity are also central to her practice, and have informed a great deal of her early work. Similarly, a balance between an isolated, introspective studio process and a collaborative, communal process sees Lace embracing incidental discoveries underpinned by an informed pursuit of new ideas. At present, Lace’s position between South Africa and Austria also sees her working to establish relationships between The Centre and other collaborative, experimental arts spaces and institutions across the globe.

Katlego ‘Kaygee’ Letsholonyane is an award-winning actor and writer as well as a celebrated Market Theatre Laboratory alumnus. In 2019 he began working collaboratively with William Kentridge and The Centre for the Less Good Idea, participating in a number of performances, including Kentridge’s adaptation of the Russian playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky’s self-titled verse drama, ‘Mayakovsky: A Tragedy’ for the Pepper’s Ghost programme. He has since gone on to be a regular collaborator with The Centre.

Micca Manganye is a Johannesburg-based musician and performer specialising in percussion and live performance. Manganye is deeply inspired by the inherent musicality of the body, the world and one’s own community. His journey into performance began in 2002 with the Township Mirror Theatre Group through which he participated in a number of performances and came to work with acclaimed performers, musicians, composers and theatre makers. Manganye began working collaboratively with William Kentridge and The Centre for the Less Good Idea in 2019. It was here that he conceptualised and performed in his first solo work ‘Untshini Wena’. He has since become a frequent collaborator of The Centre.

Neo Muyanga is a composer and installation artist, and the Centre’s Impresario for the Less Good Idea. His work traverses new opera, improv and African idiomatic song. At The Centre, Muyanga works to develop and implement a unique performative program. Together with The Centre team, Muyanga devises new incubation and development strategies, curates unique programming, and draws new artists and thinkers towards The Centre.

Sabine Theunissen studied architecture in Brussels. After one year at the technical office of La Scala of Milan, she joined the Royal Theater of La Monnaie (Brussels) where she worked 17 years in the design studio.In 2003, she met William Kentridge. Their collaboration began with Magic Flute(creation TRM 2005). Since then, she has designed sets for his opera productions as well as installations and exhibitions. Based in Brussels, she is simultaneously working with other directors and choreographers. She is frequently invited for lecturing in art and architecture schools.

Carla Fendi Foundation The Carla Fendi Foundation promotes and creates artistic events, restorations, scientific and social projects. Since forming in 2007, the Foundation has collaborated with Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi becoming its Main Partner in 2012. Among its projects in Spoleto, the Foundation organises the annual Premio Carla Fendi STEAM, which was awarded to Carol LeWitt and Marina Mahler in 2021 for their services to culture in Spoleto. The funds from the prize are supporting a series of residencies and artistic projects at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios. fondazionecarlafendi.it

The Mahler & LeWitt Studios offers a program of residencies and special projects based around the former studios of Anna Mahler and Sol LeWitt in Spoleto, Italy. The Torre Bonomo, a medieval tower once used as a residency and exhibition space by the gallerist Marilena Bonomo, is also central to the programme. The program is curated by Guy Robertson (biography). mahler-lewitt.org