Kentridge hijacks Bozar

Bozar 'reassembles' William Kentridge

From 18 September, one of the most influential artists of our time takes up residence at Bozar. Under the intriguing title I am not me, the horse is not mine, the Brussels arts centre presents a comprehensive retrospective exhibition of William Kentridge. The charcoal-drawn animations of this South African draughtsman, filmmaker and opera director have been conquering the art world for decades.

For the new season, Bozar is working with a Grand Invité for the first time — a guest artist who helps shape the programme for an entire season. This artist, William Kentridge, is given a central place within the institution through his own work, exhibitions, performances and collaborations with young artists. All of this falls under the theme Reassembling.

From failed actor to charcoal draughtsman

Kentridge was born in 1955 in Johannesburg, the son of two lawyers who defended victims of the apartheid regime. After studying politics and African studies and earning a degree in fine art, he moved to Paris to study mime and theatre at the renowned École Jacques Lecoq. His ambitions as an actor came to nothing.

I was fortunate to discover at a theatre school that I was so bad an actor that I was reduced to being an artist, and I made my peace with it. – William Kentridge

Kentridge's art is highly distinctive. He builds his animated films from successive charcoal drawings made on the same sheet of paper. Kentridge draws, films a frame, erases part of the drawing, draws further, films again. The smudges and traces of what was erased remain visible, like a kind of scar on the paper. These endlessly rewritten sheets become an image of history and memory itself: nothing ever disappears completely, everything leaves a trace. With series such as 9 Drawings for Projection, he built a body of work in the 1990s that processed South African apartheid and its aftermath without ever becoming merely illustrative.

A recurring thread

The exhibition's title, I am not me, the horse is not mine, is the literal translation of a Russian expression used to deny any responsibility for something. Kentridge previously used the phrase as the title of an eight-channel video installation from 2008, built around his operatic adaptation of Shostakovich's The Nose — itself based on Gogol's absurdist tale of a nose that breaks free from its owner and rises above him in status.

Bozar is now using that exact phrase as the exhibition's title because denial, responsibility and the weight of history run as a recurring thread through Kentridge's body of work, from apartheid to Stalin's Soviet Union.

The exhibition, curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh, brings together work spanning more than forty years of his career: drawings, animated films, sculptures, prints, installations and videos, from the early 1980s to today.

More than an exhibition

A supporting programme runs alongside the exhibition. It kicks off on 18 September with, among other things, a film concert with the Belgian National Orchestra, followed by a Meet the Artist conversation on 19 September.

Bozar is going all out for Kentridge with a full season that runs until the spring of 2027. This also includes a collaboration with Kentridge's own Centre for the Less Good Idea from Johannesburg. In this laboratory, an artwork is allowed to fail. Young artists start out with loose, imperfect ideas and piece them together live into something new during the Bozar all over the P(a)lace nocturnes.

The season closes on 14 April 2027 with Winterreise: baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Markus Hinterhäuser perform Schubert's famous song cycle, while Kentridge's videos above the stage move in step with the story of the lonely wanderer seeking solace in death.

More information is available from Bozar.

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