e‑flux | Ina Lou / Dear Mother Earth: Sea, Soil and Solidarity
Ina Lou / Dear Mother Earth: Sea, Soil and Solidarity 19 – 20 November […]
Read MoreWe talk a lot, in the US-European focused art world, about increasing the prominence of art from the Global South.
But if someone asked you where they could go to find galleries from, say, Cape Town or Buenos Aires or Manila, or read academic texts about their artists, what would you say? Probably Google “galleries in Manila”. And repeat for each city.
That is why Liza Essers, the owner of South Africa- and London-based Goodman Gallery, decided in the long hours of lockdown to create “an aggregator for galleries devoted to artists with diverse perspectives,” with an archive that will “form a central repository for texts and content providing an alternative art history.”
So was born South South, a new gallery-led platform which will officially launch in February 2021 with South South Veza, a selling event using auction technology to try to create some of the buzz and competition missing from standard fair online viewing rooms.
“I found all the OVRs to be very flat as an experience,” Essers says. “You cannot recreate the atmosphere of the vernissage at Art Basel.” The auction technology, Essers hopes, will recreate “the impetus to buy” of a live event. No prices will be shared, nor information on what is sold or not sold. Galleries will, however, know the identity of the buyer and underbidders.
In future, it is hoped that the South South Veza will manifest physically in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Miami, New York City and Tokyo — details of which to come.
Participating South South galleries include: Addis Fine Art (Addis Ababa, London), Rele Gallery (Lagos), Gypsum (Cairo), A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro), Luisa Strina (São Paulo), Anna Schwartz (Melbourne), Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo), Experimenter (Kolkata), Blum & Poe (Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo), Monique Meloche Gallery (Chicago) and Stephen Friedman (London).
The full article is available here.
South South Veza will take place from 4 – 7 February