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| Established | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Location | 1 Durris Road Forest Town Johannesburg |
| Coordinates | 26°10′28″S28°01′59″E / 26.1744°S 28.0330°E /-26.1744; 28.0330 |
| Type | Art Museum |
| Curator | Clive Kellner |
| Website | jcaf |
TheJoburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF) positions itself as “an academic research institute, a platform for museumexhibitions and an innovative technology laboratory”.[1] This non-collectingcontemporary artfoundation is located inForest Town,Johannesburg, South Africa. JCAF is situated close toJohannesburg Zoo and theJohannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre. It opened in 2020 and is housed in aheritage site that underwent an extensive renovation to meet the needs of the foundation. The foundation focuses on exhibiting art and artists from theGlobal South.
The premises wherein the JCAF hold their museumexhibitions has aJohannesburg Heritage Foundation Blue Plaque[2] which recognizes the building as aheritage site. The building was previously an electrical tram shed that formed part of thetram network in Johannesburg between 1906 and 1961.[3] The former tram shed underwent a 3-year renovation to transform it into the foundation's physical home.[3] The foundation officially opened in 2020 with a lecture by the anthropologist,Arjun Appadurai.[3]
JCAF’s exhibitions are themed, and visual, textual, aural, linguistic, spatial, and bio modalities are curated and arranged to offer innovative and creative programming. Each exhibition is accompanied by a journal that follows a structured research methodology.[4]
The inaugural exhibition,Contemporary Female Identities in the Global South, was postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, and eventually opened to the public in September 2020.[3] The exhibition featured renowned artists such asBharti Kher,Wangechi Mutu,Nandipha Mntambo,Shirin Neshat andBerni Searle.[3] It was the first of three exhibitions, curated under the theme,Female Identities in the Global South.[3]The second exhibition,Liminal Identities in the Global South (2021), featured works by Searle,Jane Alexander,Lina Bo Bardi,Lygia Clark,Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq,Kapwani Kiwanga,Ana Mendieta,Lygia Pape andSumayya Vally.[5] The final exhibition,Kahlo, Sher-Gil, Stern: Modernist Identities in the Global South opened in 2022, featuring works byFrida Kahlo,Amrita Sher-Gil andIrma Stern.[6][7]
