Special Projects Announcement | Cabinet/Trophy: Playing the Field curated by Exhibition Match

Cabinet/Trophy: Playing the field

 

This section invites 10 galleries from across the world to furnish our (Trophy) Cabinet with works that capture the broad essence of ‘Play’.

 

Play has the power to transform audiences from passive onlookers into active participants, reconfiguring how space is experienced. Our curatorial approach in the (Trophy) Cabinet offers an open-ended, dynamic interaction between artworks and viewers. When entering an art fair – a visitor is immediately greeted by an energetic buzz, voluminous spaces and bright lights, mimicking the experience at a sporting event. Both are spaces where creativity, contest and commerce converge. In South Africa, the arts and sports share a ministry, highlighting their roles as cultural exports and nation-builders. Yet, these fields also reflect societal complexities around identity, gender, and sexuality.

 

As children, we play sports and make art to express ourselves, make connections with others, and alleviate ourselves from the mundanity of everyday life. Later in life, as adults, both outlets, allow us to return to play. Play is a concept that ranges from the virtuous to the vice-ridden, with children’s games, music apps, energy drinks, adult entertainment and gambling all use the word to sell their fare.

 

Some forms of play reward their winners with trophies; these objects often signify success, yet they can also represent static symbols of the past – things that sit silently on the wall. Our ‘cabinet’ aims to host all these types of trophies in a field of play. We welcome three-dimensional or sculptural work of any scale or medium and encourage submissions that embody the complete disparity in interpretations of the idea of ‘Play’. Welcoming associations that are equally obvious, obscure, wholesome and irreverent.

 

 

Alexander Richards completed his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand and later completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the University of Cape Town. In the same year he joined Strauss and Co, South Africa’s leading art auction house where he took on the role of Art Specialist. In 2017 he joined Stevenson as an associate and is now one of 11 Directors at the gallery. At Stevenson he has curated numerous shows including; ‘Both, and’ (2018), Where do I begin (2022) and Juxtapositions: Unathi Mkonto and David Goldblatt (2023). In 2022 he founded Exhibition Match with Phokeng Setai – an art-world football match and accompanying exhibition – its sixth iteration set for Johannesburg in September 2024.

 

 

Phokeng Setai's curatorial practice involves experimenting with different models to investigate various artistic and research-based inquiries. Following the completion of his doctoral dissertation in January 2024, which examined contemporary African strategies of curatorial practice and pedagogy, Setai shifted his focus to the crossover of contemporary art practices into urban studies, architectural practice, and football scholarship. Setai is an alumnus of Raw Material Company, Independent Curators International, and the Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Madrid, Spain. He co-founded Exhibition Match, an artistic project and social intervention that aims to make art accessible through football. Recently, Setai joined Zeitz MoCAA as Assistant Curator.

 

 

 

To apply for Cabinet/Trophy, email milla@fieramilano.co.za