>[!INFO]+ Meta >Author:: Kevin Murray >Date:: 2006 >Reference:: 'The South Project: A Conference of Flightless Birds' _Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art_ Volume 7, No 1, pp6-16 (2006) >Tags:: #text #south > One must have a proper moral sense about the points of the compass; North must seem the 'good' direction, the way towards heroic adventures, South the way to ignoble ease and decadence'. (15/05/1954) Peter Davidson _The Idea of North_ London: Reaktion, 2005, p. 99 The 'south' is a curious proposition. How do you give meaning to what is merely a direction? And unlike the 'north', which is inscribed with Nordic sagas and European romanticism, the south seems a relatively blank slate. Any 'project' that seeks to realise the 'idea of south' seems more about inventing a new identity than uncovering a lost one. French President Charles de Gaulle once said 'Brazil has a great future. But it always will have.' The south invites us to imagine a world destiny that is as yet unrealised. The danger is that the idea of south is defined more by the promise than the realisation. But if there was ever to be a moment to attempt its manifestation, it is now. With the end of apartheid and military dictatorships, the bottom half of the world is more open than it ever has been. Meanwhile, the increasingly violent clash of civilisations in the hemisphere above brings into relief the more reconciliatory nature in the world below. Enter, south. Many questions are raised. How is it that the world has a top and bottom, with all the hierarchy that this arrangement implies? What might countries as varied as Botswana, Tahiti and Argentina have in common? And if the 'global south' is synonymous with 'developing', how do 'developed' countries like Australia and New Zealand fit in? With so many questions, it would seem a mistake to begin a southern venture with a preconceived idea of what it might reveal. The South Project sets out to develop a network of artists and writers and stimulate dialogue about the similarities and differences of their cultures. Though originating in Australia, it aims to encourage a multilateral set of relationships across the south, some of which may not even include Australia. These are still early days and the challenge is formidable. Despite their similarities as post-colonial nations, there has been little history of cultural dialogue between southern countries to build on. The concentric world view of empire blinkers lateral vision. In Australia, virtually the only information filtering through of our southern cousins is negative-news of corruption, disease, violence and drug cartels. We know not to go there. There's something poignant in this isolation. The flightless bird emerged early as a mascot to the project. Flightless birds, including emus, ostriches, penguins, kiwis and of course dodos, are only found in the south. Despite their commonalities, their flightless state means that they have never made contact with each other. Flight in the context of the South Project is the capacity to extend laterally. Getting towards the mid-way point of a four year journey, we can now glimpse the opportunities and problems that appear to lie ahead. First, the journey thus far. ## The origins of the South Project The South Project emerged out of discussions following the 1999 Melbourne International Biennial. Curated by Juliana Engberg, MIB was heralded as a critical success that did justice to Melbourne's sophisticated visual arts scene. Its failure to continue in 2001 raised questions about the suitability of the biennale model as an aspiration for a second city. When biennale godfather Rene Block spoke at a forum at RMIT Gallery in late 1999, he made it clear that there was no room for a city like Melbourne on the already crowded 'biennale carousel'. It was time to look elsewhere. If Melbourne was to adopt a region, following the model of Brisbane's Asia Pacific Triennial, what would it be? The south seemed a timely focus. Apartheid had ended, democracy was strengthening in South America and economies were growing across the latitude. The strength of reconciliation across the south was growing in stark contrast with the unilateralism that characterised politics in the north. There had been a number of critical discussions early in the Australia Centre at the University of Melbourne with experienced figures such as Alison Carroll, Nikos Papastergiadis, Kate Darian-Smith, John Mateer, Amanda Browne, Suzanne Davies and Alison Fraser. It was resolved early that the South Project should begin as a limited venture modelled on the APT, which had started as a series of three events. The South Project thus evolved into the simple idea of a journey, lasting four years from departure to arrival. This journey would provide the substance for a festival in 2008. The departure should be a gathering of artists and writers representing as many southern countries as possible. The critical question was: where would this project be housed? In Melbourne, concerns about the MIB were soon overshadowed by the infrastructure developments that were then coming into line, particularly Federation Square, ACCA and NGVi. Rather than locate a project in one institution, the idea of a consortium emerged. But even a consortium requires an incubator. In what might seem an unusual move, Craft Victoria became the initial host for a project that included the broad spectrum of visual arts. Craft is rarely found in biennial-style events. The craft focus on skill is mostly out of step with the conceptual developments that mark the progression of biennials over time-after all, craft is hard and 'art is easy'. However, as skill becomes evermore rare in the developed world, contemporary craft acquires a critical function. The productive nature of making is opposed to expanding and sophisticated forms of consumerism. As in the case of Venice Biennale artist Ricky Swallow, handmade is radical. Yet because of its traditional association with lower class culture, the doors of biennales and state art institutions remain largely closed to the crafted object. Craft still flourishes in countries of the south. The political imperative of upliftment in new democracies seeks to make opportunities for those without tertiary education. Telephone wire weaving is one of the major forms of livelihood in South African townships. To engage openly with these countries, craft needs to be included in the picture. Thus a project that focuses on the south would be likely to include opportunities for craft-based dialogue as well as photography, print-making, painting, sculpture, new media and installation. It was understandable that the initial vehicle for the South Project should be an organisation with much to gain from an alternative order. The problem was how to engage visual arts institutions in a project initiated from a craft organisation. The critical link here was one of Melbourne's most famous names. In 2001, Rupert Myer was commissioned to write a report into the contemporary visual arts and crafts in Australia. The resulting Myer Report led to the Visual Arts Craft Strategy that secured the project its base funding. The name of the Myer Foundation was critical to bring the heads of Melbourne cultural institutions together for a meeting in April 2003 that endorsed the project. While the Myer Foundation has provided the South Project with essential funding, the credibility it lends this venture is just as important. So the South Project begins in the southern capital of a southern continent. Its state of origin proudly flies the Eureka flag on which Australia first became branded with the Southern Cross. It has the blessing of a visionary scion from one of its most respected families. The wind was in the sails, but where to steer the boat? ## Melbourne 2004 The gathering of artists and writers from across the south was planned for Melbourne July 2004. This event would formally mark the beginning of the journey. But this presented one of the most difficult questions: where is the south? Should it include participants from countries that might be beyond the southern hemisphere, such as India and Mexico? The decision was taken to go beyond the equator. If the south was something that began and ended at mid-point, it would pre-empt a more conceptual engagement with the south. 'Here's a line: if you're below it then you are with us, and if you are above it, then goodbye'. It was important to leave open the question of a dialectical understanding of the south, whose relevance would be felt in the northern hemisphere as much as below the equator. Perspectives on the south were invited not just from countries like South Africa and Chile, but also cultures that had an intense imaginary relationship to the south, such as Russia and Italy. Artists and writers were chosen to reflect a variety of practices, heeding the advice from participating countries. At this point, another decision was made to limit presentations to the first person. While anthropology had played an important role in the promotion of indigenous cultures, the voice of the white mediator reproduces particular colonial relationships that belong to the north. Now was a time when people can speak for themselves. This extended not only to indigenous voices, but non-indigenous as well. Here was a forum for white voices to tell their own story of the south, rather than another's. There was negotiation with local indigenous participants to ensure appropriate welcome for visitors. A bonfire at the indigenous centre at the Victorian College of the Arts was organised for the first evening. To the sounds of Brazilian Capoeira, guests from across the south gathered around the open fire with a plate of steaming kangaroo. What proceeded was three days of intensive presentations, representing a dizzying array of perspectives about the past, present and future of southern cultures. The opening speaker, Mbulelo Mzamane, concluded his talk with a vision of the south as a 'rediscovery of the common'. This resonated strongly with the others present, who saw it reflected in their own practice of using materials at hand. Mzamane's introduction to the African concept of humanism, Ubuntu, provided a key to the warm feeling of commonality. There were stories of the lost and the found-the 'missing' in Argentina and the recovered people of Easter Island. New paradigms of creative practice were explored in the collectives such as Pulse in South Africa and the craft initiatives in Brazil. And the future was evoked by artists beginning to explore Antarctica. It was not a time for critical reflection, more for the emotional bond connecting people from different origins facing a common future. The emotional charge was intense. The divergences of language and colour made more powerful the sense of shared destiny. The Argentinean artist Claudia Fontes gave a typical response, 'I couldn't stop thinking of the privilege I had gone through by sharing those days with all the guests, sometimes even trying to keep my tears in.' The force of this event made it seem mandatory that other gatherings develop as part of the journey, one a year in each region of the south. Much time was subsequently taken up developing and managing residencies, where artists had the opportunity to spend time with other flightless birds. The sculptor from São Paulo, Laura Vinci, took up a residency at RMIT, and was subsequently commissioned by City of Melbourne to produce a work for the Laneways series. Vinci's work features the transmutation of water into steam and her elemental concerns are quite a contrast to the more conceptual work that is found in Australia. Other residencies include Jeremy Wafer (RMIT), David Boson (Oceania Centre, Fiji), Christine (International Artspace Kellerberrin), Mata Smith (Gascoyne, in association with ArtsWA), Gregor Krager (Shepparton), (Manacao, Auckland), Vicki Shokuroglou (Sacatar, Brazil), Marie Strauss and Leonardo Ortega (Monash). While residency programs like Asialink are focused on sending Australian artists overseas, the South Project is providing a framework for overseas artists to come to Australia (There is no reason why the South Project would not be facilitating artistic exchange between countries apart from Australia). Residencies provide the space for individual journeys. ### Wellington 2005 The second gathering in Wellington was hosted by Te Papa. This event was invigorated by Maori rituals of hospitality, particularly the traditional powhiri, which included song, oratory and ritual to welcome the idea of the south. For non-Maori, this conviviality was reproduced in the collective energy of artist groups, such as New Zealand's Cuckoo and Perth's PVI Collective. The first 'day of dialogue' was thematised 'between sky and earth', reflecting the mythology of Te Papa as an institution that lies between the gods of earth and heaven, and the balance between the identity of earth and the connection of sky. The second 'day of action' included workshops in digital storytelling, weaving, sustainable craft practice and collectivism. For indigenous artists, much was made of the connections via the stars, particularly through the story of the seven sisters reflected in the Maori Matiriki and the Aboriginal Kungkarangkalpa. While more focused on a particular region of the south-the Pacific-the Wellington gathering celebrated the development of a theme that began in South 1-collective practice. In Melbourne, representatives of the RAIN network had spoken about the new ways in which artists had gone beyond the gallery system and begun working directly with communities. In Wellington, new collectives from Australia and New Zealand such as PVI, Clubs Project and Cuckoo ran workshops on alternative forms of artistic intervention. These ran alongside craft workshops on weaving and sustainability involving mostly indigenous participants. Collective practices are developing as a powerful modus vivendi for creative expression in the south. ### Santiago 2006 Wellington was partly driven by the extensive network of the South Project officer, Nicola Harvey, who has also been keen to introduce relational aesthetics into the south agenda. The project's manager, Magdalena Moreno, is of Chilean origin and has a network that reaches far into cultural organisations and government. She is advised by Juan Dávila, the Chilean-born painter who has been trying for decades to further develop exchange between Australia and Chile. Moreno helped develop a cultural agreement between Craft Victoria and the Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho, the major cultural venue in the centre of Santiago, which was signed when the director visited in October 2004. A key venue is Galería Metropolitana, a tin shed in a poor neighbourhood of Santiago which exhibits experimental visual art. Managed by Luis Alarcón and Ana María Saavedra, Galería Metropolitana is also the home of Revista Cultural, a highly politicised magazine edited by Nellie Richard. While the issues for Santiago are yet to be decided, it is likely that politics will figure and the connection between art and democracy will be hotly discussed. Further south of Santiago is an island called Chiloé, about the same latitude as Tasmania. Chiloé is home to a mestizo culture that resisted colonisation longer than many other parts of South America. The island has a Museum of Modern Art and an exchange is being developed between a local school and Artplay, the children's art centre run by the City of Melbourne. The South Project has a branch activity, South Kids, which focuses on a small number of local schools with the view of engaging the imaginations of children in the prospect of the south. 2006 is a year for exhibitions. For the Commonwealth Games, Craft Victoria is presenting an artistic exchange under the umbrella of the South Project that brings artisans from eight countries to work in collaboration with local artists. _Common Goods_ is accompanied by a publication that includes essays from those countries on the concepts of humanness that connect with Ubuntu. Two exhibitions are also travelling to Santiago: artist group interventions in _Traffic_ curated by Zara Stanhope and Dannae Mosman, and _Make the Common Precious_ , which connects Australian contemporary makers with the humble aesthetic of Pablo Neruda. Given the problems of translation, it will be interesting to see what can be communicated by action and thing. ### Johannesburg 2007 Negotiations are continuing with the South African Department of Arts and Culture in Pretoria regarding the shape of the South Project event in 2007. Now is a time of great confidence in South Africa and there are many new major cultural organisations in development. It is felt that the story of South Africa's freedom struggle would be of great relevance to the other peoples of the south. For this reason, Soweto is the preferred venue for the gathering. Other possible venues include Cape Town, which is currently developing its own Biennial, CAPE, and Durban, which has a very strong craft focus as the centre of Kwazulu-Natal. However, any event in South Africa is likely to meet resistance as the culture of dialogue between different strata of its society is still relatively new. A gathering like the South Project that seeks to be inclusive will have to make special allowance for those not normally involved in cultural discussion, and may have very practical motives for engagement. For convenience, the project has employed the phrase 'building a cultural highway' to describe the kinds of connection that are being developed. Towards the end of the journey, it is anticipated that other network layers will begin to join up, such as publishing, education, craft and collectives. Residency partnerships enable individual artists to travel across the south, formal cultural agreements are developed between participating countries and institutions; and a 'friends of the south' network disseminates relative proposals from artists. These are all layers of the highway. Finally, the South Project with return to Melbourne as a Festival of the South. This will be the ultimate test of the south to see if its products find an audience back where it began. The further the project advances, the more it uncovers previous attempts to develop south-south exchange. Rather than tabula rasa, the project finds a palimpsest of journeys that have already occurred between southern countries. Any meaningful advance needs to take these into account and reconnect the lost threads. ## Lost thread 1: Magiciens de la Terre An important theme in the South Project dialogue is the meeting of traditional and modern cultures. It aspires to relationship based on reciprocity, rather than dependent on institutions like museums and universities. The project aims for a platform where the custodian of traditional knowledge can engage directly with the global concerns of urban intellectuals. A seminal point of reference in this dialogue is the exhibition _Magiciens de la Terre_ , curated by Jean Hubert Martin for the Georges Pompidou Centre in 1989. Though widely criticised since, the exhibition was critical in its time for bringing ethnographic work into the contemporary art context. It confirmed the ascension of Aboriginal art from museum to gallery. _Magiciens de la Terre_ could easily be associated with the universal expressions of humanism that are readily commodified, such as the _Family of Man_ photographic publication and the Benetton advertisements. What dominated the 1990s was a critical deconstruction of any essentialist platform for transcending cultural difference. Post-colonial writing targeted those moments when indigenous and Western art might come together. Consequently, a benign apartheid settled in countries like Australia, as indigenous art was isolated from other art. Non-indigenous artists disavowed their sense of place in respect of traditional owners and became increasingly absorbed by global language of art. White global, black local. The South Project does offer an opportunity to progress the meeting of traditional and modern that was tested in _Magiciens de la Terre_ . The division between white galleries and black market stalls continues to haunt even liberated countries such as South Africa. The identity of magician, or sangoma, is often embraced as a more appropriate role for artist than the romantic story of individual genius. ## Lost Thread 2: Jindyworobaks We have learned the rights of labour. Let the Southern writers start Agitating, too, for letters and for music and for art. Till Australian scene on canvas shall repay the artist's hand, And the songs of Southern poets shall be ringing through the land, Till the galleries of Europe have a place for Southern scenes, And our journals crawl no longer to the Northern magazines. Henry Lawson _A Song of Southern Writers_ 1890 A problematic pretext for the South Project is the history of republican sentiment in Australian letters. The strident protest against the north of Henry Lawson seems crude to twenty-first century ears. A more nuanced southern movement occurred in the late 1930s, with the emergence of the group known as the Jindyworobaks. Figures such as Rex Ingamells, Ian Mudie and W.Hart-Smith, sought to express Australian nationalism through the culture of its first peoples. Their poems and stories evoked symbols from the 'Dreamtime'. Though acknowledging indigenous culture, their actions today appear shamefully ignorant of the custodianship of Aboriginal culture. More successfully in New Zealand, Michael King's _Being Pakeha_ bore witness to a sense of indigeneity experienced by those of European descent, housed within Maori culture. Caught between the anonymity of globalisation and the appropriation of indigeneity, non-indigenous have nowhere to turn other than the categories that first nations people have made for them-Pakeha, Balanda, Umlungu, Palangi or Gubba. Though the acceleration of globalisation recently has left non-indigenous more focused on the north than before, the business of understanding why you live where you do remains to be done. ## Lost Thread 3: African Renaissance Across the Indian Ocean, the movement of African Renaissance claimed that the time for African values had come. Following the negritude movement in France and the Harlem Renaissance in the US, the newly evolving democracies of southern Africa could claim to herald a reawakening of the traditional concepts of collective identity, such as Ubuntu. Employed by Bishop Tutu in the truth and reconciliation commission, Ubuntu saw South Africa's peaceful transition. Ubuntu is now often treated with cynicism, as a cheap out for oppressors and suiting Western interests exploiting African kindness. Though a dose of real politic is useful in clearly the air of fuzzy idealism, Ubuntu retains its message for hope, particularly in a period of greater mistrust to those of other cultures. ## Lost Thread 4: Antropófago The _Manifesto Antropófago_ , published by Oswald de Andrade in 1928, proclaimed a Calaban-like attitude to the north. The European inheritance of a country like Brazil was brazenly reduced to a primitivist mentality-'Tupi, or not Tupi that is the question.' Recently, the concept was invoked in the 1998 São Paulo Bienal to license artists whose work involved the absorption of other cultures. Antropófago is an expression of cultural defiance that enabled Brazil to claim itself as the birthplace of modernism, as typified by Oscar Niemeyer's monumental architecture. It also invokes the symbolic economy of the globe, which puts the mind of the north above the body of the south. While the great ideas are seen to emanate from the north, the substances that fuel the body all emerge from below. The south offers the jaded northern palace its array of stimulants-coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, sugar, tea and sex. This arrangement beckons a psychoanalytic reading of the south. The transfer of Lacanian theory from Buenos Aires to Melbourne in the 1980s provides a rich soil for such analysis. There are many other broken threads that can be tied back into the tapestry. Earlier attempts to develop artistic exchange include the scene with Juan Dávila and Nellie Richard around _Art & Text_ in the 1980s, including current Sydney Biennale curator Charles Meriwether. Craft curator Robert Bell was also involved in sending over a show to Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. And Doreen Mellor toured a show of Aboriginal art to Robbin Island to celebrate the end of Apartheid in South Africa. More of these attempts will be recovered as the South Project seeks to make a concerted push sideways. ## Critical humanism While important to understand the past, to focus only on the broken threads would consign the South Project to nostalgia. Indeed, the world has changed since the early idealism of the south. The global south has developed its own capitalist ambitions, particularly in Brazil, South Africa, India and China. Indigenous voices can speak for themselves, rather than through the agencies of primitivist interests. The challenge is to retain the critical awareness necessary to acknowledge difference, while providing a framework for the coming together of different cultures. A critical humanism needs to prevent any one model standing for cultural difference, yet acknowledging points of common reference in the body and struggle against global capital. There are many problems ahead. For countries like Australia and New Zealand, their status as southern countries can seem almost coincidental. While they might exist at the bottom of the world, they enjoy a cultural life that is dominated by the north. For some countries, south-south business is for the poor cousins. But for all these difficulties, there are some tantalising opportunities. Certainly, the most powerful cultural practices of the south include dance. Forms like tango and samba are dense social movement that operate at the level of body, neighbourhood and national politics. Their traditions offer much potential for the versatile practices of today's artists and designers. The South Project continues to navigate a passage through uncertain waters. There are many new lands and connections to be forged. The journey continues on against the current but with a growing crew at the oars. It stays the course-back to where we are. ### Note Given the democratic underpinning of the South Project, the views expressed in this article should by no means be taken as representing all those involved. This article is designed to outline the parameters within which the [South Project](http://www.southproject.org) has developed.