6. PRISONER IN THE BOOK

6. PRISONER IN THE BOOK
Conceptualised and created by | William Kentridge
Video Editing & Compositing by | Žana Marović
The Long Minute is curated by | Bronwyn Lace
‘This has been for me a very quiet time, with many weeks of not travelling, of simply working in the studio. I’m conscious of being particularly fortunate, in the circumstances, of having a studio in the garden as I’m very aware of many other artists who can’t actually get into their studios because they are in different areas to where they live; and of the difference of being an artist who can keep at work compared with dancers, actors and some musicians for whom it is impossible to even practice their métier, let alone get paid for it, because they don’t have access to dance studios, rehearsal spaces and so on.
The Centre for the Less Good Idea is, for those not familiar with it, a small arts centre in downtown Johannesburg which we started four years ago. We typically have two seasons of live performances a year, and for our seventh season, as it was not possible to stage them in front of audiences, our performances were digitally streamed.
To continue work at the centre during the period of social isolation and lockdown, we invited participants, alumni of the centre, to make one-minute films, using their cell phones as cameras, for a series called ‘The Long Minute’, so every day we’ve been posting different films by filmmakers, dancers, authors, musicians on Instagram.
Because the lockdown has meant being without the many participants and collaborators I would usually work with in the studio, I’ve made six of these one-minute films, which are connected with ‘The Natural History of the Studio’, a new, broader project dwelling on the solitary activities of the studio, which of course are the major part of it - of drawings, of animations - trying to work out the relationship, in a way, between the activities of the studio and thinking.
‘The Long Minute’ series will continue for the next weeks and maybe the next months, depending on the energy of filmmakers and the interest of people to watch them. It’s one part of an ongoing programme of ideas, asking how does one keep a community of artists and performers during these very extreme times.’
-William Kentridge, speaking in his studio, 30th April 2020