In October 2018, following a lecture-performance by Walid Raad that opened The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s 4th Season, The Centre hosted an In Conversation event between Raad and founder of The Centre, William Kentridge.

Season 4, curated by writer and academic Jane Taylor, carried the central prompt of ‘The Collapsed Conference’ and explored, among other things, what happens to an academic argument once it’s channelled through, or constrained by, the medium of performance.

In this vein, Kentridge and Raad discuss the use of archival information, found media, and Raad’s own creations to deliberate on the idea of history as a construction, and the archive as a collection of disjointed truths and realities, skewed by time, language and medium.

Similarly, the form and the expectation of the academic presentation or the artist talk is discussed, as is the allowance of art and the ability of artists to take raw information and material and play with them, dipping into the archive and altering what is found there towards certain ends.

The precarity of words and language forms another part of the discussion, as does the ability of fiction to lead one to the inherent absurdity of truth. A productive Q&A session in response to both the conversation and Raad’s preceding performance ends the evening.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PROJECT MANAGER | Shruthi Nair
LIGHTING DESIGNERS | Wesley France & Guy Nelson
STAGE MANAGER | Hayleigh Evans & POPArt Productions