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Launch of Welkom Today
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Welkom Today at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 18 May - 13 October 2019
Welkom Today, by Ad van Denderen (1943, The Netherlands) and Lebohang Tlali (1978, South Africa) opens at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on 18 May.
25 years after Nelson Mandela was elected president, Van Denderen and Tlali present a critical sequel to the highly-praised photo book Welkom in Suid-Afrika (1991) in which Van Denderen chronicled apartheid’s final days in the gold mining town of Welkom. Tlali grew up in Welkom’s neighbouring township Thabong, and discovered the book while studying in Cape Town. It was a revelation to him: for the first time, Tlali could see how the white community lived during apartheid, and yet the photos taken in Thabong gave him a feeling of recognition. Tlali reached out to Van Denderen and starting from the notion that to think about the future one must know about the past, a remarkable collaboration was born.
Welkom Today combines old and new photos by Van Denderen and Tlali, newspaper archives, photos taken by students, intimate narratives from family albums and stories by writer Margalith Kleijwegt. Bringing together photography, video and text, the exhibition provides a vivid overview of this contentious era. Perspectives of the younger ‘born free’ generation offer unprecedented insights into South Africa’s fraught history and not only reflect on the past but also look to the future.
Welkom Today is about diverse voices and perspectives, about changing the way we see things, and attempts to bring separate worlds closer together. The exhibition is part of a multivocal photography project produced by Paradox, including a book in collaboration with Kehrer Verlag and Atlas Contact, a travelling exhibition and an educational programme including a photo studio and pop up exhibition during Amsterdam’s Kwaku festival in collaboration with CBK Zuidoost in July.
Sunday Seminar - 19 May 2019 Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
On 19 May from 3-5pm, in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Paradox hosts a panel discussion about Welkom Today and the importance of mutuality in contemporary documentary photography.
Documentary photography has a long tradition of Western photographers who travel around the world in order to record conflicts, disasters, and inequality. At present, an increasing number of photographers are questioning their position as image makers. Instead of speaking about a community or culture, photographers are exploring new ways to engage in a dialogue with their subjects and involve people in the way they are portrayed. How can visual representation become more inclusive?
Photographers Ad van Denderen, Lebohang Tlali, Susan Meiselas and Khalid Amakran will respond to Welkom Today from their own perspectives and experiences. Moderator: Anne Ruygt.
This Sunday Seminar is organised in conjunction with X25 – The next 25 years of storytelling, a Paradox production including a series of discussions and reflections on recent developments in documentary photography and its future practice. X25 is organised on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Paradox.
Image: Aubuti Tau, Portrait of Patricia Tlhone in Thabong, 1988
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Credits
Welkom Today exhibition is a co-production of Paradox and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, curated by Anne Ruygt and Bas Vroege in close collaboration with the photographers. The Stedelijk and CBK Zuidoost (Foundation Centre for Visual Arts Southeast) have teamed up to organise a programme in the Bijlmer and an educational project in Dutch high schools on the theme of separate worlds.
The Welkom Today project is made possible with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund, DutchCulture, VSBfonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK), Fonds 21, gemeente Amsterdam – stadsdeel Zuidoost, Fonds Anna Cornelis, Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten, private sponsors and anonymous donors.
