Open Studio by Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi
Saturday 28th May 2011, 16-19 hours
Address:
Bellamystraat 21 (2nd floor) 1053 BE, Amsterdam

Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi (born in Cape Town South Africa in 1977) has been selected for the Thami Mnyele Foundation artist-in-residence program by a selection committee composed by Ann Demeester (Director De Apple), Fons Welters (Director Fons Welters Gallery), Jelle Bouwhuis (Curator Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam). After a residency of three months Ngqinambi will leave Amsterdam on the 30th of may 2011.

Ndikhumbule’s work usually consists of themes concerning preserving of culture, identity and history and the relevance of cultural practices to the modern life. A frequent question in the work is: “how certain culture and traditional practices survive in the modern, and what kind of effect that is caused by leaving without them, as some of the rituals are not being practised any more?” In Amsterdam he pictured 'Amsterdam culture'.



“Apart from architecture, historical monuments, museums, and contemporary art scene; what I find interesting about Amsterdam is the street culture: from the coffee shops, the picnics in the park, the transport and traffic system. With all of that, but the most exciting thing that has captured my eyes was people and their movement in the streets. There is this silent energy with people on the bicycles, and the side walks, where everyone seemed to be in the hurry, especially in the streets. But when going to the parks the energy is there still, but the movement is absent, because people are kind of relaxed, enjoying themselves. This atmosphere is quite exciting to me, perhaps because I work very figuratively, and it is a very figurative atmosphere and most importantly it involves life of the people”.

The Thami Mnyele Foundation runs artist-in-residence program in Amsterdam. The main objective of the Foundation is to advance cultural exchange between artists from Africa, the Netherlands and Amsterdam in particular. Therefore African artists of all disciplines of contemporary visual art are engaged to work in the Thami Mnyele Studio.