![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Ausstellungsansicht_A-LABOUR-OF-LOVE_2015_Foto_Wolfgang-Gu?nzel.jpg\")
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![\"Ngcobo\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ngcobo.jpg\" "\\"Ngcobo\\"")
Image: Portrait: Gabi Ngcobo. Photo: Masimba Sasa<\/p>\n
The Berlin Biennale has become synonymous with controversy. In 2012, it invited the Occupy movement, a decision which drew criticism for its na\u00efvet\u00e9. Last year it sparked contension again through its focus on post-internet art. So with the 2018 edition just around the corner, its curator Gabi Ngcobo is staying aware of the pitfalls. \u201cI know it\u2019s impossible to please everyone and I\u2019m fine with that,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd anyway, the ground is always shifting so you can\u2019t control everything. Either way, I find the idea of \u2018an audience\u2019 always so mysterious.\u201d
\nNgcobo is familiar with adversity. Born in Durban, South Africa, she had to convince her parents to allow her to study fine art, being the first one in her family to do so. \u201cI studied [it] in the Nineties and my parents didn\u2019t know what [it] was,\u201d she says. After her BA, she moved to Cape Town, worked at the South African National Gallery and the Cape Africa Platform before going to New York for an MA in curatorial studies. But it was in Johannesburg during the Aughts when her career took off. There, she co-founded Nothing Gets Organised, a collaborative platform focusing on processes of self-organisation. Additionally, in 2010 she also co-founded the Center for Historical Reenactments. Another collaborative project, it explored how historical legacies resonate within contemporary art, and was itself present at the 8th Berlin Biennial in 2014.<\/p>\n
![\"Ngcobo\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ngcobo2.jpg\" "\\"Ngcobo\\"")
Image: Exhibition View, “A Labour Of Love”, Weltkulturen Museum, 2015<\/p>\n
Previously, Ngcobo has also co-curated Cape Town\u2019s 2007 Biennale, \u201cA Labour of Love\u201d (2015), at Frankfurt\u2019s Weltkulturen Museum, and more recently the ongoing 32nd Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo. On top of this, she also writes and works as an educator. Nonetheless, despite wearing different hats, she still sees herself as an artist. \u201cI don\u2019t want to give up [that identity] because [it] helps me to think and allows me to touch things many curators would shy away from. It\u2019s a way to be deviant,\u201d she says.
\nDeviancy is also in the Berlin Biennale\u2019s DNA, whose core mission is to expand exhibition formats and the curatorial agendas. \u201c[It\u2019s] also an interesting [way] to think through hierarchical ways of organising,\u201d she says. Accordingly, Ngcobo\u2019s first move was to ask for help, inviting curators Yvette Mutumba, Moses Serubiri, Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, and Thiago de Paula Souza to join her team. \u201cThey\u2019re not there to make things comfortable for me but to complicate things further,\u201d she continues. \u201cI don\u2019t want to agree with myself. I don\u2019t want to be making all the decisions – I think that\u2019s boring.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Gabi](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ngcobo1.jpg\" "\\"Gabi")
Image: Exhibition View, “A Labour Of Love”, Weltkulturen Museum, 2015<\/p>\n
So far the full list of participating artists has not been revealed, but the public programme is underway and may indicate what\u2019s to come. Entitled \u201cI\u2019m not who you think I\u2019m not\u201d, it launched with a series of performative gestures by a small group of artists including Philipp Khabo Koepsell, Donna Kukama and Jota Momba\u00e7a, aiming to develop the social potential of narrative.
\nMoreover, Ngcobo has also warned the media against inferring in the event an expliticly post-colonial critique simply because of her background. \u201cI [want] to move away from being a body that only stands for one historical reading,\u201d she says. Such radical thought is also present in the Biennale\u2019s grey and pink visual identity. Colours, Ngcobo explains, represent ways of thinking about the future and the past respectively. \u201cIt\u2019s not about solving problems but remaining with certain problems and finding solutions,\u201d she concludes. By the sounds of things, next year\u2019s show should also be garner attention \u2013 this time, for the right reasons.<\/p>\n
![\"Gabi](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ngcobo3.jpg\" "\\"Gabi")
Image: Exhibition View, “A Labour Of Love”, Weltkulturen Museum, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Other than reinventing the 2018 Berlin Biennale, the new curator Ngcobo, makes it clear she is not just “a body that stands for one historical reading.”<\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":61024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[10045,10046,7134,8234,10047,10048,10049,10050,10051,10052,10053,10054,4049],"class_list":["post-61009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-cape-africa-platform","tag-donna-kukama","tag-gabi-ngcobo","tag-johannesburg","tag-jota-mombaca","tag-moses-serubiri","tag-nomaduma-rosa-masilela","tag-philipp-khabo-koepsell","tag-post-colonial","tag-south-african-national-gallery","tag-the-berlin-biennale","tag-thiago-de-paula-souza","tag-yvette-mutumba"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n