Je n’attends plus

In conjunction with the world premiere of his newly commissioned opera The Great Yes, The Great No, which debuted at LUMA Arles in July, the exhibition Je n’attends plus (I am Not Waiting Any Longer) presents a group of major works, some of which have not been seen in Europe before. Dealing with issues of migration, oppression, racial relations, the transmission of history, and the role of the artist in a society under duress, the exhibition brings together a remarkable body of experimental and performative work.

For more than forty years, the work of William Kentridge has examined South African history at the intersection of the personal and the political. His film installations deploy rhythmic frescoes which are always influenced and inflected by the context and cultural expressions of Johannesburg, the city in which they are made. Simultaneously they draw on elements from the history of avant-garde Europe with post-Cubist, Dadaist, and Surrealist overtones. His charcoal drawings, mask inlays, collages, puppets and sculptures give his works a dreamlike, liminal, and sometimes abstract dimension, an important component of Kentridge’s singular language.

While colonial and racial issues linked to the South African context are points of departure for universal questioning, Kentridge is also interested in other geographies, such as the Russia of the Soviet Union, the island of Martinique, and the German Empire, among others. In addition to a new production based on the opera The Great Yes, The Great No, the exhibition will present large-scale installations in La Mécanique Générale, including Oh to Believe in Another World (2022), More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015), and KABOOM! (2018) as well as the iconic Porter Series tapestries.