Bafana Zembe Making a career out of art installation

The highly respected art installer from Soweto is leaving for the National Arts Festival on Friday to work on installations there.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

I was seated on a bar bench alone. Clutching a drink that I was actually nursing. I was thinking hard about how I was going to juggle university lessons at Rhodes and some of the show I had marked to attend the following day at the National Arts festival. The drinking place itself, is a place of legends. Several even.

Especially for those that have spent some time in Makhanda. At Rhodes University of during the National Festival. To start with the name is spelt wrongly. Olde 65. But we love it anyway. Who would not embrace such a place that welcomes all into its underbelly. Rich and poor. You cannot actually tell the difference as all sorts of people go there for different reasons, I suspect. But for me, with pockets not that big, I normally go there for two reasons. Mainly. The relatively affordable price of a drink and soulful food.

But just as I was contemplating my choices and the decisions I had to make about the shows I was going to watch and attend amid class, here comes a familiar face. And just like we Joburgers often do when we are in that part of the country, he joined me. Not asking. And boom we carry on launching into a conversation as If we are back home at our favorite drinking venue, De Peak in Newtown.

After a while it is only then that I ask him what he was doing in Makhanda. Ï am working with the festival installing exhibitions, ”he said casually. We then carried on discussing things that we normally do back in Joburg. That was last year, 2022 in Makhanda when exhibitions installation curator Bafana Zembe got the gig to install exhibitions in Makhanda. 

A big gig in his line of work, and not only because the money is bigger than the gigs he gets off Makhanda season back home in Johannesburg. But also the trust that the organisers of the National Arts Festival have shown in him. Trusting him to handle their official exhibition programme, installing art works on exhibition halls.

Ï am actually leaving for Makhanda on Friday,” he told me yesterday, June 5, 2023. He was in his studio at Transwerke building at Constitution Hill. He has taken an occupation of Studio No.24 in the building. He shares the studio with four other young artists. These are artists that he is also training to install art works, a delicate job that requires superior technical skills.

I got to know this speaking to Bafana yesterday in this wide ranging interview that touched on his humble beginnings, attending a series of learnerships, starting from 2007 that exposed him to a number of technical areas in art management, heritage management, installation and even a limited exposure to art conservation, a rare skill on the local art scene.

After a stint at Museum Africa where he first got his opportunity in a learnership in heritage management, Bafana to date has an illustrious career in various aspects of art management. But he is a highly sought after installer of art for exhibitions. He has worked with high profile artists and prominent exhibitions. Among these individuals and institutions, Bafana has worked with the late David Goldblatt, the founder of the Market Photo Workshop, The Market Photo Workshop, The Blessing Ngobeni Art Prize, Nelson Makamo and Musa Nxumalo, to name but just a few names.

Because of the years he has spent installing art on the walls of many an exhibition hall, he has gained so much knowledge in this area that his services are in high demand in the art industry. His company Nazo Art and Projects is the to-go-to for art galleries, private collectors, curators, museums and of course for artists that are putting up exhibitions.

“I do not only install, but I can also advise curators about what works and what does not work when it comes to exhibiting art works. How art is displayed in an exhibition hall, depends very much on how an art object is displayed.  For example If the lighting in the exhibition hall is not that great, and the art looks dark, someone considering buying that art work may decide otherwise based on that alone. Someone may decide well, it means the art works would look dark in his house,” the Meadowlands, Soweto, born Bafana, who in his youth mulled of being a chartered accountant said.

Ï actually wanted to be a chartered accountant when I was in Grade 10 based on the fact that chattered accountants earned a lot of money, and that they worked in an office.  But my parents could not afford to send me to university. However numbers have followed me. Installing art works on walls requires the technical knowledge of figures. Height and circumference are key factors in art installations. We always use calculations,” he said.

The skill that Bafana has is so rare that his company Nazo Art and Projects almost has a dominant position within the exhibition space in his art market segment. “The fact of the matter is that I do not know of any other black person who has this skill. There is also no school teaching this skill in this country,” he told CITYLIFE/ARTS. It is for this reason that he is mentoring four others.

But because Bafana has conquered the art installation area of the art ecological system, he is now expanding his knowledge base.

“Because I have worked with so many artists and have assisted them, such as washing their brushes, I am now learning how to paint. In fact my first solo exhibition will be held in November on my 40^th birthday,” he revealed.

About Bafana and his track record

Bafana Zembe is an artist, curator and educator. His arts practice, as well as photography projects, focus on issues of heritage, identity, education and skills transfer. Zembe’s past work includes coordinating the 2010 Gauteng Province Heritage and Tourism’s Youth Against Unemployment Career Guidance Week and being contracted for various heritage and arts research programmes at Chris Hani Museum and Heritage Centre. 

His recent curatorial projects include: Woza Sisi a photographic exhibition and ICON a portrait paintings exhibition, both held at DOPEstore, Johannesburg. Since 2011, Zembe has been significantly involved in installing photography and other media exhibitions at the Market Photo Workshop – a space that develops aspirant and young photographers’ approach and interests in photography – and for projects that include Social Landscape and the Joburg Photo Umbrella.

He is part of a team of visual artists named Kolective104, which seeks to produce monthly visual arts events and programmes in and around Johannesburg. Zembe is the Founding Director of Nazo! Arts and Projects a company that takes as its core business exhibitions coordination, skills development training projects, photography, printmaking murals, research and consultation.

Expertise

• Excellent project management and organisational skills
• Knowledge of fundraising for cultural projects.
• Financial and managerial administration
• Proficiency in the coordination, preparation and installation of art exhibitions
• Strong computer skills and a familiarity with Macintosh operating systems
• Ability to work under pressure to tight deadlines with large volumes of imagery, and on multiple projects simultaneously without compromising on quality.

Work Experience

Market Photo Workshop

Exhibitions Coordinator

Duties included developing planning and organising, and managing events, which include photography exhibitions, audio-visual presentations, participation at art events and fairs. Being in charge of a collection of exhibitions of The Photo Workshop Gallery. Their job is to build up collections, often in specialist areas. All of these tasks require working with colleagues in areas such as archives, publications, public programmes, education, marketing and publicity. The Exhibitions Coordinator works with the Head of the Market Photo Workshop to prepare content and production materials for The Photo Workshop Gallery’s exhibitions.

The Exhibitions Coordinator is an integral part of the Market Photo Workshop team and helps manage over 10+ exhibitions per year, while assisting in the development and implementation of professional development opportunities for students and emerging photographers.

2011 – 2015

Market Photo Workshop

Projects Assistant

Responsibilities included

• Work with volunteers and interns to install gallery exhibitions
• Organise gallery visits and walkabouts
• Ensure regular maintenance of The Photo Workshop Gallery
• Prepare and manage off-site and travelling exhibitions
• Assist in producing press releases for all exhibition programmes assisting with the development and implementation of a digital media strategy for the Market Photo Workshop, including logistics management and resource management of media, publication design, projects, public programmes and other interventions that are geared towards raising the public profile and brand of the Market Photo Workshop. Duties include:
• Assist in producing a consistent visual image of projects and programmes

2011

• Chris Hani Baragwanath Museum and Heritage Centre

Programmes Intern

2008

• Underpressure Agency/ Museum Africa internship

Heritage Development Officer

2007

• Steve Biko Foundation

Educational Programme Assistant

Exhibitions and artworks installation portfolio

Besides installing artworks for private art collectors, Bafana Zembe has installed works for the following:

• The Photo Workshop Gallery
• Smac Gallery 
• FNB Joburg Art Fair 
• Constitutional Hill
• Bag Factory Studios
• Goethe On Main 
• Museum Africa 
• June 16 Memorial Acre
• Hazard Gallery 
• Windybrow Theatre
• Market Theatre Foundation