The upward artistic trajectory of Gerard Sekoto award winner Bulumko Mbete

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

When I first met her it was at the then recently opened Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation musuem, the cool privately owned museum in Forrestown, Johannesburg. She worked there as an assistant to the curator Clive Kilner.

Then when she won the Stephan Welz Cassirer Award last year, her journey as an artist to watch out for was sealed. As part of that prize, she had a solo exhibition at the Bag Factory, and our paths intersected again.

It was during that time that Bulumko Mbete told me about her exhibition and incidentally her complex identity background.

But not only was she clearly on an upward artistic trajectory, but s was focused on her art practice, and not as an administrator assisting artists at galleries and museums, but developing her on art practice. She was also headed to the US, where she was going to study for a masters degree in fine art, she told me.

Quite clearly Mbete was an artist to look out for, I could not help but think that way after viewing that exhibition as well as the interview we had on the day of the opening.

And therefore to some of us, who have watched this conceptual artist for a few years now, who works with textile to tell stories, her personal relationship with fabric, the news came as no surprise to hear that the judges for the LÁtelier Award chose her for the much sought after Gerard Sekoto Award. This award is given to a young South African visual artist who shows promise in her career.

The good news for the artist was delivered to her and those gathered on the evening of 11 October 2023, in Sandton – when the artist was announced as the 2023 Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award winner.

Gerard Sekoto was a prolific South African visual artist and musician. He is recognised as a pioneer of urban black art and social realism. In 1947, Sekoto left South Africa to live in Paris under a self-imposed exile. A widely exhibited wayfarer for South African and global contemporary art, Sekoto was awarded Chevalier des Arts & des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, one of France’s highest honours, shortly before his death.  

An ode to Sekoto’s practice and prowess, the Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award, a partnership between the French Institute of South Africa, SANAVA and Absa, is awarded to a promising South African visual artist every year. Ongoing since 2003, this partnership demonstrates a successful synergy between the public and private sector in the name of celebrating visual art. 

“The Gerard Sekoto Award is one of our longest running partnerships between the cultural and private sectors, and we are incredibly proud of the work this partnership has created and the artists who have benefitted from this award. The award, now in its 19th year, is a brilliant  testament to the strength of our devotion to South Africa’s contemporary art landscape,” says Ambassador of France to South Africa, David Martinon.

Investigating materiality, Mbete uses textile, beading and weaving to communicate generational gestures of love. When asked about Sekoto’s impact on her practice, Mbete remembers him being one of the first black fine artists who she came into contact with while growing up. “Reflecting on his career and how he encapsulated lived realities at the moments in time that he was making will always be powerful. When I think of his work the idea of memory and representation come to the fore for me,” says Mbete. 

Lasting for three months, the residency offers the winning artist an opportunity to explore their practice in a different context in preparation of a solo exhibition touring within the French cultural network of Southern Africa. Currently in a place where she is interested in exploring deeper research, Mbete welcomes the opportunity that the residency presents beyond the cultural context of South Africa. “It means that I get to expand my practice, its engagement with people and learn from the environment there,” says Mbete. “I plan to do some long listening and co-authoring in tandem with what makes sense at the time. I’m very interested in the idea of learning and listening to space, the people that exist within it and then responding.” In addition to the residency, Mbete will receive a series of masterclasses and an exhibition valued at R100 000 courtesy of Absa. 

As a part of the Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award prize, Mbete will leave South Africa for a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris. The South African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA) will cover Mbete’s accommodation and residency studio while the French Institute of South Africa’s support will cover her stipend as well as a return flight. 

From the first woman to create a commissioned portrait of Christian Dior, associate professors and gallery owners, the Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award alumni have gone on to become leading African voices in the international contemporary art landscape. The 19th Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto winner, Mbete joins the celebrated likes of Billie Zangewa, Lawrence Lemaoana, Nomusa Makhubu, Banele Khoza and last year’s winner, Malebogo Naticia Molokoane.

“”The role of the Embassy of France, and its cultural arm, the French Institute of South Africa, is to create and maintain a sustainable dialogue between France and South Africa. A bridge connecting South Africa and France, Sekoto’s time in France carried creative conversations forward beyond his time. Through more creative collaborations, exchanges and partnerships like this, the conversation between the two regions remains vibrant and meaningful in a way that we hope to see even in generations to come. We look forward to Mbete’s contribution in the coming year,” says IFAS.