William Kentridge

We were allowed to meet the South African artist William Kentridge short before his opening of his exhibit "NO IT IS!" at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin for an interview. Many thanks!

South African William Kentridge is one of the most internationally significant contemporary artists. He is not just a visual artist but also a filmmaker, director and a great raconteur. His comprehensive body of works has spanned several artistic disciplines for more than three decades now. Berliner Festspiele will present his complete interdisciplinary oeuvre for the first time: at the Martin-Gropius-Bau (May 12th to August 21st 2016) and in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele during the Festival Foreign Affairs (5th to 17th July 2016).

At the center of his creative process is his visual work. It is the point of departure for the large-scale show curated by Wulf Herzogenrath in the Martin-Gropius-Bau. The spectrum of works presented here ranges from drawings through the famous animated films dedicated to Georges Méliès (2003) and Drawings for Projection (1989-2011) to the monumental film projection More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015) and the spatial installation The Refusal of Time, which premiered at the Documenta in 2012. The two “cabinets of wonders” to be seen in the Martin-Gropius-Bau lead into the atmosphere of the studio, the creative locus: Works from Kentridge’s collection, including etchings by Goya, Dürer and Hopper, are his source of inspiration, and correspond to his sketches, collages, and pictures, which proceed through various media in the course of the creative process, growing ever more complex.