Intraparadox: Interview with Nthabiseng Rachel Montshiwa
Refilwe Art Reach
6 February 2016 at 11:00, Pretoria Art Museum
Mmutle Arthur Kgokong: good afternoon Nthabiseng Montshiwa it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to interview you again after five years, exactly five years because the last interview we had was in 2010 and we are now in 2016 and today is the 6th of February and we are here talking about your…the project that you are currently working on which is Refilwe Art Reach. So I want to welcome you to Intraparadox, uhm following our first interview many years ago which is ehh five years really, how has the art industry treated you up to this point?
Nthabiseng Rachel Montshiwa: ehh firstly hello Mmutle I am grateful that you could make time to do this interview with me again. The art industry is very fluid. You can never say you are holding ground on a specific project, [otherwise when you are faced with a challenge] and things do not go well you become more frustrated. I have learned that you must always find concepts or avenues to explore especially based on the maturity level that one finds herself in these years so it has been ups and downs because clearly you can’t put food on the table every month and you can’ sustain your self the way you would like to
Mmutle AK: …uh-hum…
Nthabiseng RM: so you must constantly explore funding you must be selling things. But also not shooting your self on the foot by doing wrong concepts which might mislead you in this career. So from being a curator or an arts administrator at the time…I am still an administrator respectively…but we are not concentrating on art exhibitions any more because we would like to find other vocabulary to define what art exhibitions should be and what they should actually address. We have moved to art education programs for children in public schools specifically
MAK: …Yes…
NRM: So that’s the change I find my self in now and it has been fantastic.
