Kentridge’s Poetics in Nine Videos

William Kentridge, Self Portrait as a Coffee Pot, 2011


The Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation in Venice hosts Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot, a multimedia exhibition by William Kentridge curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, which previews the evocative new video series in nine episodes by the famous South African artist, author of highly poetic animated short films, sculptures and theatre and opera productions. The exhibition, divided into short thirty-minute episodes and originally conceived as an online series, constitutes a sort of experiment in materialization and phenomenological experience of reality in the digital age, as well as a reflection on what might happen in the brain and studio of an artist today. Filmed in Kentridge's studio during and after the 2020-2022 Covid-19 pandemic and completed in 2023, these works will be visible in a dense, unique environment that partially recreates the Johannesburg studio in which they were created. Global streaming rights to the nine-episode series, created and directed by William Kentridge, produced by Rachel Chanoff and Noah Bashevkin of The Office Performing Arts + Film, Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films and the William Kentridge Studio, and curated by Walter Murch, Janus Fouché and Žana Marović, have been acquired by innovative arthouse distribution company MUBI.



  1. Keywords: william kentridge, venice, exhibitions, arte.it, nozio business, arsenale institute for politics of representation, carolyn christov-bakargiev