A day of art, vibes and black joy

BMW Art Generation fused music, fashion and community ambiance in an event that outshone traditional notions of art

- Thembeka Heidi Sincuba

On Saturday, 30 August, Nirox Sculpture Park was transformed for the third edition of the BMW Art Generation.

While the park, outside Joburg, is known for its polished events, this time its sprawling, nature-first landscape was taken over for this well-loved gathering, part music and art festival, part society day out.

The official theme, “A Tropology Between Image and Imagination”, suggested lofty ambitions, yet the mood on the ground was playful — a space where art was only one ingredient in a wider composition of easy communal energy.

As our guide, Tristin Roland, led us through the grounds, drawing attention to Willem Boshoff’s Stone Circle and Jerusalem Jerusalem: The Wailing Wall (2017); Ayana V Jackson’s Faux Cul VI-X (2017-18); Xhanti Zwelindaba’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Apartheid's Wishing Well (2017) and Angus Taylor’s Morphic Resonance (2014), one could sense that in this small group were people who were, to varying degrees, at least curious about art. They followed attentively, exclaimed at new knowledge and asked thoughtful questions.

But while Roland unpacked the works’ formal and conceptual frameworks, the general crowd seemed drawn elsewhere. The sculptures became points of improvisation, sparking spontaneous interpretations, with hilarious vernacular murmurs about “lamazinyo”, referring to Adelheid Frackiewicz’s toothy installation, emerging as playful readings that diverged entirely from the provided narratives.

At best, the works functioned as photo ops or humorous asides in and among unrelated conversations, demonstrating in real time how meaning is continually remade outside prescribed frames.

Soon, it became ever clearer that the art was no main event. Muneyi, the sultry Venda crooner, set the tone with a voice that called each ear from every corner of the park in a gentle opening performance that seemed at first to slow the pace.