UBU & the TRUTH COMMISSION

Violence is one of the most urgent problems today in South Africa, where the whole society is still adjusting to the post-apartheid revolution. I imagine that South Africans are still dealing with two levels of violence-one related to the psychosis of the past and another to the uncertainty of the future. Kentridge's animations speak indirectly about both kinds of violence, while never addressing them directly. His characters appear to be stuck in a world that would love to relinquish power but fear the void upon which that power has been built. Under these creative circumstances, death assumes the function of a protective filter, the major element of continuity in the narrative structure of the film.
Text written by Curator Francesco Bonami for the exhibition catalog.