Ah, the Kuru Organisation finally presented the most successful and truly contemporary exhibition: This Is Us! The San in Botswana Today, which gave enthusiasts the answer to this lingering question. It opened at the National Museum Art Gallery in Gaborone on November 7.
The exhibition is a cultural and informative presentation by various San groups that introduced the cutting edge practice which includes installations and performance art, on an equal footing with other more traditional practice. In many respects, the exhibition, reflects the transition from their tradition and cultural life through different ages to the world of today. The general overview of the exhibition was social realism, a central theme covering diversified subjects such as urban and rural citizen. However, the term social realism, in this context, is best defined by The Concise Oxford dictionary of Art as "A broad term for painting (or literature other art) that comments on contemporary social, political comments or economic conditions, usually from a left-wing view point in a realistic manner. However, the critical point that stood out in this exhibition is that social awareness was more evident in documentary photography works displayed by Pieter Brown, Paul Weinberg, Juigen Schandeberg, R. Pakkleppa, Annari van der Merwe, Caroline Hitch and Margarethe Hoegh, all of them of Caucasian origin. As a point of departure photographer Schanderberg with his powerful black and white pictures took us a little back to the original lifestyle of the San. He successfully has shown the spiritual side of Kalahari where the San danced and prayed. Schanderberg explored with the medium in a highly conscious way tapping more into the San spiritual side. "For health and for peace we prayed to God through our dances," said one of the Naro people within the San community in English writing next to a photograph.
