The premiere of William Kentridge’s "Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" was one of the highlights of this year’s Venice Biennale. It was in fact one of the many collateral events. The Venice Biennale itself was rather disappointing.
The South African artist William Kentridge is best known for his charcoal drawings and animated films and his theatre and opera productions. "Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" consists of nine thirty minutes episodes, which show Kentridge at work in his studio and in conversation with his other self, one playing the optimist, the other the pessimist. The film is shot in seamless double exposure with the two versions of Kentridge arguing and confronting each other. Kentridge talks about his childhood, politics, art, Greek mythology, colonialism and the passage of time, while making drawings in his studio as his alter ego looks on and then provides his version of events. At night mice made of crumpled paper take over the studio.
Filming of the series began during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentridge’s Johannesburg studio and was completed in 2023. The Venice exhibition partially recreates Kentridge’s studio and includes some of the sketches and props seen in the videos.
I was hoping that the entire series would become available at some streaming service, as indeed it has, so I only watched the final half of one episode, one full episode and the first half of the next.
"Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" is delightfully playful and optimistic. It is a celebration of the creative process and a love letter to art and the power of the imagination. At some point Kentridge refers to the studio as "a place of transformation" and "a safe space for stupidity" and that’s exactly what it is. I can’t wait to get back into the studio myself and make things.
William Kentridge: Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot is at the Arsenal Institute for Politics of Representation in Venice through 24 November 2024. The series is also available at Mubi.
