DALLAS, TEXAS.- The African American Museum presents the South African contemporary art exhibition A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa. The exhibition is the first major contemporary South African art exhibition curated by South Africans for an American audience and will be on view through February 27, 2005.

Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of democracy in South Africa, after the celebrated elections of April 1994. Drawing from the best of contemporary art, it provides a plurality of voices that address both historical events and personal experiences assessing what 10 years of freedom have delivered. The work is formed by a strong vision about the “self” that entails an appreciation of and identification with the changes that reflect a transforming society struggling to reconcile the legacy of its past. The artists consider the process of truth telling and autobiography to be an important strategy for responding to a shared experience of injustice under apartheid. It does not claim to represent South Africa in its entirety, but highlights some of the challenges and contradictions that have played out over the past ten years. The exhibition presents a transient moment in South African history where the absence of institutional definition of identity calls for new expressions and perspectives.

A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa presents works by emerging artists who attempt to redefine the changing social environment in South Africa. The works address issues such as identity - searching for means of expression that are more personal in experience and universal in understanding - examining ways that identity was previously defined.

Artists Thando Mama and Rudzani Nemasetoni engage this subject confrontationally by examining its private and public expression. Mama uses his body as a means of recovering lost meaning and power associated with the black figure; while Nemasetoni abstracts fragments from the “Pass Book” (South African identification book) to emphasize the absurdity associated with state classification. These artists and others in this exhibition, present a variety of complex issues about the New South Africa looking at apartheid as well as colonial history. Many of the works address the changing public attitudes towards issues such as race, gender, sexuality, within an urbanized social context.

Participating artists include: Bongi Bengu, Pitso Chinzima, Matthew Hindley, Nicholas Hlobo, Fanie Jason, Alison Kearney, Nkosinathi Khanyile, Jeannot M.M. Ladeira Fritha Langerman, Brenton Maart, Thando Mama, Colbert Mashile, Pauline Mazibuko, Mthunzi Ndimande, Rudzani Nemasetoni, Christian Nert, Charles Nkosi, Roderick Kevin Sauls, Nirupa Sing, Nontsikelelo Veleko.

A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa is curated by Tumelo Mosaka with Associate Curators Sophia Ainslie and Theminkosi Goniwe, Curatorial Assistant Sipho Mdanda, and Curatorial Advisor E. Barry Gaither. The publication is edited by Gary van Wyk. The Project Director is Donna M. Keefe. The exhibition and publication are funded by the Rockefeller Foundation with additional support in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.