I heard this week that one of our South African artists has been invited to take part in the Venice Biennale.
Such fantastic news, I did a little dance in celebration. My excitement however was short lived. Why? Because in order to make it possible for this artist to take this once in a life time opportunity, he will need to raise an astronomical amount of money. Everything comes down to money.
Now... the figure I heard he needs is R 200 000.
So now let me break this down that you get an idea of what that means to the average South African.
The average monthly income in South Africa is R 13,964 (https://businesstech.co.za).
The average monthly income for a South African artist is R 9 549.
The average cost of a home in South Africa is R 1,177,131 and this would be an average home nothing fancy. The average recommended deposit for a home is 10%, so for an average home I would need just over R 100 000.
One Euro today cost just over R15.
Cost of a flight ticket to Venice around R 10 000 return.
Cost of accommodation during the Beinnale convenient location? Perhaps R500-R1000 per day?
Visa costs are up to R 960 each.
Budget travel guides say you can survive on about 50 Euro a day including backpackers accommodation, but excluding transport. Even this though amounts to R 770 a day.
Then there's venue fees, cost of framing all the art, cost of posting/courier all the work to Venice.
My point is, even if a South African artist does get noticed by the international arena of art, it is so incredibly difficult to raise enough money to take the opportunity that so often they miss out.
It may not be Venice Biennale, it may be somewhere else in the world, how do they afford to do it.
In this particular case, the artist already has a good name in the local art world and has exhibited internationally and even so I know he is going to struggle to raise the funds. So what happens with the young artists, some of whom I've blogged about previously...how do they make use of international opportunities.
well, the truth is, most of the time they don't.
South Africans are if nothing else, resilient survivors and somehow I'm sure a plan will be made to help this artist or I hope so. South Africans can be relied on to make a plan. We make loads of plans because we have to...all the time.
I know, this is not a problem unique to South Africa, what are your experiences when it comes to situations like this?
Do your governments perhaps help fund opportunities for artists?