Remembering the Pass -Exploring curatorial reenactment in PASS-AGES: References & Footnotes

The exhibition, PASS-AGES: References & Footnotes (2010), curated by Gabi Ngcobo, was site-specific and took place at the former Pass Office in Johannesburg, a space not officially acknowledged as a struggle site. Ngcobo, recognising the potential for using dynamic display formats to mobilise a curatorial concept, brought memory to the fore by installing artworks at the Pass Office as reenactments of evidence. I argue that PASS-AGES invokes traumatic memory through curatorial reenactment, and indicates the potentials for reenactment to explore repressed histories that still hold presence in a contemporary moment. Memory is thus invoked as an additional “text” to mobilise the conceptual framework, akin to how remembrance is often used in the continuous struggle for justice. Employing an autoethnographic methodology, which describes an analytical approach used to critically examine the researcher’s own experiences as a means to access greater understanding of cultural experience, I allow the reader to experience the exhibition through my own account. I argue that, as a nomadic curator, Ngcobo was freed from contextual, spatial, or methodological limitations traditionally bound to a colonial logic of curatorial practice. I convey that a nomadic curatorial approach can be adopted to critique traditional or institutional curatorial paradigms. To this end, I argue that Ngcobo was able to engage care in her practice by using reenactment to interrogate memory in a manner that may otherwise have been subdued within an institutional context.


Introduction
The exhibition, PASS-AGES: References & Footnotes (2010), 1 which was curated by Gabi Ngcobo to coincide with the inaugural launch of the Johannesburg-based curatorial platform, Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR 2010(CHR -2014, 2 was presented just over fifteen years after the end of South Africa's apartheid regime. 3 The exhibition makes direct reference to apartheid's "pass" system in its title and served to interrogate the "ripple effect" incurred as a result of the violations the system imposed. 4 Each of the artists included in the exhibition, namely Dineo Seshee Bopape, Ernest Cole (included posthumously), Kemang Wa Lehulere, Zanele Muholi and Mary Sibande, engage with historical narratives as a departure point in their artworks, question issues surrounding identity, and interrogate the role and position of the black body as well as the stigma and withstanding effects that the system of racial classification has had on them (Ngcobo 2010:2). My interest in this article is to convey how PASS-AGES invokes traumatic memory through curatorial reenactment, indicating the potentials this particular curatorial project has to explore repressed histories that still hold presence in the contemporary moment. 5 Ngcobo's PASS-AGES, I indicate, became a 'vehicle of trauma' (Felman 1997: 743). 6 I argue that Ngcobo uses space and the arrangement and installation of artworks to mobilise a conceptual framework that invokes memory as an additional "text". Through this, Ngcobo foregrounds how memory work, and the remembrance of traumatic events can be used in the continuous endeavour to achieve justice for violations against human rights (Bonder 2009:63). 7 I contend that through presenting the exhibition as a reenactment, Ngcobo elicits care in her activist curatorial practice by inviting the viewer to reflect critically on traumas related to the pass system, and thereby invoke empathy and understanding in this context.
Mediating the exhibition, PASS-AGES PASS-AGES was site-specific, installed in the basement section at the site of the former Pass Office in Johannesburg; 8 a building that had not been acknowledged as an official "struggle site". 9 According to James Balloi ([sa]), the Pass Office was the 'head office' for the Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department (JNEAD) and could be described as the 'nerve centre' of apartheid. After 1986, when the pass system was abolished, the Pass Office was shut down, and as investigated in PASS-AGES, it is believed that the records were burned or otherwise destroyed (Ngcobo 2010:2). 10 This routine practice of destroying records by the apartheid government, or what Verne Harris (1999:1) refers to as 'state-imposed amnesia', was a significant method in which the National Party (NP) attempted to maintain power and control. Ngcobo used the space in PASS-AGES to "weave" these narratives into the curatorial text, so that space became an important tool in establishing the conceptual underpinning of the exhibition. The space is described by Khwezi Gule (2015:92) as exuding oppression. I argue that Ngcobo's assumption of a nomadic curatorial position allowed her to be selective with space and be able to use and respond to site-specific contexts in order to critically question, and in some cases, dismantle, the mechanisms of exclusion inherent in institutional spaces. The nomadic curator is thus able to accelerate the critical quality of curatorial practice in a way that may have been minimised by a curator working in an institutional space. I define the nomadic curator as an independent curator who has become resourceful in gaining access to space, but who does not work in a manner that is restricted by policies or expectations imposed on permanent museum/gallery employees or independent curators working in traditional art spaces. By working in a nomadic capacity, curators are able to respond to the former, as well as the limiting parameters of the institutional/white cube spaces that are available. Ngcobo did not aesthetically "neutralise" the space for the sake of displaying the artworks, 12 but rather worked with the space to bring about affective meaning, inserting the works into the space as she found it so that the viewer may imagine that this was exactly how the space was left the moment the Pass Office was vacated.
The nomadic approach thus invites the curator to use space to enhance the conceptual framework of the show, and stimulates a dynamic curatorial response in developing new creative solutions that work within these spaces. I argue that, owing to Ngcobo's nomadic approach, she was able to make use of adaptive curatorial models and transform PASS-AGES into a discursive site that deconstructed characteristic curatorial approaches.
Below I outline my own experience of encountering PASS-AGES and the 'consciousness-raising appeal' it brought to bear for me (Margulies 2003a:15). It is important to note that my experience of the exhibition is a mediated one that took place through the "leftovers" of the project, and is thus not an immediate response. These remains exist through the space and the layout, the building, the exhibition notes, the curatorial statement, the photographs, and the remaining artworks and objects that I have representation that deepen our capacity to empathize with people who are different from us' (Ellis & Bochner 2000in Ellis, Adams & Bochner 2011. As such, I do not assume that my research is independent from my experience, but rather acknowledge that my experience is valuable to my research (Méndez 2013). I adopted this approach as an attempt to negotiate the tendency to discuss the remains of an exhibition out of context of the experience and effects of the project, which are often far more elusive. My description, which is to be read in conjunction with Figure 1, 13 enables the reader to "re-enact" the manner in which one may have navigated and been affected by PASS-AGES: Reenactment, as adopted by Ngcobo, is used rather critically and with a certain degree of irony. Ngcobo's use of reenactment serves to provide palpable physical context to a history that the NP attempted to erase. Recognising the potential for the exhibition as a medium to mobilise this concept, Ngcobo experiments with curatorial composition by inverting the "traditional" hanging style one may expect from conventional exhibition displays, and rather "sets a stage" using the artworks as prompts to reenact the effects of the pass system and pose questions about how this history has impacted the present.
Muholi's series, Work as Usual (c2010), investigates the continuation of the informal domestic work sector in post-apartheid South Africa. Muholi visually depicts hierarchy in her work by framing the high heels of a white employer against the view of a domestic worker washing the floor on her knees (in this case, a self-portrait). Considering how the series was installed, as unframed photographs, tacked to a notice board, the works can be read as an annotation to the continuing complexities of the domestic worker/employer relationship (Bethlehem 2010 (2016:ii), the figure of the "maid", used by both Muholi and Sibande, can be considered a vehicle to evoke memory and emotion related to South African historical traumas.
The curatorial composition alludes to Ngcobo's supposed intention that these photographic artworks should be read as testimonials evidencing the continued effects of apartheid and the trauma of surviving the pass system. The works, installed as reenactments, elicit acknowledgement of the past, allowing the exhibition to play a role in prompting reconciliation and redress.
The display of the Afro-comb "tools" used to excavate the soil in Wa Lehulere's performance, uGuqul'ibhatyi (2008), is particularly important, as the comb makes reference to Afro-hair, which apartheid officials assessed to racially classify citizens. 21 By making this reference using an Afro-comb, often used to tease out hair into an Afro-style, Wa Lehulere is perhaps subverting the perception of Afro-hair being used for oppression, and rather positing Afro-hair alongside discourses of black empowerment through hair styling (Afro-hair was used as a signifier of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s).
By installing this work in relation to Cole's repeated image, Ngcobo presents a 'dense nexus' of the 'lived archive' of South African racial production (Bethlehem 2010).
The exhibition also serves as a vehicle for further reenactment, conjuring up the effect of the trauma of the past as a vehicle for post-trauma or postmemory for some viewers. 22 This can be considered in terms of Derridean thought, specifically considering the notion of trace, wherein the sign, for Jacques Derrida (1997Derrida ( [1967:xvii), is always already inhabited by that which is forever absent. Derrida (1997Derrida ( [1967), 23 discussing deconstruction, uses the term 'sous rature' (French for "under erasure"), and printed both the word and the deletion to show that signs are always inhabited by other signs, which implies a move away from binary constructions (Spivak 1974:ixi). For Derrida (1997 [1967]), the sign should always be studied as "under erasure", always already inhabited by the trace of another sign, both simultaneously present (the reenactment as the sign) and absent (the post-traumatic experience/memory as the trace). The notion of trace can also be used to access Griselda Pollock's (2009:40)  This experience relates to the lingering effects the pass system may have had on the people never fully acknowledged as present or entitled citizens in their own land, and whose standing as South African was essentially deferred (Salley 2013:357-8). As with Derrida's (1997Derrida's ( [1967:xvii) conception of trace, black South Africans were citizens both present and absent, denied a place in society, whilst simultaneously subjected to surveillance in the pass system, their standing in society sinisterly documented.
Furthermore, the performance can also be considered a metaphor for the unacknowledged struggle site of the Pass Office, and how this deferral of remembrance can be considered a trauma itself.
Ngcobo's curatorial reenactment could be argued to embody the 'aesthetics of remembrance' (Hirsch 2008:104), linking reenactment as an aesthetic approach to account for a collection of knowledge and/or memory absent from the historical archive (Diane Taylor in Hirsch 2008:105). PASS-AGES should therefore be considered a "reinscription" of memory into the site where the traumas are connected. By drawing attention to the lack of acknowledgment and the need to actively confront the issues required to achieve redress, PASS-AGES also presents a "challenge" towards the ideologies of reconciliation, unity, and transformation in post-apartheid South Africa

(Roux 2017:100). Ngcobo's PASS-AGES is thus a call for accountability, using (ironical)
"reenactment" as a means of unearthing testimonies and gathering "evidence" of the traumas and post-traumas of apartheid's crimes against humanity.

Care as curatorial methodology
Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova (2016:5) argues that care should be considered a methodology in curating, and motivates the curator to entice the viewer to think critically about matters, even if they extend beyond the 'life experiences' of the viewer.
Care in curating is also a way of encouraging the viewer to be an active participant, whereby the curator consistently prompts the viewer to consider ways to 'think through' the exhibition 'even when our bodies, our identities, are implicated and being changed' (Härtelova 2016:23). Ngcobo intended to use the exhibition as a vehicle to impact various groups, and not only those directly affected by being subject to the pass laws.

This is important, as Dominick LaCapra (1999:697) indicates that post-apartheid South
Africa is presented with the problem of 'working through historical losses in ways that affect different groups differently'. By drawing on frameworks of critical reenactment, Ngcobo does not "work through" the loss for us, but invites the audience to experience the reenactment and acknowledge the impact within the space that embodies the trauma. In this sense, Ngcobo's practice to reenact traumatic memory can be considered an attempt to draw out repressed memory and to actively engage page 10 of 18 with the trauma of the pass system. Ngcobo's exhibition serves as a means to provide evidence to trauma, and thus humanise those previously relegated to marginalised positions both by the pass system, and thereafter by the denial of the evidence's roles as witness to these traumas. By reenacting the evidence of the Pass Office, Ngcobo asks of the viewers to reconsider their own subjectivities and consider differing narratives from differing historical accounts.
For those who had to endure the pass system, and for the generations that followed, in newspapers, is an example of how newspapers helped to emphasise, and possibly even revive, resistance action in society. Importantly, this reference to histories of resistance by the youth is also called to the fore in PASS-AGES through the use of the curatorial statement as hand-written on a black board. The blackboard formulation may also have been used to "reenact", or call to the fore, past resistance to the unequal education at white and black schools. Thus, the composition of the curatorial framework as both newspaper-and blackboard-style format, responds to themes of resistance.
The exhibition statement, which is still widely available, offers longevity to framing the curatorial concept for the exhibition, and in a similar way, to how space can be used as a tool to enhance the curatorial concept of the exhibition; so too can the installation/ presentation of the curatorial statement.

Conclusion
Terry Smith (2012a:21) discusses the notion of 'activist curating', as often enacted beyond the venues of the art world, where the exhibition is presented as an argument and conceptual framework to spark response, highlight issues that need further engagement, and bring about political and social change. Ngcobo's intention was to convey how contemporary artists' practices are significantly shaped by the construction of historical legacies (Ngcobo 2017;:2). The use of space and curatorial composition in PASS-AGES imbues the exhibition with meaning, galvanising the exhibition's potential of uncovering testimonies, and thus contributing to probing the manner in which society responds to these denied narratives (Ngcobo 2010:2). Using reenactment to interrogate memory in her curatorial practice, Ngcobo was able to highlight repressed histories in a manner that may otherwise have been subdued within an institutional context. By evoking care in her activist curatorial practice,

Ngcobo invited the viewer to reflect critically on repressed violations in an attempt to
contribute to the endeavour to achieve justice for violations against human rights.
Ngcobo's use of reenactment allowed her to invoke memory in a way that provided further critical comment on socio-cultural and political issues regarding histories, the erasure of histories, and the need to engage, address and contextualise these histories and traumatic memories for the remediable future. As Ngcobo uses care as a methodology in her curatorial reenactment, so I employ reenactment as a strategy in this article, wherein I invite the reader to reflect critically on PASS-AGES, which has the potential to continue to develop empathy and understanding through the longevity of the reenacted exhibition statement still widely available. 2. The CHR was co-founded by Ngcobo and artist Kemang Wa Lehulere in July 2010. The CHR intended to explore ways in which artistic production could frame particular readings of history, and furthermore, how history informs artistic production (Gabi Ngcobo/Radio Papesse 2010). Their intention was to reveal how histories are universal, can be repeated, and are often preserved (Smith 2012a:156-157), which they explored through exhibitions, publications, screenings, discussions, performances, workshops and seminars.

Institutionalised racial segregation (apartheid) was made law in South Africa by the National Party (NP)
from 1948 until 1994.
4. The pass system, under apartheid, was implemented as a way of controlling the movement of black citizens in South Africa. According to Khwezi Gule (2015:92), the pass (also nicknamed ipasi or dompas) was an internal passport that black citizens over the age of sixteen years were required to carry by law. The pass served to racially identify black citizens and contributed to regulating the movements of black citizens in urban centres. This system was instrumental in implementing racial segregation laws, such as the Population Registration Act or the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act. During apartheid, if a black citizen was caught without his/her pass, he/she could be arrested, fined, or deported to rural "homelands". In the context of this article, I use the term "black" inclusively to represent all those who were not classified as "white" under the apartheid racial classification system, similarly to how Steve Biko regarded "black" as an inclusive term in the context of the Black Consciousness movement (Hadfield 2017 Trauma is a reenactment of violence and a reliving of the event. Bonder (2009:63) references apartheid as an example of a traumatic event. Trauma, however, is not only experienced as a result of major events, but also as day-to-day lived experiences of these manifestations of trauma, such as the continued impact that oppression has on everyday South African life following the abolition of the pass system.

The former Pass Office is situated at the corner of Albert and Polly Street in Johannesburg, South
Africa. During apartheid, the Pass Office was the Johannesburg administrative office responsible for issuing pass documents and tracking the movements of black South Africans.
9. By acknowledging spaces as "struggle sites", the current African National Congress (ANC) government provides opportunities for the active remembrance of the struggle for freedom in South African history.
This preservation of historical/heritage sites (particularly "struggle sites") is acknowledged for important resistance events having taken place there during apartheid.
10. Balloi ([sa]) comments that despite the building having significance in apartheid history, the building's history and the events that occurred at the site remain proportionately unknown.
11. The floor plan was fabricated from the close readings of numberous photographic records of the installation. The plan indicates the placement of the works in relation to the space and its remaining features, such as furniture left behind, and should be read in conjunction with the written walkabout as described below.
12. I use "neutralise" in this sentence to indicate the common aesthetic process of readying a space for the display of art by preparing surfaces using neutral tones (white, grey, beige). I use scare-quotes to indicate that I am aware that white spaces are not neutral spaces, and thus I am not using the term "neutralise" reductively.
13. Figure 1 indicates a "not-to-scale" floorplan that outlines where I surmised each of the elements were placed in the space, and can be referred to as visual support for the written "walkabout". As I had not attended the exhibition myself, and was unable to access the site where the exhibition was held in 16. During apartheid, officials would assess "Afro-hair" to racially classify citizens. The objective was to test with how much ease the pencil moved through the hair, and depending on the result, the subject would be classified within a racial group (Gule 2015:92-93).
17. According to Gule (2015:92) the performance is titled after the isiXhosa term for a "turncoat". This is a reference to the nickname used to refer to black citizens who altered their racial identity so that they could be classified "coloured" (the apartheid-era name for people of mixed race) as coloured people held more privileges during apartheid than black people. 19. This newspaper article was included in the curatorial programme for the exhibition, PASS-AGES.
20. As Irene Bronner (2016) has indicated in her analysis of Muholi's Massa and Mina(h) series, which the series included in PASS-AGES was later referred to, the work also has underlying homoeroticism. Bronner (2016:186) argues that Muholi fictionalises a pseudo-sexual relationship between Mina the "maid" and her "madam"; it is 'a story line that encourages the viewer to self-consciously evaluate how narratives from various origins may be imposed upon both "maid" and "madam"'.

21.
As previously mentioned, this process was referred to as the "pencil test".
22. Marianne Hirsch (2008:104) discusses postmemory as a framework to consider the transfer of trauma and memory from one generation to another. Postmemory, for Hirsch (2008:104), is inherited trauma, often passed to the second generation. For some, despite the event occurring before their birth, the inherited trauma can be so deep that is gets passed on to the next generation, and manifests as memory (Hirsch 2008:104). Considering that PASS-AGES was installed in 2010, 16 years after the end of apartheid, and 24 years after the abolishing of the pass system, it can be argued that the reenactment 26. According to the website on Gauteng Tourist Attractions (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)) that refers to the Hector Pieterson Memorial Site, the spelling of Pieterson has been written as "Peterson" and "Pietersen" by the press, but the family has confirmed that the correct spelling is 'Pieterson'. The Pieterson family's surname was originally "Pitso", but the family opted to adapt their surname in an attempt to pass as "coloured" during apartheid. Thus, for the sake of this study, I have opted to use the spelling indicated as correct by Pieterson's family.
27. The 1976 Soweto Uprising was a series of demonstrations led by black school children in South Africa, protesting the NP's decision to make Afrikaans, alongside English, a compulsory medium of instruction in schools (announced in 1974). It should be noted that the Bantu Education Act of 1953 had already implemented an inferior education system for black children. The protest action began on the morning of 16 June 1976, where between 3000 and 10 000 students joined the march. Policeman met on route opened fire, using tear gas and live ammunition, which resulted in widespread revolt against the government and a country-wide uprising (South African History Online 2019).