William Kentridge 9 Drawings for Projection

9 Drawings for Projection is an outdoor performance and film screening that brings together all of the short animated films from internationally renowned South African artist William Kentridge’s Soho Eckstein series. Made between 1989 and 2003, the series follows the fictional story of Kentridge’s iconic antihero, a wealthy South African mine owner, land developer, and cuckold. The nine films chronicle the rise of Soho’s Johannesburg empire, his wife’s passionate affair with Felix Teitlebaum, loss, love, injury, and much more, all set against the backdrop of South Africa’s shifting political and social realities. In making his films, Kentridge (b. 1955, Johannesburg, South Africa) creates an entire animation sequence from a single drawing, which he augments bit by bit, working without script or storyboard. His narratives and imagery—at once melancholy, graceful, and open-ended—emerge through this unusual, labor-intensive working process. In the end, he is left with one short film and a very small stack of drawings, one for each scene in the film.

Presented chronologically and shown in 35mm for the first time ever in the US, 9 Drawings for Projection premiered on June 23, 2005, at the Prospect Park Bandshell following a concert by iconic jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. The second performance took place on June 27, 2005, at the historic Central Park Bandshell.

William Kentridge’s 9 Drawings for Projection is made possible by Bloomberg. The performance at the Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival received additional support from the South African Consulate New York and South African Tourism USA.