Meleko Mokgosi – Democratic Intuition (2013-2019)

Posted by Fabio 7 February 2019

Democratic Intuition (2013-2019), an 8 chapter project of oil on canvas paintings and sculptures, aims to ask questions about how one can approach ideas of the democratic in relation to the daily-lived experiences of the subjects that occupy southern Africa. In dealing with this material, artist Meleko Mokgosi focuses on the ways in which democracy can be thought of as both something that is inscribed within the individual from various institutions in addition to being partly intuitive or self-taught through processes of socialization and intersubjective exchange. As a result, this project questions and outlines how the idea and reciprocation of the democratic is counter-intuitive because it is based on the contradiction between recognizing one’s supposed freedom as an individual and the recognition that has to be applied to one’s partner to interaction.