"I was interviewing Siemon Allen about Flat Gallery in Durban, and what struck me as being the biggest impetus to begin a project space is a sense of frustration about being excluded from something that you desperately want to be a part of. Perhaps there has to be a sense of exclusion for new project spaces to begin – 'This art scene is cliquey. Screw them, I’m going to start my own clique!'"
– Khanya Mashabela
Invited practitioners joined curator Khanya Mashabela in a roundtable conversation centred on artist-led project spaces and collaborative exhibition-making. The engagement formed part of Mashabela’s wider research project, Social, and took place in the Gallery during Common, extending the exhibition’s reflections on collective action and shared resources. Matthew Blackman and Ed Young (YOUNG BLACKMAN), Carol Khaas and Lebo Kekanna (FEDE), and Mitchell Gilbert Messina (Under Projects) contributed to the conversation.