This artwork was loaned to the exhibition Dada South? Experimentation, Radicalism and Resistance curated by Kathryn Smith and Roger van Wyk, Iziko South Africa National Gallery, December 12, 2009–February 28, 2010. It is indexed here as part of Smith and Van Wyk’s revisiting of the Dada South? Archive of materials at A4 Arts Foundation.

Standard 8 black-and-white and colour film converted to VHS (1990), converted to DVD (2008), converted to Mini DV (2009), converted to DVD (2009).

Filmed by the artist in 1970 using a Bauer Standard 8 wind-up camera. Black-and-white film processed in Germany; colour processed in Johannesburg.

Jean Tinguely visited Pretoria in 1970. He was an ardent follower of Grand Prix racing and a friend of Jackie Stewart. He approached the Pretoria College for Advanced Technical Education (now Tshwane University of Technology) for assistance in making a sculpture for his Swiss friends living in Silverton outside Pretoria.

I was in my fourth year at College engrossed in what we called avant-garde cinema. My art history supplementary exam was due the day Tinguely arrived at school. Having four rolls of film (black and white, of course; the preferred medium of youthful avant-gardists), I saw an opportunity to film this eminent Dada/Kinetic sculptor at work. He at first refused permission for me to film as no one had been allowed to do so before. After much persuasion, he kindly agreed. I entirely forgot about my exam, much to the dismay of my lecturers.

As no one here was particularly interested in his work at the time, the film remained packed away until sometime in 1981 when I discovered it in a wet shoebox outside my Brixton house in Johannesburg. It had self-destructed or rather decomposed, reminding me of Tinguely’s interest in art that destroyed itself. I approached the Tinguely Museum in the nineties asking if they might be interested in the film but received no reply.

– Malcolm Payne, artist’s notes, 2009