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The Naming and Claiming of Space Tour
Naming and Claiming of Space is doing an alternative history tour of Cape Town on Friday, 19th February. The route/plan is as follows:
11am-11.20am
1. Deer Park (area of natural beauty, from where a river once flowed down into the sea) – introduction to the tour and the collecting of small stones that travelers will take with [...]Festival News IV- Letter
Dear ITC,
I confess, I am mad about you.
As you have developed over the past three years you are one of the best things that has ever happened to Cape Town and to the milieu of the performance arts in Southern Africa.
You provide the very necessary alternative spaces for artists to make new and challenging work; [...]Festival News IV- Off the Wall
Sean O’Toole visits the Wishing Wall
Two years ago, Johannesburg artists Landi Raubenheimer and Paul Cooper visited Yeoville, a tatty, bohemian suburb neighbouring on Johannesburg’s inner city. Their attention was momentarily diverted by a large, dissonant notice board that had asserted its right to exist on a bare stretch of wall facing onto Rocky Street.
“Walking alongside [...]Festival News IV-Disinfecting Stigma
5.4 million South Africans live with HIV. Windows Into A World tells the story. Yazeed Kamaldien goes behind the scenes.
It isn’t always comfortable talking about HIV/Aids in a country where pointing fingers at the reasons could get you on the wrong side of the politically correct fence. But ignoring this pandemic won’t change the fact [...]
Festival News IV- Tied and Tested
Collaborating on Meet Market is multi-media performer, Lerato Shadi. Atiyyah Khan met this dynamic young artist.
She may be one of the youngest artists at Infecting The City (ITC), but as far as pushing boundaries goes, visual and performance artist Lerato Shadi is no stranger to difficult and uncomfortable situations. In a piece, titled Mmitlwa, Shadi [...]Festival News IV-Slaving Away
Melvyn Minnaar reviews Meet Market
How interred history reawakens to haunt the present is vividly (and spookily) visualised in the famous opening sequence of Lars von Trier’s 1994 TV soap series Riget (The Kingdom). Something of that charged ambience, mysterious and engaging, wretched and comical, is evoked by the wilted lawn that temporarily carpets Church Square [...]Festival News III- Edition 3 PDF Download
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Not to Be Missed: The Gathering of Clouds
The Gathering of Clouds
Deer Park
Friday the 19th of February, 11am
A guided tour of //Hui!Gaeb (Where the rain clouds gather) will be given by Bradley van Sitters of the Khoe San Active Awareness Group, accompanied by traditional Khoe healers, herbologists and the chief of the Gorachoukhoe. The tour lasts approximately two hours, and includes a hands-on [...]Festival News III- Ukosulela isixeko
Kumbindi wesixeko sasekapa ngomhla we 13- ukuya kumhla we 20th kulenyanga sikuyo, sifikele esixekweni sinabisa intatho nxaxheba sidyobha, siyosulela – hayi ngentsholongwane nangezifo ntonje sibhiyoza kuluchulumanco kumnyadala wenkcubeko namasiko.
Lomcimbi ubuyimpumelelo engumangaliso kulonyaka uphelileyo ngemiboniso nemidlalo yeqonga yodidi oluphezulu nelinganiselwe nakumazwe angaphesheya. Abakwa AFRICA CENTRE banemibono yokwakha ukonwatyelwa wenkcubeko wamasiko nezithethe zabemi nabahlali besixeko.
Yibakhona phakathi kwangcungela [...]Festival News III- No Right or Wrong
Johannesburg artist Anthea Moys is a collaborator on Quiet Emergency. Laetitia Pople finds out what is integral to her work.
Drawing on the talents of possibly one of the most diverse groups of participants ever involved in a public art event in Cape Town, Quiet Emergency is staged as an interactive ritual. The Lwandle theatre [...]Festival News III- Paper Chaser Takes the Wrap
World-renowned Chinese fine artist Hua Jiming is visiting South Africa for the first time. Atiyyah Khan asked him what he has in store for the Mother City.
The spread of information in China has always been a contentious issue, with media censorship rife. This is something that visual artist Hua Jiming hopes to explore by bridging [...]Festival News III- Coming Full Circle
Two established Johannesburg artists, Hannelie Coetzee and Usha Seejarim, also known as the collaborative Such Initiative, spoke to Laetitia Pople about their project Mandala for Healing and their belief that art can change the world.
The mission statement for Such Initiative reads: “to change perceptions through eco-conscious public art”. Their focus, according to founding member Usha [...]Festival News III- The Hopeful Dance
Bongani Ndodana-Breen reviews Quiet Emergency.
Cape Town, for those visiting our shores, is a messy and confusing labyrinth of cultural silos. Our compatriots in Jozi often deride us as “Africa-lite” – all tarted up for the fickle coin that is European tourism or “Mzantsi not quite so sure” the last tango for those contemplating Perth.
These assertions [...]16.02: The buchu fountain
Thanks to Zinzi for the beautiful photos
16.02: Preparing the KHOISAN TAKE-AWAYS AND SIT IN
More information about the big clean coming soon.
Please feel free to come and visit us at the former take-away between 11am and 3pm until Thursday the 18th of February.STOP PRESS
Grey Matter will be around Harrington, Plein, Barrack and Roeland streets near District 6 from 08h30 until noon on Wednesday, February 17.
Grey Matter will be congregating at Rhodes Memorial at 11h00 to walk up to the Block House and down to District 6 on Friday, February 19.
Jump! will be at the Icon Building (Food Lovers [...]Festival News II- Edition 2 PDF Download
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Festival News II- Responding as a Rite
Brett Bailey encourages patrons, artists, critics and cultural commentators, to attend ITC’s late afternoon discussion sessions – The Right To Respond.
On three afternoons during Infecting The City (ITC), a range of artists, cultural thinkers and activists gather to share opinions and thoughts about this year’s festival. The intention is to stimulate a culture of critical [...]Festival News II- From Rags to Rituals
Margie Mackay is collaborating on Quiet Emergency. Atiyyah Khan asks her about her work and her experience at Infecting The City 2010.
Australian director, designer and performer, Margie Mackay, sits casually on the steps of the Observatory Community Centre smoking a cigarette. It’s the only time she gets a break.
Mackay has specialised in large-scale physical-based theatre [...]Festival News II- Name and Shame
The Stuttgart-based Treacle Theatre company are poised to shake things up, writes Yazeed Kamaldien.
The Stuttgart-based Treacle Theatre duo, Susanne Kudielka and Kaspar Wimberley, left Germany for Cape Town in January. They have been researching how South Africans deal with democratic change by renaming the country’s streets and cities.
Throughout history and around the world, we have [...]Festival News II- Lord of the Dance
Artist Beezy Bailey is courting controversy with his latest work Dancing Jesus. Yazeed Kamaldien finds out about the advent of the work.
Dancing Jesus, two life-size, bronze sculptures of the figure of Christ freed from the cross, will be unveiled at the Old Town House (Michaelis Collection) Green Market Square on Wednesday, February 17. One of [...]
Festival News II- Fight About the Bull
Human rites versus animal rights: a proposal received by Infecting the City for an opening ceremony has ignited a cultural row, writes Brent Meersman.
Within hours of information leaked to the press that the festival curatorship was considering a proposal to sacrifice a bull on Thibault Square, the Infecting The City (ITC) switchboard and the festival’s [...]Programme of events
Khoisan take-aways and sit-ins
At the KHOISAN TAKE-AWAYS & SIT-IN
Tuesday the 16th of February until Thursday the 18th of February, 11am-3pm
The papered-up remains of the KHOISAN TAKE-AWAYS & SIT-IN was (bizarrely) the only direct reference that we could find relating to the Khoe or the San in the city centre. This space will be reopened for [...]Week 3: Area of investigation
“Growing up in Cape Town I asked myself where do I fit in all of this? There is no reference of self, as an indigenous person of this country. If you walk down the streets of Cape Town you see a celebration of European dominance” (Bradley van Sitters of the Khoe San active awareness group)
Our [...]Festival News- Edition 1 PDF Download
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Festival News- Busy Bailey
Curator of Infecting the City, Brett Bailey, talks to Atiyyah Khan about his vision for the festival
Brett Bailey is undoubtedly a man with unstoppable energy. He is already hinting at next year’s theme, “Social Accountability, and what does it mean to be a citizen.” In the first half of this year, he will spend time [...]
Festival News- Athina Finds Her Valhalla
Athina Valha is a petite, Greek-born choreographer, animateur and teacher, who is part of the team creating Meet Market. Atiyyah Khan asks her about her impression of the creative process.
Athina Valha has been interested in the Infecting The City festival for a few years. She is collaborating on a piece titled Meet Market, with Andrew [...]Festival News- Your Culture or Your Rights?
Human Rights versus Human Rites. What happens when they are in conflict? Brent Meersman opens up the debate on the universality of human rights and their interpretation within diverse cultural contexts.
What makes you human is much harder to define than one would imagine. The proffered answers over the ages – from the monotheistic religions that [...]Festival News- A Speed-Date That Will Change Your Life
Another unusual event at the festival is Talking Heads. Here is a sneak preview.
Have you ever spoken to someone who has walked to the North Pole? Or have you met a matchboxologist? Are you wondering whether the 2010 FIFA World Cup will benefit or cripple Cape Town? How about having your palm read?
Here’s your chance. [...]Festival News- Will Someone Please Take a Child to Art
Sadly, the Take A Child To Art campaign will not run this year. Brent Meersman asks Fran Cox, Project Manager of the Spier Public Arts Festival, what are the future prospects for this initiative?
Besides the public nature of the performances, another
initiative to grow audiences at the 2009 festival was the “Take a Child to Art” [...]Festival News- The Sex Worker, the Exorcist, the Freedom Fighter and the Tour Guide
Paula Kingwill, who this year convened the Collaborators’ Course, learned more about Cape Town in two weeks than she did after living in the city for fifteen years. She reflects on the experience.
My brief: to design a course that will give a group of international collaborators (some of whom had never previously been to South [...]Festival News- Art Rite Up Your Alley
Infecting the City 2010, which starts this Saturday February 13th in Cape Town, is in line with the latest world trends and thinking around creating platforms for the performing arts, writes Brent Meersman.
At the Sterijino Pozorje festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, last year, the European Festival Research Project (EFRP) convened a symposium to [...]DANCING JESUS statement from Beezy Bailey
When I was at Art school in London I was friendly with the Queen’s Chaplain, the Bishop Lancelot Fleming. In his view Christianity’s emphasis on the crucifixion and suffering of humanity is misplaced. He felt there should be a much greater emphasis on the resurrection, and on the symbolic rebirth of Christ within all of [...]
Human rites set to infect the city December 1, 2009
By Atiyyah Khan, Cape Argus, December 1, 2009
The city of Cape Town comes under serious examination over the next three weeks as local and international artists spend time finding out more about it and its residents for next year’s Infecting the City 2010 (ITC) festival, from February 13-20.
ITC is a performing arts festival that happens [...]Pieter Dirk-Uys Joins The Africa Centre’s Call To Business To Bring Youths To Infecting The City 2010
Following a successful ‘Take a Child to Art’ programme in February 2009, The Africa Centre, producers of the Infecting the City public arts festival, is again appealing to the generosity of business to ensure that Cape Town’s young people are exposed to and transformed by the performances and installations in Infecting the City 2010.
The majority [...]Infecting the City Public Arts Festival Explores ‘Human Rite’ in 2010
Infecting the City (ITC) – the Spier Public Arts Festival – is taking to the streets, squares and public spaces of the Cape Town CBD for the third year from the 13th to the 20th February 2010. Presented by the Africa Centre, and curated by Brett Bailey, ITC promises to bring audiences a week of [...]
