Africa Centre is pleased to announce 54 new artworks by acclaimed South African and international artists will be part of its 6th annual free public arts festival, Infecting The City.
From the 11th to the 16th March 2013, Cape Town is the backdrop, stage and audience to a mesmerising showcase of live culture across all artistic disciplines that will ignite, mystify and intrigue the Mother City. The sixth annual Infecting The City Public Arts Festival is curated by Jay Pather, Director of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts at UCT (amongst other credentials).
Says Pather: “Infecting the City has grown from its opening in 2008 with just over 10 artworks to 60 artworks and performances in 2013. There has been a 300% increase in submissions to participate between 2012 and 2013 and the audience has diversified and grown, all testimony to an assured public interest in a Festival of this nature.”
Some of the many “must see’s” of 2013 are:
- Catherine Henegan’s acclaimed Afro Galactic Dream Factory;
- Mamela Nyamza’s triumphant return from sellout London shows;
- The magic of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Church Square;
- 1000 paper jets of mini artworks released regally into the city skies by Jason Potgieter;
- A “real-time” performance of daily news headlines by Jazzart;
- A painstaking construction of a fragile wooden edifice inside the District Six Museum by Aeneas Wilder and Winnie Sze;
- Sprawling glow stick installations across city pavements by Marcus Neustetter;
- The tragic and thought-provoking contemporary performance, Widow by Mandisi Shindo – exploring loss and triumph outside the St George’s Cathedral;
- A Light Symphony by French artist Antoine Schmidt on Church Square; and
- A Mask Puppet flashmob, a 40 strong Flute mob, gospel singers on bicycles and a mob of over 300 skateboarders cruising through the city.
The works, ranging from dance, theatre, music, live art, visual arts, installations and interventions are spread throughout the public spaces of the City and designed to encourage audiences to discover, define and experience our private and public environments.
Grant Pascoe, Mayco Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing said: “Public arts festivals like Infecting The City are vital in bringing Cape Town alive to its own people. Festivals provide more than the obvious benefit – of allowing access for all to culture that might not otherwise be accessible. They give the general public a chance to interact with their city spaces in ways they had never thought possible … and to share that experience with total strangers. In the same way, artists are challenged to create pieces to engage very diverse audiences. Each year we see the Infecting The City Festival grow in both depth and variety and in our opinion it is a must-see event on the Cape Town and South African arts calendar.”
As per 2012, the Festival will follow routes throughout the City, giving audiences a chance to follow entire journey of artworks for a diverse experience or pick and choose experiences at will along the way.
As always all performances listed on the Festival programme are free to the public. As part of the Africa Centre’s youth programme, ‘Arts Aweh!’, Infecting the City will transport 400 high school scholars from across greater Cape Town to the City Centre to engage and interact with the Festival and its artists.
