The Africa Centre’s, 5th annual Infecting The City Public Art Festival, takes to the streets and public spaces of Cape Town from the 6th to the 10th March 2012. The Festival is curated by Jay Pather, Director of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts at UCT. Transcendent, beautiful, challenging, ethereal and always free, this year’s Festival hosts a compelling mix of new and re-imagined works.
Infecting The City is the largest and most diverse annual public arts festival in South Africa. Says Pather: “Infecting The City is about public engagement. It is about unlocking communal spaces and giving ordinary citizens access to extraordinary art.”
This year the Festival will introduce South Africans to a multi-disciplined range of public artworks from highly considered international and local artists, some of whom are bringing their exceptional works home after critical acclaim from other parts of the world. The programme will include 32 works that include installations, dance, poetry, theatre, performance art and music. The artworks will take place at various points and locations across Cape Town’s city centre.
“Infecting the City will give South Africans access to world-class public art, for free, and will ignite an engagement and rapture in the shared spaces around them,” says Pather.
Andrew Boraine, Chief Executive of the Cape Town Partnership said: “Public arts festivals are designed to unlock communal spaces and to invite residents to rediscover and celebrate their city.”
As part of the Africa Centre’s development programme, ‘Arts Aweh!’, Infecting the City will transport 400 scholars from schools across greater Cape Town to the City Centre to engage and interact with the Festival and its artists.
The Africa Centre, the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, and Creative Cape Town will also host a free seminar on the Friday morning of the Festival to address the various issues that affect public art policies and how these policies have become pivotal instruments for negotiating how public life is enriched through art. Speakers will range from artists to city officials and the seminar will be held at Hiddingh Hall, University of Cape Town Hiddingh Campus starting at 9:30am.
All performances listed on the Festival programme are free. A detailed programme is available on the website or by contacting the Africa Centre on 087 150 5446.
