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Human rites set to infect the city
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December 1, 2009
By Atiyyah Khan
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 on the streets and public squares of the city. The idea is to create a flow of movement, with people walking to and from performances.
Every year the festival raises a social issue for artistic response. Curator Brett Bailey revealed the theme for next year's festival as "human rites" and introduced the seven artists who will collaborate on pieces forming the festival's core.
Bailey outlined the rationale behind the festival as "redefining the meaning of the inner city and the urban terrain as a space for creativity".
He explained that Cape Town is a city marked by division and inequality, with an apparent disparity between the tourist view and reality.
"ITC has commissioned a range of artists to look at the social responsibility of Cape Town and look at what calls for transformation within the city," he said.
The theme investigates the role of rites and rituals as tools for transformation and asks, "What are the wounds in our society and our city that need attention?"
Bailey's idea is that in order to really celebrate our rights, we need to look at our silent histories and those inaudible voices that need to be righted and "rited".
Over the next few weeks, the collaborators will learn more about the city's history and its 350 years of oppression.
Last year the xenophobia-related theme was "home affairs" and performers spent time at places like the Department of Home Affairs, going through bureaucratic procedures. Finally the performances were staged at public spaces like Church Square and the fountain in Adderley Street.
The festival is a combination of these collaborative works, art installations, poetry and choreographic low-key interventions.
The seven performers are from South Africa, other African states and non-African countries and will spend the next three weeks researching the city.
They will reconvene in January and spend a month constructing two new large-scale site-specific works. They are the master of South African physical theatre Andrew Buckland (Grahamstown), performance artist Anthea Moys (Joburg), site-specific performance director Athina Vahla (Greece but UK-based), choreographer Gilbert Douglas (Harare), film and installation artist Ibrahim Quraishi (New York but UK-based), performance artist Lerato Shadi (Joburg) and director, designer and performer Margie Mackay (Melbourne, Australia).
The festival also has other features like Take A Child to Art and aims to bring 750 arts and culture-focused pupils to attend the festival and workshops.
Infecting the City runs from February 13-20 in the Cape Town CBD. All daytime performances are free. Tel: 021 422 0468. Info: www.infectingthecity.com
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