14 May 2009

Cape '09 Biennale of Contemporary African Culture

CAPE 09 BIENNALE
May 2 - June 21, 2009
Cape Town, South Africa

CAPE 09: Cape Town's second biennale exhibition of contemporary African Culture transforms the city this winter

Cape Town will be transformed into an interactive art hub when artists, curators, writers, performers, art lovers and members of the public converge for CAPE 09, the second biennale exhibition of contemporary African culture, taking place in unusual venues and outdoor sites throughout the City from May 2 to June 21, 2009.

CAPE 09 comes at a crucial junction, as the global economic turndown prompts a questioning of the art market and a revival of community spirit in the art world. It follows a series of conversations held by CAPE throughout Southern Africa, and precedes a CAPE 2010 Special, a major exhibition to coincide with the 2010 World Cup.

As such, it asks: How can we reinvent a way of creating, speaking, thinking and interacting? How to rethink the forms of art and exhibitions, to experiment with new methods and to produce new alliances?

Under the theme 'Convergence', the biennale explores networks that accentuate the contemporary characteristics of Africa and highlight the way we create, consume, learn, share resources and interact with each other.

In contrast to the prevailing biennial tendency to feature a single unilateral curatorial vision, CAPE 09 comprises a multiplicity of interconnecting exhibitions, events, incursions and gestures conceived and created by a number of different curators and artists. Among them are newcomers from CAPE's Young Curators Programme who present projects alongside established international and local curators and artists chosen for their inventiveness.

Movement - the impulse to connect and cross borders, a desire for change and seeing the world differently - is a strong feature of the biennale. Many projects are participatory, encouraging visitors to step inside art and discover new ways of looking and thinking about life today.

Participating artists come from across the global South and the world and include recognised artists such as Jane Alexander (SA) and Meschac Gaba (Benin/Netherlands) as well as new voices, young designs, street artists, musicians and writers.

They employ diverse techniques including installation, performance, site specific work, film, photography, food art, procession, sculpture, documentary and video. Their art presents divergent themes and points of view, referencing local issues within an international artistic discourse.

In order to reflect these connections and differences, the curators of CAPE 09 have selected an array of unusual venues and sites that challenge the boundaries of the traditional gallery space. CAPE 09 leads its viewers across a variety of environments and experiences, from the Metrorail Station, the city centre, to Langa and Khayelitsha. It traverses the socio-economic and geographic divides of Cape Town, opening doors into new spaces, and dispersing art in the places that represent the every day that is our common ground: schools, taxis, the station, the library and the street.

The biennale launches with a 1 hour-long procession curated by Claire Tancons (New Orleans/USA). Inspired by the history of the Cape Town Carnival, A Walk In The Night stages an inventive shadow play by visual artist Marlon Griffith (Trinidad) and composer Garth Erasmus (CPT), together with a hundred local participants, to tell the story of the forced removals in Cape Town. But it is also an 'invisible masquerade' that reveals a day in life of the migratory inhabitants of the city and a stroll along the spaces that punctuate our existence.

Our everyday interactions also form the starting point of Cape Young Curator Loyiso Qanya's exhibition, Umahluko at Lookout Hill in Khayelitsha. A multimedia celebration of difference, the exhibition features work by Jane Alexander (SA), Antonio Etona (Angola), Rosy Sbrana (Botswana), Cremildo Walter Zandamela (Mozambique) and more.

Lookout Hill also hosts the Temporary Fynbos Museum, a repatriation of environmental heritage featuring a transient botanical garden curated from indigenous fynbos by Anthea Buys (SA).

Routes of different kind come under the spotlight in CAPE Young Curator Lerato Bereng's Thank You Driver in which she converts 6 taxi busses into 'artworks on wheels' that integrate art directly into the urban environment. Take a ride and experience moving works by writer Lebohang Thulo (SA); painter and sculptor Edwige Aplogan (Benin); Mozambican video artist and writer Gemuce; composer, sound artist and singer Isa Suarez (France/UK); South African electroacoustic artist Brendon Bussy (SA), and sound art pioneer James Web (SA) and Gugulective.

Brenda Fassie's real roots are revealed in CAPE Young Curator Nonkululeko Mlangeni's So who is Brenda Fassie, staged in Langa. A site and context-specific, oral history, 'pop' art exhibition, the project brings together artists and members of the community to explore Fassies' legacy: from her early days in Langa, to her development into a fashion, music, political and gender icon and an international star.

Meanwhile visitors to the Cape Town Station will by surprise to find TV appliance vendor stalls converted into galleries screening the One Minute World Exhibition, featuring 1-minute videos by 840 different artists from around the world. Cape Town's new community TV station CTV will screen the same movies througout May and June.

The Cape Town Station also plays host to a range of interventions and performances by artists and curators including Nicole Grobler (SA) Meschac Gaba (Benin/Netherlands) and Phakama Collective: Mwenya Kabwe (Zambia/SA) and Katy Streek (SA/Netherlands).

Nearby at the Cape Town Central Library, the Chimurenga Library engages the library as a space for experimentation, creativity and knowledge dissemination. Highlights of the project include reading routes, an exhibition of sex scenes from pan-African literature, and regular Chimurenga Sessions featuring music and poetry performances, dialogues, screenings, and more.

Elsewhere, Church Square hosts an impromptu banquet presented by Penelope Youngleson (SA), Katy Streek (SA/Netherlands) and Alude Mahali (SA), as well as South African artist Mary Faragher's Musical Statue.

GENERAL INFO: For more details about the exhibition, venues, artists and events watch www.capeafrica.org and the local press.

MEDIA: Media updates and information are available from the website or from the CAPE Africa Platform offices.

Media enquiries:

CAPE Africa Platform
8 Spin Street, Cape Town 8001
tel: 021-4612325/ fax: 021-4616873
mailto: info@capeafrica.org
www.capeafrica.org