The not-to-be-missed performanc
Every year, the best in South African arts and culture descends on the Eastern Cape town of Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival. The 2016 instalment of the festival marks 43 years of celebrating creativity and experimentation in the arts and, yet again, indicates the direction of the arts in the country.
With hundreds of works and experiences on offer over the 11 days, the following is a roundup of some of the top performances in each category at this year’s festival. As this year’s featured artist, director Lara Foot presents the world premiere of her latest work, The Inconvenience
The play, described by Foot as more personal than others she has written, deals with themes of friendship, dysfunction and addiction. Based on Abraham J Twerski’s book Addic
and featuring Andrew Buckland, Mncedisi Shabangu and Jennifer Steyn, the production was further inspired by Foot’s decade-long experience with her father’s dementia. walkingland. With tensions between rival political parties bubbling over, two men meet at a refugee camp and flee — their journey reflective of the effect that war has on those who are displaced, killed, tortured and dehumanised without even picking up a weapon. The performance features Dadivo José Combane, Bhekani Shabalala and Nkanyiso Shezi. and invisible. The exhibition is curated b y Mahikeng-based curator Joan Legalamitlwa. Using his body to explore South Africa’s violent history, Mohau Modisakeng looks at how it influences the way we establish political and social roles. He does so through film, large-scale photographic prints, installations and performances. Modisakeng’s work “responds to the history of the black body within the (South) African context”. Rather than direct representations and depictions of violence, Modisakeng instead transforms body into a “marker of collective memory”. The Johannesburg-born artist is this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year and this year will continue his master’s degree fine art at Columbia University New York City. With a career dedicated to documenting the lives and experiences of members of the black LGBTI community South Africa, Somnyama Ngonyama ( Hail, the Dark Lioness) brings something different from photographer Zanele Muholi. Comprising of series of self-portraits shot in blackand-white on her travels through South Africa, the United States and Europe, her exhibition deals with “politics of race and pigment in photographic archive” and touches on events in South Africa’s political history. Somnyama Ngonyama has strong fashion and portraiture photography influence with Muholi representing herself as different personas in various outfits. Curated by Lerato Bereng, the exhibition also features work from Muholi’s ongoing photographic essay, Brave Beauties. Award-winning performance artists Gavin Krastin draws on current political landscapes with relation to power dynamics. The work is inspired by the speaking severed pig head in Lord of Flies. Serving as both a window