Minibus taxi becomes a moving masterpiece
ACCLAIMED multidisciplinary artist Thania Petersen, who has turned a minibus taxi into a moving masterpiece that can be appreciated by passengers en route, says she wanted to make artwork that would be accessible to everyone.
The mobile artist intervention is part of the (Un)Infecting the City public arts festival currently under way in Cape Town.
Athlone-born Petersen, who studied at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London and exhibited both locally and internationally, said what makes the project significant was “taking the art back to the people that inspire it”.
To achieve this, she partnered with taxi owners Ziyaad and Fatima Dyason to transform the interior of their taxi which is now kitted out with a 22-inch screen and sound system, on which Petersen’s latest film, Kassaram, will play.
Petersen has also covered the entire outside of the vehicle in art from the film.
“Not everyone can afford to take a day off work to gallery hop, or afford to visit a museum or the theatre. Times are changing and we are obligated to share everything we are with each other to affect real, meaningful change. For me, it’s about creating access and taking the work back to where it actually comes from and to the people who inspire it.
“From any other project I have done, I always find that the work is often not seen by the people that really mean a lot to me. This project differs in that now it is for everyone and it belongs to the people of the Cape, which for me takes precedence over everything else,” she said.
The taxi is currently on the road on its regular route towards Hanover Park on the Cape Flats.
Curator of (Un)Infecting the City Jay Pather said the taxi project epitomises what art should do and what the Institute for Creative Arts at UCT hopes to achieve with the (Un)Infecting the City Festival.
“This internationally renowned artist’s work can now be experienced by a wonderful, wide range of people even under the pandemic. It’s the tip of an iceberg of the potential for art to excite and stimulate in a range of contexts and to provoke creative discussion,” Pather said.