MORE

Showing 7 of 12.

FUTURE

CURRENT

Music Parties, Film Nights, Art Talks, Book Chats for AFRICA

The African Arts Institute is currently presenting a unique series of events featuring an all-Africa line-up at a number of popular Cape Town venues. Go to our Calendar to see what's up, where and when this month.

The programme, Learn Africa, Love Africa, was launched at the end of July and is ongoing until middle December. It consists of monthly music parties, film nights, art talks and book chats, hosted at the Kimberley Hotel on Roeland Street, the Labia on Orange Street, 6 Spin Street and the Book Lounge, also on Roeland Street.

Despite South Africa being recognised by the world as an important gateway to the continent, South African audiences are often under-informed and not exposed to the continental and global achievements of arts and culture practitioners born in Africa.

In an effort to grow local markets for their work, Learn Africa, Love Africa aims to expose and promote the creative products of these contemporary musicians, filmmakers, artists and writers.

Learn Africa, Love Africa provides Capetonians with a host of opportunities to engage with creative content from the continent, covering music, film, art and literature, in events ranging from parties to lectures, spread over a five-month period.

Music at the Kimberley Hotel

Kick-off was at the Kimberley Hotel on Friday 29 July 2011, with the first in a series of all-African month-end music parties featuring DJ Jubu (aka Daniel Eppel)'s afro-pop, afro-house, world and traditional sounds. The party was a huge success and the response to the all-African content overwhelming. See www.whatsonincapetown.com for a full review. 

Putumayo’s Oliver Barnett will follow suit on Friday 26 August; Toby2shoes on Friday 30 September; Patrick Vee on Friday 28 October and Boeta G on Friday 25 November 2011. Doors open from 8pm and music starts around 9pm. Entry is R30 at the door.

Film at the Labia on Orange

On Tuesday 9 August 2011, the first in a series of monthly Film Nights at the Labia on Orange Street featured two titles by the 'father of African cinema' Ousmane Sembene. A packed house was thrilled at the 1960s classics Borom Saret and La Noir de... Sembene's first short film and first feature film respectively and both precious additions to the African Film Library. A pre-screening presentation was done by Mr Leon van der Merwe, Director of the Cape Winelands Film Festival.

Learn Africa, Love Africa Film Nights are presented in collaboration with M-Net’s African Film Library, and coincides with M-Net and DStv Online’s launch of the African Film Library video-on-demand (VOD) online service, www.africanfilmlibrary.com. This service will be accessible to users around the world in the next few weeks. \

“This VOD site provides a globally accessible distribution platform and heritage preservation of unique African film content. It is a digital gateway to African cultural networks and the African Diaspora worldwide,” says M-Net Curator Mike Dearham.

For the second screening, on Tuesday 13 September, the programme now returns to more recent, contemporary film titles with Nha Fala (My Voice), a musical by Flora Gomes from Guinea/France (2002).

The rest of the programme: Ezra a drama by Newton I Aduaka from Nigeria (2007) on Tuesday 11 October; Kini and Adams, filmed in Zimbabwe by Idrissa Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso (1997) on Tuesday 8 November; and on Tuesday 13 December the comedy A la Recherche du Mari de Ma Femme (Searching for my wife’s husband) by Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi from Morocco (1995).

All screenings starts with a Spier wine tasting and pre-screen discussion at 6.15pm at the Labia Theatre on Orange Street. Tickets are R30. Booking is essential due to the venue’s limited capacity. Book at the Labia at 021-424 5927.

Art at 6 Spin Street

The 2010 Dakar Biennale and African pavilions at the current Venice Biennale, are two of five topics to be covered in a series of informal and illustrated presentations on contemporary African visual arts, by a diverse group of popular and well-known Cape Town art critics, curators and commentators. The presentations will be hosted at 6 Spin Street’s Cape Town Democracy Centre.

The Learn Africa, Love Africa Art Talks will open on Tuesday 16 August with an overview of the origins, history and significance of Dak’Art, or the Dakar Biennale, conceived in 1989 and focused on visual arts since 1992. Leading the presentation will be independent writer, curator and academic, Marilyn Martin, one of five African curators for Dak’Art 2010; she will also touch on the retrospective hosted as part of the 20th Dakar Biennale.

On Tuesday 20 September, Kathy Coates, Arts Educator at the Iziko South African National Gallery and former lecturer at UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art, will present Influences on Contemporary Nigerian artists following extensive research in the region earlier this year.

On Tuesday 18 October, Richard Mudariki, a Zimbabwean artist living and working in Cape Town, will host a presentation titled The visual Arts in Zimbabwe: Creators, Context and Contents. Mudariki has a background in Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies and was recently included in an exhibit titled Hope and Despair, at the Zimbabwean National Gallery in Harare.

Author, journalist and former editor of Art South Africa, Sean O’ Toole, will take to the stage on Tuesday 15 November for an overview of his African experience at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Four African countries are represented at the current 54^th Biennale, and not without controversy: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

On Tuesday 6 December, Mario Pissarra, Managing Director of Africa South Art Initiative www.asai.co.za  will present Decolonisation as a theme in the work of contemporary African artists, incorporating examples from Morocco, Sudan, Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. Pissarra is also an honorary research associate in Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town.

Presentations will start at 6.30pm - with a pre-talk Spier wine tasting from 6pm - at the lecture room of the Cape Town Centre for Democracy at 6 Spin Street, next to the offices of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa.