The Africa Centre’s Infecting the City Public Arts Festival kicked off in public spaces in the Cape Town Central City this morning. The theme for this year’s festival is Human Rite. I saw two very powerful yet different performances – Quiet Emergency on Thibault Square and Meet Market on Church Square.
Quiet Emergency
“Cape Town: a patchwork map of dislocation, where communities are separated by history and inequality, isolated by high walls and indifference…”
Quiet Emergency is created by Anthea Moys, Gilbert Douglas and Margie Mackay
"Honouring that which unites us as human beings, that which gives us connection, hope and continuity"
"Every community has its boundaries, each interaction its limitations... we live in a state of quiet emergency"
Creating a halfway meeting space - street children, sex workers, security guards, street cleaners and professional performers
Meet Market
Meet Market tranforms Church Square into a startling new green space in the city
"The procedure is not pretty, it concerns dis-ease"
"A new rite is exercised... an infected wound is lanced, disinfected and then sealed to allow healing"
The act of passing water for a cleansing ritual from the site of the old slave tree to the Slave Memorial on Church Square brings traffic to a halt in Spin Street. The Slave Lodge is in the background.
"The putrification of centuries of denial and shame requires removal"
"Conflicting memories and fragmented histories"
Arriving on one of the new "Dutch Team" pedicabs to watch the performance
Jan Hofmeyer, founder of the Afrikaner Bond, contemplates a 'Home for All' on the side of the Provincial Government building in Wale Street
Meet Market is created by Andrew Buckland, Athina Vahla, Ibrahim Quraishi and Lerato Shadi. Infecting the City is on until 20 February.
Thank you for sharing this with us. I love how the city is so dynamic – it changes shape and form. This festival allows us to experience the city in a different ways, even if it makes is stop for one minute.