By Khalifa Hemed
Published January 31, 2021
Infecting the City invites proposals from established and emerging artists interested in showcasing their projects in its public arts festival.
Renamed (Un)Infecting the City in 2021 due to the disruption of COVID-19, this public arts festival says it shall in March and April 2021 “bring art, music, dance and performance out of theatres and galleries and into the streets and public spaces of Cape Town.”
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“The Festival reimagines transport and shopping hubs, squares, gardens and public walkways as transformative stages, showcasing an array of multi-disciplinary art forms, and creating a platform for artworks that engage with historical and contemporary narratives relevant to the City and its people,” say Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) who organise the annual event. “This year’s (Un)Infecting the City will have a particular thematic focus on the psychological and social impacts of COVID-19.”
The organisers say they are looking for “forms that challenge audiences, transgress aesthetic and disciplinary boundaries, shift perspectives and help make sense of the public spaces we occupy.”
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ICA’s suggested forms are:
- Site-specific performance filmed for online viewing
- Video to be projected in a public space, e.g. the side of a building
- Visual artwork, e.g. an installation
- Graffiti or mural
- Poster campaign
- Billboard
- Social media project
- TV broadcast
- Radio broadcast, e.g. poetry, and
- A newly imagined form, inspired by working within a pandemic
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“Still observing the Festival’s city-based concerns of urbanity and spatial politics,” ICA say, “proposals must consider how these concerns have been further exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Artworks may include themes such as:
- Grieving, mourning rites and memorialisation
(Mental) health - COVID-19 health and safety precautions such as the proper use of a mask, the meaning(s) of social distance, risks of moving in crowded places
- Care while infected with COVID
- Stigmas around illness
- Nutrition, and
- Vaccination.
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ICA stresses that the call is to artists from or based in South Africa for short, succinct works and that works staged for a live audience will not be considered.
“Successful applications will receive some technical support based on safety protocols, and marketing, curatorial and administrative support” besides monetary support towards their budgets not exceeding ZAR20 000.
The deadline for application is February 22, 2021.
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