South Africa’s longest-running public art festival returns to Cape Town this month, showcasing a myriad of music, dance, video and visual art – and it is all for free.
Also read: Langa marks 100 years with street festival of music, arts and tasty cuisine
After a pandemic hiatus, Infecting The City will mobilise artists from the University of Cape Town’s Institute for the Creative Arts (ICA) to redefine the ambition of what a smart city could be.
The two-week festival, from 15 to 19 November and 22 to 25 November promises an immersive experience which will see the streets of Cape Town be reclaimed with enchanting performances.
This year, the festival’s curators Professor Jay Pather, Nkgopoleng Moloi, Maganthrie Pillay and Themba Stewart aim to morph urban spaces into new vistas that ‘challenge and caress the sights and sounds of the Mother City.’
Artists will manipulate and interact with their environment, blending visuals, sound and technology to create experiences that will transport audiences to new worlds.
Cape {town} Etc discount: Control a helicopter with a self-fly Ultimate Adventure Experience in Cape Town for R6 188. Get the deal here.
Historically, Infecting The City serves as a platform for established creators and rising newcomers to present innovative work that delivers world-class live art to festivalgoers, unsuspecting pedestrians, inner-city communities and enthusiasts alike.
This year, the overarching theme of social activism will showcase varying degrees of experiences, including the colonial structures of inequity; migration; housing; civil liberties; queer narratives; sustainability and humanity.
The festival curators chart ways of reconciling the personal, the public, and the private in a remaking in Cape Town where questions of universal rights are given a voice.
‘Infecting the City Public Art Festival has always been a modest, tentative yet powerful looking glass into a state of [the] nation, Jay Pather, ICA Director and Professor at the University of Cape Town.
‘Artists take up with great enthusiasm and rigour the possibility of interacting directly with an open space and an unpredictable audience. Consequently, the artwork always feels immediate and direct, allowing currents for electric interaction as well as reflection as one walks on to the next performance and the next chance encounter.’
‘A return to festivals has been an exhilarating welcome, but as we forge forward into the ‘next’, we must recognise the future of public art festivals in delivering [the] highest levels of excellence, at no cost to the public, with audiences who maintain a growing taste for a variety of artistic disciplines in crowd-hungry environments – a future that also prioritises the financial hard facts.
‘We are living in a time where a scarcity of sponsors and donorship leaves us questioning the limit to how long the Infecting the City will continue to provide a platform for both public beneficiaries and the creative industries.’
To view the festival programme, visit this link.
Explore Cape Town and its surroundings with these incredible deals on cars for under R100 000. Find car listings here.
Also read:
City spotlights female esports by sponsoring the GirlGamer Africa Festival