#vrystaat tsa-botjhaba

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THE INAUGURAL PAN-AFRICAN CREATIVE EXCHANGE (PACE) OPENS CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS

#PACE18 #VSKunstefees

The Vrystaat Arts Festival in Bloemfontein South Africa is proud to announce the first open-call for participants in the inaugural Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE) 2018.

PACE was born in Bloemfontein at a long table conversation between professionals from the African continent and international visitors, and is driven by a coalition of the willing from the African continent as well as cultural professionals outside of Africa.

The PACE 2018 starts the Vrystaat Arts Festival as a three-day provocation for the interdisciplinary arts in Africa, which aims to facilitate discussion on African cultural development with national and international presenters, producers, buyers, artists and the general public.

Nike Jonah, Executive Director of PACE says: ‘Currently the creative industries in Africa contribute less than 1% to the global (touring) creative economy. The aim of PACE 2018 is to increase the global reach of the interdisciplinary creative arts industries in Africa, and contribute to the development of future work from the continent.’

Erwin Maas, Dutch New York based PACE Founding Director and Artistic Director of the International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA) says: ‘PACE 2018 will facilitate connections between the growing creative and cultural industries within Africa as well as with international partners worldwide, to reinforce and reflect the wider, global cultural significance of the creativity of Africa.’

Wole Oguntokun, Artistic Director, Renegade Theatre, Nigeria says: ‘In all my years of practice, I never came across an organisation that truly helped facilitate a Pan-African exchange programme for the Performing Arts. Often, the only chances for cross-cultural exchanges are when we look to Europe and the Americas. It is why the possibility of being a part of the first edition of PACE and the benefits that might come with it, fill me with such excitement.’

Cornelia Faasen, CEO of the National Afrikaans Theatre Initiative (NATi) and Founding Sponsor of PACE says: ‘I am incredibly proud that NATi is a key partner of PACE. PACE is extraordinarily important for Africa as we enter a period of unprecedented visibility of our many cultures. In particular, PACE will examine how indigenous African languages, including Afrikaans in all its diverse forms, can be supported in a globalised context, to highlight the diversity of Africa and its cultures of excellence.’

For PACE 2018, we are expecting artists and cultural professionals from a range of African countries,  including Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We also welcome a number of other international guests from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Romania, Singapore, the UK and the US.

PACE has three strands:

1. Tour Ready Work: Up to 60 minute extract of work by professional artists and companies. (Tour Ready means that as a company/artist you have experience of touring and have a product that is artistically and technically ready to share with promoters and which will be ready to tour).

2. Work in Progress: Up to 45 minute sharing of original work at a critical stage in its development. (Work in Progress means that you as a company/artist have a product in development that is thought through and artistically is ready to share. Although in the initial stages and may need further development, your work is something you are committed to developing further)

3. Pitch sessions: Up to 10-minutes for artists to pitch ideas and concepts at an early stage of development. (Pitching means sharing original ideas that an artist or company wish to develop further, but at this stage the idea is clearly formed and you can talk about the artistic idea/influences that will lead to a final production)

Completing the application form All artists and companies wishing to take part in PACE must read the guidelines (link) and complete the application form (link). The DEADLINE for receipt of completed applications is Friday April 27, 2018. The outcome of decisions will be sent to all applicants by Friday May 25, 2018

**If chosen to be part of PACE, you/your company will be given ONE slot to present your work in one of three strands. The PACE programme will be announced on the website (link) in May 2018

For more information and to fill in and submit application forms please visit: http://bit.ly/PanAfricanCreativeExchange2018

For all application enquiries please contact: PACE Co-ordinator Reabetswe Mokone E-mail rea.mokone@volksblad.com

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Vote here to ensure the Vrystaat Arts Festival has a chance to be nominated as the best arts festival in South Africa! 

http://bit.ly/kyknetfiëstas

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MEDIA RELEASE 11 JUNE 2017

Strongest Visual Arts Festival Programme in South Africa for 2017

The visual arts programme of the 2017 Vrystaat Arts Festival is one of the most technically sophisticated and internationally engaged offerings on the South African festival calendar this year. From First Nations’ prints and interactive media art sculptures, to ecology focussed, robotic installations, through to retrospective shows of well-known South African artists and exhibitions of emerging and mid-career practitioners, this year’s festival has it all.

Ons kom vanaf ons stories/We Come from our Stories (18 July - 22 July 2017, Pluimbal Hall)

In 2017, the Vrystaat Arts Festival presents Ons kom vanaf ons stories (We Come from Our Stories). Ons kom vanaf ons stories is a print portfolio that visually retells traditional stories from the !Xun and Khwe First Nations peoples. The project was realised through a partnership between Free State Arts & Health, the National Association of Childcare Workers (NACCW) in Kimberley, Isibindi Youth Centre in Platfontein and the William Humprey Art Gallery (WHAG) in Kimberley. The prints were made by young artists from Platfontein as part of an intergenerational cohesion project that facilitates the transfer of cultural narratives from the older generation to the younger. In this way the programme is making a huge contribution to the conservation of First Nations languages, culture and heritage and creates a new generation of story tellers and/or artists, which is one of the main aims of the festival.

Giidanyba (Sky Beings) Tyrone Sheather (16  July - 30 July 2017 Oliewenhuis Art Gallery)

Giidanyba (Sky Beings) consists of seven figure-like sculptures, depicting nocturnal spirits that impart knowledge and guidance to the First Nation, Gumbaynggirr people of Australia. The Giidanyba transforms from unlit statues in the daytime to bright, shimmering beings in the evening. Emanating from within these spirit-like forms, are sounds and lights that are responsive to the movement of audiences. Tyrone Sheather, an Australian artist belonging to the Gumbaynggirr people from the mid-north coast of New South Wales, aims to explore identity and to reveal, through a combination of traditional and contemporary media, knowledge and stories that have been passed down over centuries within the Gumbaynggirr Dreamtime. Sheather explains: “In the Dreaming (Yuludarla), the Hero-Ancestors made and transformed the landscape with their special powers of creation and destruction. Simulating a Gumbaynggirr rite of passage, Giidanyba symbolises these Spiritual Ancestors, as they descend from the Muurrbay Bundani (tree of life) in the sky, to support people throughout their cultural journey and to guide them into the next stage of their lives.” Giidanyba is presented by Situate Art in Festivals, Tasmania as part of a First Nations project of the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), and initiative of the festival and the University of the Free State and supported by Oliewenhuis Art Gallery.

The Mesh  Keith Armstrong (17 July - 11 Aug 2017, Stegmann Gallery)

The Mesh is an interactive, experiential solo exhibition by Dr Keith Armstrong. The five artworks on exhibition each investigate how a ‘mesh’ of environmental, social and cultural ecologies form our worlds, asking how we might re-imagine our place and actions within those networks through the lens of ‘re-futuring’ (i.e. concerted actions that help increase time left in the future). Retrospective works are shown together with international premieres. These include a sculptural text-based work O Tswellang, arising from collaborations with ‘change agents’ in the informal townships around Bloemfontein as part of the Seven Stage Futures project, presented during festival time in local informal settlements. Another of the five works, the international premiere of Eremocene (Age of Loneliness), reveals a mysterious, internally glowing creature, witnessed from several different vantage points and views. Traveling ethereally through a darkened tank this form is entwined with a dynamically evolving soundscape, suggesting a naturalised/artificially intelligent form, ambiguously isolated at the edges of fluid consciousness. The exhibition also sees the re-development of innovative video installations such as Shifting Dusts, originally commissioned for the Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA) London in 2006, and Seasonal. Supported by Queensland University of Technology, Creative Lab Research Centre.

?Boek / Book? curated by Dead Bunny Society (17 July - 28 July, Centenary Arts Gallery, Centenary Complex, UFS)

In this exhibition the Dead Bunny Society explores a wide variety of manifestations of the book as an artwork. The genre is generally misunderstood as either a book that an artist works in or a visual diary. With this in mind the Dead Bunnies aim to explore the genre of book arts through the more accepted format of the artist book in a traditionally bound format as well as more alternative ways in which the book can take shape. The premise of the exhibition is to open up an understanding of the genre through exploring different methodologies in the binding and display process and will include the more traditional codex binding as well as the more alternative ways which would include the long stitch, secret Belgium binding, exposed spine bindings and single sheet binding to name but a few. The exhibition will also explore different ways in which an exhibition of this nature can be presented to the viewer, where the natural need to engage with a book through touching and turning the page will be encouraged as this forms one of the most important aspects of engaging with the book format.

[my] SELF curated by Angela de Jesus (17 July-22 July  kykNET-Scaena Foyer)

In the exhibition [my] SELF artists explore the complexities of identity and belonging over the backdrop of our social, political and cultural climate. Using their own body as subject or point of departure, artists investigate issues of SELF in relation to language, race, religion and/or gender. The exhibition showcases works by local artists such as Sandy Little, Toni Pretorius, Gerrit Hattingh and Bonging Njalo alongside national artists like Angus Taylor. [my] SELF is the third addition of three exhibitions following the exhibition [my] PLACE in 2015 and [my] OBJECT in 2016. In the exhibitions artists have been invited to create works that explore land ownership, personalised inanimate objects and identity.

’n Terugblik  Ben Botma (18 July - 27 Aug, Oliewenhuis Art Gallery)

Ben Botma quotes Chuck Palahniuk: “The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it’s only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.” Art, architecture, music, poetry - these are the manifestations of human dreams, fears, spirituality, thoughts. In these works local artist Botma is searching for an underlying subconscious line between some of these cultural manifestations. Included in this exhibition will be a selection of works from his student days until today, in a variety of media.

Carceral Spaces: Anticpating the sublime... Marieke Kruger (18 July - 20 Aug, Oliewenhuis Arts Gallery)

“An exploration of the sublime through the power of suggestive drawing trace towards the transformation of the self and the other.” In her body of drawings the artist specifically explores the transformative power of suggestion as a means of containing a certain presence which could lead to an experience of the sublime – specifically the awesome in drawing. Kruger focuses on large scale portrait drawings of the self and the other (in this case, prison inmates with whom she interacts) and its particular relationship to space thereby creating a means through which the psychological and spiritual effect of the sublime in drawing is explored, as well as the drawing’s subsequent transformative effect on the self and the other. Marieke Kruger is currently reading and researching towards a proposed PhD study on the sublime and its transformative effects on the self and the other through the power of large scale suggestive drawing trace.

Propitas  Miné Kleynhans (18 July - 20 Aug, Oliewenhuis Arts Gallery)

The artworks in this exhibition flirt with contemporary marketing and poke fun at ideas about property and consumer products. The commercial offer made by these works target prevalent attitudes, expectations and desires in the average middle class household in a satirical yet solitary way. The works play imaginatively with elements from the insurance, security, marketing and spiritual industry by ways of the design of semi-commercial products with fictional pseudo-transcendental aspirations. The works speak thematically to, and about, human desires regarding cherishing, surety, significance and enchantment in commercial as well as domestic spheres. Min. Kleynhans is a local artist and final year Master of Fine Arts student at the University of the Free State.

The Elements of Incarnation I-IV Janna Kruger (18 July - 20 Aug, Oliewenhuis Arts Gallery)

The Elements of Incarnation I-IV is an exhibition of reinforced concrete sculptures accompanying the exhibition by Marieke Kruger in the Reservoir. Janna Kruger employs the process of sculpting to distil and elucidate spiritual notions and influences affecting his life. He then consolidates these abstract findings into tangible monuments as ‘beacons’ of reminiscence, deliberation and/or instruction. He was the winner of the Sculpture category of the 2015/2016 PPC Imaginarium Awards.

Air Cabinet Peter Burke (Hoffman Square 18 - 20 Jul 09:30 – 16:00. Part of Public Art Projects - PAP)

Air Cabinet is a ‘community service’ intended to generate discussion around the value of air. It features a public stall, a ‘doctor’ and a cabinet of small glass test tubes containing individual samples of the human breath. Visitors to PAP will be invited to donate, sell or swap their breath in a discursive installation. The ‘doctor’ (Peter Burke) broadcasts questions about air over a megaphone and draws the public into a lively and off-the-cuff debate about the value of air. ‘Donors’ from the general public will be invited take part in an intimate ‘test’ that involves filling a test tube with a single breath. Their unique sample will be permanently sealed, labelled and dated for display in a museum-style cabinet. They may give their air a descriptive title such as ‘the breath of love’, ‘the air of enthusiasm’ or ‘hot air’. Over the span of the festival an estimated 300 samples will be collected. They will form an ongoing installation that aims to provoke conversations about the significance of the human breath. The project expands explorations of air by Marcel Duchamp in his glass vial containing Air de Paris (50 cc of Paris Air) (1919).

Are we the one? Keith Armstong (UV-kampus / UFS Campus. Part of Public Art Projects - PAP)

A collaborative, performative and relational experience for two people, woven together by a custom digital phone app. Two walkers, who have never met, simultaneously use a phone app to record a personalised walk around their locality, crafting a series of special moments and surprises for each other. The app then allows participants to continue their two walks, but now directed by what the other person has just created for them. Finally, at the end of the experience they can then choose whether they would actually like to meet in person. Take part: papvrystaat@gmail.com Commissioned by Arts House through the Australia Council for the Arts’ New Digital Theatre Initiative. Arts House is a program of the City of Melbourne.

Live Art

South African artists work, all participants of the biannual OPENLab interdisciplinary laboratory of the PIAD, include In These Streets by Wezile Mgibe, a live art and dance performance which speaks about his personal journey of self-discovery;  PIE: Planning Impossible Errors by Ella Ziegler, Karin Tan, Skye Quadling and friends around the phenomenon of unexpected errors; and 29°06ʹS 26°13ʹE by Lhola Amira and Vasiki Creative Citizens, a performance work that explores significant past and present narratives in South Africa including The Cattle Killing of 1857, Ukuzika kuka Mendi of 1917 and the Shimla Park Brawl at the University of the Free State in 2016. Other projects part of the PIAD in 2017 include international work such as OnesieWorld by Adele Varcoe, which sees 1,000 onesies designed and made by fashion students and manufacturers in Bloemfontein given away to festival goers; and Dr Keith Armstrong’s Seven Stage Futures, a series of events created by local ‘change-agents’ part of Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green), set in informal settlements in and around Bloemfontein/Mangaung designed as community-led Meraka or gathering spaces.  

Connected  Vian Roos and Anneli Groenewald (Scaena Restaurant and Pluimbal Hall, 17 July - 22 July)

Connected is a visual arts vrynge exhibition. A photographic series by Vian Roos, the exhibition explores the different ways in which couples have relationships, whether a traditional heterosexual relationship, a homosexual relationship, a cross-cultural relationship or a relationship between individuals with large age gaps, among others. The portraits work in tandem with text by Anneli Groenewald, that documents and contextualises the realities of the relationships behind each image. The collaboration works to undermine prejudices that often underlie dislike and resentment towards so-called ‘nontraditional’ relationships.

For further inquiries contact:

Roxanne Konco                                                     Angela de Jesus

Marketing Manager                                                Director Stegmann Gallery

Tel: +27 (0)51 404 7947 roxanne.konco@volksblad.com      

 Tel: +27 (0)51 401 2706 DeJesusAV@ufs.ac.za

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MOMENTUM BUILDS AT ARTS & HEALTH SUMMIT

By David Doyle:

Over two, warm days in January earlier this year, sixteen of us from across South Africa and Western Australia came together at the Free State Psychiatric Hospital to dialogue on Arts and Health in the South African context. 

Our shared objective was to promote the urgent conversation around Arts and Health in SA, reflect on our nearly two years of work together in the Arts and Health space and importantly, invite new players from both the Arts and Health sectors into our conversation.

In a West-Australian context there is a long history of design theory around Psychiatric hospitals. It fascinates me. The Free State Psychiatric Hospital is vast, and represents the continuum of approaches to mental health care from Dutch Colonial times, through to Victorian, pre and post apartheid. 

At first glance there is strong sense of abandonment across the site, red brick monoliths to mental health lay crumbled in fields.

However this is no abandoned site but rather a contemporary Mental Health facility that supports literally thousands of locals each year by providing access to acute, outpatient and community mental health support. There is a hidden pulse to this place.

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MEDIA RELEASE 30 JUNE 2017 WE COME FROM OUR STORIES: FREE STATE ARTS & HEALTH

Free State Arts & Health is a pioneering South African arts and health initiative that supports the involvement of the arts in the wellbeing of communities. The programme is a bi-lateral partnership of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and DADAA in Western Australia, supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), an initiative of the festival and the University of the Free State (UFS).

Professor Francis Petersen, Vice-Chancellor of the UFS says: ‘Health and ability go hand in hand – and enabling our communities to participate in  shaping and maintaining their well-being should be a priority for any institution. Especially for those institutions whose activity draws on the vitality and diversity of the communities that hosts them. This finds expression in the University of the Free State’s Human Project, on and off-campus. Our partnership with Free State Arts & Health is a valuable extension of the University’s mission to positively impact on society. The platforms and methods made available through this program is an asset to UFS and the province.’  

HE Mr Adam McCarthy – Australian High Commissioner in Pretoria, South Africa comments: ‘We are very proud that Australian artists and arts organisations are partnernering with South African arts institutions to facilitate both cultural exchange and long-term, mutually beneficial arts and health programs. We share an interest in a peaceful and prosperous region and are committed to working with the countries of Southern Africa as a friend and partner.’

Rosemary Mangope, CEO of the National Arts Council of South Africa and Board Member of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies (IFACAA), states: ‘Free State Arts & Health is an incredibly important pilot project for South Africa. It has the potential to upscale and impact significantly on both the arts and health communities of our country. We need to utilise the arts as a leading framework for a thriving future and health is primary to sustainability. The programme mobilises communities to raise the bar on their collective health and stimulates the growth of new cultural expression in Africa.’

Tony Grybowski, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts says: ‘The Australia Council's Strategic Plan - A Culturally Ambitions Nation identifies reciprocity as a way to develop the arts globally and is proud to support international artist exchanges such as these to help practitioners share practices, develop new programs and build the profile of artists with disability at high profile international events. DADAA in Western Australia is a leading arts and disability organisation and through programs such as Free State Arts & Health they strengthen the South African and Australian arts industries by injecting new ideas and ways of thinking’

David Doyle, Executive Director of DADAA states: ‘Sometimes in my role I get to work on some extraordinary partnerships and this project is one. Its the partners shared passion for cultural inclusion and health impacts that is now gaining traction across the Free State due to the dedicated work of the Program Manager Mc Roodt and the project artists.  Together we are forging a unique practice in Arts and Health across the Free State , that is uniquely South African. Working with the partners and project team has been an absolute pleasure.’

Annalize Dedekind, Chair of the Vrystaat Arts Festival says: ‘Significant progress has been made since the start of the Free State Arts &Health programme. Under the leadership of MC Roodt, the arts are being used as a medium to bring a certain message to communities regarding their health, be it physical, psychological or social. A good example is the programme in Platfontein, where the !Xun and Khwe people’s heritage is at a crossroads because of the influence of contemporary culture on the youth. Through this programme, the younger generation has had the opportunity to sit at the elders’ feet and hear stories of their people, which were on the way to never being told again if those elders died. The young ones now get the opportunity to depict those stories in their own art works, which will be exhibited at the Vrystaat Arts Festival and other venues in the country.’

In 2017, Free State Arts & Health will present two projects during the Vrystaat Arts Festival, namely, Ons kom vanaf ons stories (We Come from Our Stories) and Parallel to Pandemic.

Ons kom vanaf ons stories is a print portfolio that visually retells traditional stories from the !Xun and Khwe First Nations peoples. The project was realised through a partnership between Free State Arts & Health, the National Association of Childcare Workers (NACCW) in Kimberley, Isibindi Youth Centre in Platfontein, and the William Humprey Art Gallery (WHAG) in Kimberely. The prints were made by young artists from Platfontein as part of an intergenerational cohesion project that facilitates the transfer of cultural narratives from the older generation to the younger.

In this way the programme is making a huge contribution to the conservation of First Nations languages, culture and heritage and creates a new generation of story tellers and/or artists, which is one of the main aims of the festival.

Parallel to Pandemic, is an artist-led condom distribution and targeted messaging campaign that is co-produced by Free State Arts & Health and the PIAD. The project is a response by Free State Arts & Health to the health agenda of the Free State and a platform for young and emerging visual artists to speak to the health community of the festival.

A triannual Arts & Health Industry Newsletter will be also be distributed to the growing sector, to collate work currently dealing with arts an health and act as a discussion point for issues facing the industry. The first newsletter can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/FSAHNewsletter

Roodt’s election as Chair of the first Arts & Health Special Interest Group (SIG) at the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) goes to show that he has already made his mark in arts in health and that Free State Arts & Health is now a national leader in this field.

For further inquiries contact: MC Roodt, Free State Arts & Health Manager. Tel: +27 (0)51 404 7947 MC.Roodt@volksblad.com

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VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL MEDIA RELEASE 22 MAY 2017

RE-FUTURE: ART AND THE ANTHROPOCENE

There is no time to complain, the only remaining time is to start implementing change. If not we will perish. Thabang Mofokeng, HOT Rural Workers Collective

The Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) is an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and the University of the Free State supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which focuses on how technology, interdisciplinary and experimental art can connect with and impact on communities.

In 2017 the PIAD is proud to present the first outcome of the Re-Future project by internationally renowned media artist Dr Keith Armstrong in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Creative Industries, University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Development Support and Anita Venter from Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green). Re-Future, seeks to embed contemporary artists within international development scenarios, in order to understand how their creative capacities can best contribute towards positive social and ecological development outcomes.

Professor Francis Petersen, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State comments: ‘Climate scientists agree we have triggered a new era called the age of the Anthropocene where humans have become the main drivers behind planetary change. The negative impacts on communities worldwide, especially communities in developing countries such as South Africa, is significant - where these challenges are compounded by historical contexts of apartheid, unemployment, poverty and widespread welfare dependency. We are incredibly excited to partner with QUT and Dr Armstrong on Re-future, to explore how we can assist in the regeneration of our communities and the environment.’

Professor Mandy Thomas, Executive Dean, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT says: ‘We are honoured to be part of the contribution Dr Armstrong is making in South Africa with local partners and NGOs though Re-Future. In an era of climate change and environmental distress, he seeks to build networks of 're-futuring’ (giving time back to the future) throughout some of the poorest informal settlements in the Free State of South Africa.’

‘QUT is pleased to fully fund international PhD scholarships for practice-led arts workers including Christine Scoggin (US/AU), who was successful in a very competitive application round of global scholars. These researchers will work in Australia and South Africa on the Re-Future project over the next 3 years, to explore how creative thinkers and artists can assist in solving some of the very complex issues we face around sustainability and regeneration.’

Annalize Dedekind, Chair of the Vrystaat Arts Festival adds: ‘The Festival attaches great value to our partnerships with UFS and QUT. Learnings from this unique arts/development experiment will be disseminated to arts organisations and international development NGOs globally, initiating rich dialogues and sparking future transdisciplinary art initiatives.’

Seven Stage Futures, the inaugural project under the Re-Future banner, will be presented at the Vrystaat Arts Festival in July 2017. Seven Stage Futures enacts the development and production of a series of community-led Merakas (a form of 'gathering space’), to share knowledge, that draws upon the wisdom of both current and past generations. These events will be presented within ‘informal’ South African settlements in areas such as Caleb Motshabi, Roodenwaal and Botchabello, where audiences (currently entirely unserviced by cultural events, or indeed much at all) can actively participate in unique local celebrations that they have both proposed and co-created. Each event will be shaped by local 'change-agents' at sites where they have already built their own ‘shack replacement’ houses – using locally appropriate, no-cost materials – a new building-cum-artform we call ‘Post-Natural’ building.

Dr Armstrong will have two additional projects at the 2017 Vrystaat Arts Festival - The Mesh, an interactive, experiential solo exhibition at the Johannes Steggman Gallery (UFS), investigating how a ‘mesh’ of environmental, social and cultural ecologies form our worlds, asking how we might re-imagine our place and actions within those networks through the lens of ‘refuturing’; and Are we the one?, a site specific environmentally focussed work on the campus the UFS, which is a collaborative, performative and relational experience for two people, woven together by a custom digital phone app, where two walkers, who have never met, simultaneously use a phone to record a personalised walk around their locality, crafting a series of special moments and surprises for each other.

Artists such as Dr Armstrong have the capacity to foster new transdisciplinary collaborations, conducting their fieldwork across unexpected domains. In these cases they are not simply responding to a given proposition in a designated space, but rather entering the space of planning itself to help make change happen. This happens best when options run out and when planning alone isn’t enough. These projects respond to a desperate need for creativity and creative thinking – and success here could indeed be globally significant.

For further inquiries contact: Roxanne Konco Marketing Manager Angela de Jesus PIAD Co-Director

Tel: +27 (0)51 404 7947 roxanne.konco@volksblad.com Tel: +27 (0)51 401 2706 DeJesusAV@ufs.ac.za www.vrystaatartsfestival.co.za

The full 2017 Vrystaat Arts Festival Programme can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/VSKunstefees2017 PARTNERS: Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba, Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, University Free State, Centre Development Support, Qala Phelang Tala, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Government of Flanders, Thabang Mofokeng, HOT Rural Workers Collective, Botshabelo, South Africa, QUT Creative Industries, Aerial Footage by Snappy Drone Photography, Arts House Melbourne, Embodied Media, City of Melbourne.

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Vrystaat Arts Festival Media Release 19 May 2017

Pan-African Creative Exchange (Pace) Teaser

The Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE) Teaser 2017 is a free, two-day event for the interdisciplinary arts in Africa to facilitate discussion on African cultural development with national and international presenters, producers, buyers, artists and the public.

Annalize Dedekind, chair of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, says: “The aim of PACE is to increase the global reach of the interdisciplinary arts industries in Africa and contribute to the development of future work from the continent. We are incredibly privileged to have several key international arts activists working with us to realise our dream. With their help, PACE will create a new era for creatives in Africa.”

British-Nigerian Nike Jonah, Director of Afrovibes UK and PACE director, says: “I have travelled all over Africa; Bloemfontein, South Africa, is the ideal place for a Pan-African market exchange, as it has some of the best performing arts infrastructure on the continent. There are more than 14 fully equipped theatres (100-1000 seats), a variety of outdoor spaces, excellent technical back-up and international transportation links, all within easy reach of each other.”

The PACE Teaser 2017 will explore how a full PACE can be developed for 2018 and 2020 to facilitate connections between the growing creative and cultural industries in Africa and international partners worldwide to reinforce a world class business-to-business event that reflects the wider, global cultural significance of the creativity of Africa.

In 2017, the PACE Teaser will include, amongst others, workshops with international experts on fundraising and international arts coaching (Gwendolyn Tietze), pitching and networking (Nike Jonah) and workshop viewpoints and interdisciplinary work (Erwin Maas).

The programme will also include full-productions from neighbouring African countries, a speed-date pitching session and a long table PACE discussion.

Dutch New York-based director Erwin Maas comments: “PACE will contribute to the development of future work from the continent and make a contribution to the shaping of a new international discourse regarding work made on the African continent. We have had conversations with producers and presenters from all over the world over the last few years and they have unanimously said that they would support an initiative that creates an arts portal for African work that comes from the continent, to meet African artists and creatives and develop long-term artistic relationships with them.”

Artists and cultural workers from a range of African countries are attending the Vrystaat Arts Festival and PACE Teaser  2017, including from Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We also welcome a number of other international guests from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, the UK and the US.

The PACE Teaser is a networking and development opportunity not to be missed.

The full Vrystaat Arts Festival 2017 programme can be downloaded from here: http://bit.ly/VSKunstefees2017  

PACE TEASER 2017 Saturday, 15 July, 1 to 5 pm – Workshops Sunday, 16 July, 10 am to 5 pm – Speed-date pitching and long table discussion Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

PACE directors: Nike Jonah, Erwin Maas, Ricardo Peach. PACE ambassadors: Annabell Lebethe, Cornelia Faasen, Gwendolyn Tietze, Jerry Mofokeng, Ismail Mohammed, Isobel Hawson, Rosemary Mangope, Sarah Gardner, Thoko Nogabe.

Image: Lhola Amira | Okada - Cocoa Butter | 2017| Gicleé print on Hahnemuhle PhotoRag Baryta | 100 x 150 cm

Image Courtesy of SMAC Gallery, All Credit to the Artist.

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Vrystaat Arts Festival Media Release 15 May 2017

The AlloSphere: Virtual Reality through Art and Science

The Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) is an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and the University of the Free State (UFS), supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which focuses on how technology, interdisciplinary and experimental art can connect with and impact on communities.

PIAD fosters innovation in artform development through a series of First Nations projects, critical debates and PIAD forums, arts or science and interdisciplinary residencies, OPENLab artist laboratories, as well as the production and presentation of challenging new work.

In 2017, PIAD is proud to present as forum keynote speaker Prof. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Director of the AlloSphere Research Group at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The PIAD forum, titled Complex Intersections: Transdisciplinary Engagements Across the Arts and Sciences, will take place during the 2017 Vrystaat Arts Festival on Thursday 20 July from 10:00 to 13:00 at the Naval Hill Planetarium in Bloemfontein. This will be Prof. Kuchera-Morin’s only speaking engagement in South Africa.

Prof. Francis Petersen, Vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, says Prof. Kuchera-Morin is one of the most acclaimed thinkers on arts and science internationally. “As the inventor of the AlloSphere, she single-handedly developed a one-of-a-kind immersive instrument that is the culmination of 30 years of research. At the University of the Free State, through PIAD, we are looking at how we ourselves can develop international art and science facilities for Africa. We are very much looking forward to learning from Prof. Kuchera-Morin how she achieved her life’s work.”

The AlloSphere consists of a three-story cube with extensive sound absorption material, making it one of the largest near-to-anechoic chambers in the world. It is differentiated from conventional virtual reality environments by its seamless surround-view capabilities, ability to accommodate 30 or more people simultaneously in a shared virtual world, and its focus on multiple sensory modalities and interaction.

Annalize Dedekind, Chair of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, says: “Prof. Kuchera-Morin’s presentation will focus on how pushing hard science with advanced art can assist us in understanding the large amounts of data generated by research through what she terms ‘spatiotemporal data creation and ensemble-style data mining’. In layperson’s terms - how we can visualise a large amount of information so that we can better comprehend it.”

Prof. Kuchera-Morin’s keynote will be followed by a panel discussion with national and international cultural thinkers, including Rosemary Mangope (CEO, National Arts Council of South Africa), Dr Keith Armstrong (associate director, Creative Lab, Queensland University of Technology) and Dr Ella Ziegler (initiator of Salon Universitas: Art and Science Conversations, University of Kassel).  DeBeer Cloete of the University of Groningen and the UFS will facilitate proceedings.

Other projects that are part of PIAD include international work such as: Giidanyba (Sky Beings) by Gumbaynggirr artist Tyrone Sheather, consisting of seven figure-like sculptures depicting nocturnal spirits that impart knowledge and guidance to the First Nation Gumbaynggirr people of Australia; Onesie World by Adele Varcoe, which sees 1 000 onesies designed and made by fashion students and manufacturers in Bloemfontein given away to festivalgoers; and Dr Keith Armstrong’s Seven Stage Futures, a series of events created by local “change agents” who are part of Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green), set in informal settlements in and around Bloemfontein and Mangaung designed as community-led “Meraka”, or gathering spaces.  

Work by South African artists, all participants in the biannual OPENLab interdisciplinary laboratory of the PIAD, include: In These Streets by Wezile Mgibe, a live art and dance performance which speaks about his personal journey of self-discovery;  PIE: Planning Impossible Errors by Ella Ziegler, Karin Tan, Skye Quadling and friends around the phenomenon of unexpected errors; and 29°06ʹS 26°13ʹE by Lhola Amira and Vasiki Creative Citizens, a performance work that explores significant past and present narratives in South Africa, including The Cattle Killing of 1857, Ukuzika kuka Mendi of 1917 and the Shimla Park Brawl at the UFS in 2016.

For further inquiries contact: Roxanne Konco Marketing Manager

Angela de Jesus PIAD Co-Director

Tel: +27 (0)51 404 7947 roxanne.konco@volksblad.com      Tel: +27 (0)51 401 2706 dejesusav@ufs.ac.za  www.vrystaatartsfestival.co.za 

Images: Director JoAnn Kuchera-Morin immersed in earth data on the AlloSphere Bridge. Photo courtesy of UCSB. The AlloSphere immersive instrument created by Prof. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin,  courtesy of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Director JoAnn Kuchera-Morin immersed in anatomically correct human body data from a magnetic resonance imaging device (MRI). Photo courtesy of UCSB.

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MEDIA RELEASE 11 MAY 2017

Vrystaat Literature Festival: HOMECOMING

The growth in the 2017 Vrystaat Literature Festival is testament to the vibrancy of this blossoming writers’ oasis in the heart of South Africa. The festival will now reach an even wider audience with more than 60 presentations scheduled in the week from 17 to 22 July in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The theme for this year is Homecoming.

Professor Francis Petersen, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State comments: ‘The Vrystaat Literature Festival is one of the brightest literary platforms on the South African cultural calendar. In just one year, it has cemented its place in the hearts of thousands of South Africans and international writers. The UFS is proud to have been the founding sponsor of the festival, and even prouder that we can support it in the long-term.’

Annalize Dedekind, Chair of the Vrystaat Arts Festival adds: ‘We are very excited about  the 2017 Vrystaat Literature Festival.  After its successful maiden voyage in 2016 it now boasts a list of international writers from amongst others  Romania, Iran, Kenya,  the Netherlands and Zambia in addition to the big names of the South African literary world. You cannot afford to miss any of these discussions!’

During a long table discussion, writers such as Braam de Vries, Daniel Hugo, Ace Moloi, Alfred Schaffer, Niq Mhlongo, Willem Anker and many more will kickstart discussions on what the highly charged notion of Homecoming means in our current political climate.

Ruda Landman, well-known television presenter and journalist, will also be part of the festival, beginning each day with discussions of current affairs. This includes an in-depth interview with Helen Zille about her political career and recent challenges; a talk with Bill Nasson and Hennie van Vuuren about what we should learn from history; a contemplation about the preservation of our fragile democracy with Richard Pithouse, Niren Telsi and Ralph Mathekga; as well as an interview with Thandeka Gqubule about her autobiography on the former public protector, Thuli Madonsela.  

Through the Homage to Heroes series, the contributions of writers we cannot afford to forget are celebrated, including Thomas Mfolo, Adam Small, Jans Rautenbach and Dot Serfontein. After the great success of the first Sol Plaatje memorial lecture, Antjie Krog, recently honoured with another Hertzog Prize, will present the second annual lecture, introduced by Professor Francis Petersen.  

During gripping panel discussions various trends in literature will be considered. In the session Crime novels – where do we stand? writers such as Mike Nicol, Martin Steyn and Bettina Wyngaard consider how the crime genre developed after 1994 in South Africa. Michael le Cordeur and Wannie Carstens are in conversation, along with other contributors to their book Ons kom van vêr, about the neglected brown voice in Afrikaans; and non-fiction writers Antony Altbeker, Paul McNally and Ace Moloi in Nothing but the truth? talk about how ‘reality’ is documented. In Who writes on whose behalf? the ethical implications of the documentation of the living spheres of communities outside of the writer’s frame of reference is considered.

This year’s festival again offers a range of opportunities for upcoming writers and poets to hone their skills. Henning Pieterse and Francois Smith – both from the University of the Free State’s Department of Afrikaans, Dutch, German and French – will present intensive workshops on the writing of poetry and prose respectively. There will also be workshops for performance poets, as well as the launch of the book Hallo Hekel!, which will be presented in conjunction with a crocheting workshop.  

Crossword enthusiasts can brace themselves for the second national Crossword Tournament following last year’s surprise festival hit, presented in conjunction with RSG and XWord.  

Popular culinary writers are also part of the programme and festivalgoers can look forward to the session with Riana Scheepers, Leonie Scholtz and Marietjie Koekemoer, Smeul: drie vroue, een kombuis. These writers prepare traditional food with a twist, while Koelsoem Kamalie and Flori Schrikker share mouth-watering recipes from their latest book, Soettand.

This year poets, writers and musicians also join together to create new sounds and performance experiences for audiences. In Klawer, kwatryn & konkas celebrated poet Gilbert Gibson takes a seat at the piano and musician Riku Lattï and his team interweave Afrikaans and Sesotho music, while the Iranian/Dutch writer Sander Terphuis lets loose with his famous break dance. Alfred Schaffer, Toast Coetzer, Danie Marais, Ihette Jacobs, Tinus van Staden, Hennie van Coller and Adél Steyn perform some of their poems.

Upcoming poets could walk away with generous prizes during the Naked Poetry Slam, where the best slam poet will be chosen. Bibi Slippers, Eugene Marais prize winner for poetry in 2017, will recite some of her work, in addition to Andries Bezuidenhout, Mbongeni Nomkhonwana, Anele Kose, Ashley Makue, Chisenga Fundanga and Tessa Muller. During these sessions poetry will be interwoven with dynamic Afro-futuristic sounds to create a unique South African experience.

In addition to Terphuis, the following international writers will be part of the Literature Festival this year: Christine Otten (Netherlands), Rob van der Veer (Netherlands), Joseph Boyden (Canada), Mira Fetichu (Romania), Zukiswa Wanner (Kenia), Leshie Lovesong (Botswana) and Chisenga Dumisani Fundanga (Zambia).

The sessions are presented at the ATKV-Boeke-Oase (Centenary Complex on the UFS Campus), the National Afrikaans Literary Museum and Research Centre (NALN), as well as UFS Filmstudio. The complete programme is available at www.vrystaatkunstefees.co.za  or can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/VSKunstefees2017

Tickets can be bought at Computicket nationwide.

For more information:

Programme manager: Theo Kemp

Theo.Kemp@Volksblad.com

+27 (0)834629613

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CALL FOR ARTWORKS: PARALLEL TO PANDEMIC

The Free State Arts & Health, in partnership with the Programme for Innovation and Artform Development (PIAD), is pleased to invite emerging artists to participate in an upcoming public art project that will run during the annual Vrystaat Arts Festival in July 2017.

The project aims to increase the participation of artists in the health community of the Free State by supporting the agenda of public health. In the spirit of continued solidarity in the fight against HIV/AIDS, we are launching a call for artists to produce and submit artworks that speak to the multi-layered psychosocial implications of actualising as Africans parallel to pandemic.

The project will support the health campaigning efforts of the local health stakeholders in the province whilst simultaneously making the opportunity available for emerging artists to impact upon the community narrative, advancing the discourse of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

We will select 8 artworks that will front an information and condom distribution campaign. The artworks will be reproduced on A8 as part of an information pack. The selected artists will be rewarded for the reproduction rights of their artworks and promoted on our media platforms for their involvement in this initiative.

Submission requirements:

This project is open to all emerging artists who are still developing their practice, are still working towards gallery representation, or whose practice falls outside the gallery tradition.

Collaborations and multidisciplinary work will be accepted

Up to 4 jpegs per artist (max file size 2mb)

An artist statement describing the work

A Curriculum Vitae

The deadline for submissions is 19 May 2017, at 12pm. Artist can email submissions to MC.Roodt@volksblad.com, subject heading: Parallel to Pandemic. Queries can be directed to the same email address. Successful submissions will be notified by 24 May 2017.

About us:

Free State Arts & Health is a pioneering arts and health initiative operating in central South Africa. We support and design community-centred intermediations by arts-workers with the aim of positively impacting on the health and well-being of the communities we work for. Using the arts, the project engages communities in arts practices and projects that address key health aspirations, understanding that good health is imperative in the creation of cohesive societies.

This initiative addresses the need for increased collaboration between the arts and the health communities of the Free State by connecting cultural practitioners interested in community well-being with skills, networks and platforms to engage with pressing health issues. In doing so, the Free State Arts and Health Programme endeavours to mobilise communities to raise the bar on their collective health, stimulate the growth of vibrant, comergent forms of artistic and cultural expression in Africa, and build new audiences and models of participation for works produced.

Guided by the values of community agency and autonomy, we strive to be at the forefront of community-led engagement that promotes self-reliance and sustained well-being. With an emphasis on measurable outcomes, we facilitate spaces for meaningful reflection and dialogue around health and aid in the creation of strategies to address them.

Free State Arts & Health is a bi- lateral partnership initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, and DADAA, Australia supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and the University of the Free State.

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SEVEN STAGE FUTURES MEET AND GREET - Join Mary Mofama, Velile Phantsi, Mokoena Maphalane, Ellen Maphalane, Dr Keith Armstrong and Anita Venter for a talk as part of the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and the University of the Free State, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

'Seven Stage Futures’ enacts the development and production of a series of community-led ‘micro-festivals’, presented within ‘informal’ South African townships - where audiences (currently entirely unserviced by cultural events, or indeed much at all) can actively participate in unique local celebrations that they have both proposed and co-created. Each event will be shaped by local African 'change-agents' at sites where they have already built their own ‘shack replacement’ houses – using locally appropriate, no-cost materials – a new building-cum-artform we call ‘Post-Natural’ building. 

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Re-Future Rapid Response Australian Scholarship Opportunity!

Applications Due: 28 February 2017

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is calling for qualified candidates to apply for a targeted PHD paid Scholarship.  The candidate will potentially work between Brisbane, Australia and Bloemfontein, South Africa on the project, Re-Future (http://embodiedmedia.com/homeartworks/re-future) developed by Dr Keith Armstrong (Associate Director of the QUT Creative Lab Research Centre).  The Re-Future project coalesces with the aims of the Social and Ecological Practices Research Group at QUT which seek to understand, and demonstrate how transdisciplinary creative actions can best engage and affect the conditions of our contemporary world, with a specific focus upon people and species most affected by conditions of rapid change, conflict, racial tension, discrimination and environmental distress.  Re-Future is a partnership between Dr Armstrong, the QUT Creative Lab Research Centre, the University of the Free State (South Africa), the Vrystaat Art Festival and Qala Pelang Tala (Start Living Green) social change initiative.  

Is this for you?

Are you an artist-activist, a laterally thinking community development implementer, a transdisciplinary creative, a digital media artist focussed upon change-making practices, or some other kind of a passionate social, architecture, engineering or ecological change maker who would like to be paid to do a creatively driven PhD, working between South Africa and Australia?

Are you interested in applying your creative thinking (from any or several disciplines) and experimental practices to investigate new kinds of sustaining and regenerative futures?

How can social justice structures be influenced through creative ecological practices to enable marginalised individuals to influence their own livelihood future

Are you prepared to work in some of the least resourced communities in South Africa, in collaboration with leading NGOs, artists, academics, students and the township communities that this project serves?

Whilst we cover all doctoral fees and provide a reasonably living allowance for three years, (potentially extendable to 3.5). You will need to fund your own travel.

So who would you be working with?

The Creative Lab Research Centre, QUT Creative Industries, Brisbane Australia. https://www.qut.edu.au/creative-industries/about/news/news?news-id=111917

The Re-Future Project.  http://embodiedmedia.com/homeartworks/re-future

The Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green), Bloemfontein, South Africa. https://www.facebook.com/Qala1Tala/

The University of the Free State. Centre for Development Support  http://www.ufs.ac.za/cds

The Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD). https://www.facebook.com/PikoPiad-1435158293383474/?fref=ts

Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba. http://www.vrystaatkunstefees.co.za

Ok, but are you eligible?

Full applications due by 28 February 2017 – to be worked up with qualified supervisors, we will provide

Must meet English language requirements by the application closing date.

Must be able to start at latest by July 2017

Applicants can be currently situated anywhere globally but need to be able to travel to do extensive field work in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and also spend time in Brisbane, Australia at the state of the art new QUT Creative Lab Research Centre.

Full details here:  https://www.qut.edu.au/study/fees-and-scholarships/scholarships-and-prizes/qut-postgraduate-research-award-qutpra

Need more context?

We are having a devastating effect on the planet. Climate change has moved from theoretical concept to pressing reality, with truly global affects. Climate scientists agree we have triggered a new era called the age of the Anthropocene where humans have become the main drivers behind planetary changes. The negative impacts on communities worldwide, and especially communities in developing countries such as South Africa are significant. In South Africa, climate challenges are compounded by historical contexts of apartheid, unemployment, poverty, crime, disability and widespread dependency on government interventions in marginalised communities.  Many marginalised communities are still deprived of access to water, electricity, housing, education and basic health care. This begs the question, what innovative solutions can bridge the realities of climate change while maintaining the concept of human rights embedded in South Africa’s progressive constitution. A combination of transdisciplinary approaches will be needed to solve some of these problems that the country faces, which may require stepping outside the existing comfort zones and testing unconventional creative possibilities for making a difference at the grassroots levels. Crucially we need innovative solutions that envision a world beyond sustainability, focussing on regenerative livelihoods that are resilient to climate change. A regenerative approach describes processes that renew, restore, and revitalize communities. Regenerative systems aim to create positive, united living heritages for our future generations and ourselves.

What is Re-Futuring?

Most simply, Re-futuring is the act of ‘giving time back to the future’. If we think of time left (for ours and other species now and into the future) as being a medium we can manipulate, then any concerted actions that help increase that time left are considered potential acts of re-futuring - as opposed to those that reduce possibilities for those who come after us – i.e. acts of De-Futuring.

What will you therefore be contributing towards?

The aim of this experimental research program is to understand how transdisciplinary creative action that tests new paradigms, ideas & options might assist in inventing viable ‘break-through’ methods that aid regenerative capacity – both in South Africa and more generally globally.

And who would you be working with?

Keith Armstrong: Associate Director of the QUT Creative Lab Research Centre and member of the Social and Ecological Practices Group, media artist, researcher and director of Embodiedmedia Dr. Keith Armstrong from Brisbane Australia. www.embodiedmedia.com

Anita Venter who leads the Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green!) social change initiative supported by her role as a researcher at the University of the Free State, Centre for Development Support.  http://www.ufs.ac.za/econ/departments-and-divisions/centre-for-development-support-home/general/staff?pid=j13AcR333js%3d

The Program For Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) led by Senior Curator of the  Johannes Stegman Art Gallery, Angela De Jesus and Director of the Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba, Dr. Ricardo Peach.

Are you the right artist-researcher for this significant challenge?

If so contact Dr. Keith Armstrong immediately – with overview of your background and thoughts, interests and enthusiasms at k.armstrong@qut.edu.au

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Launch of the 2019 Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba

http://bit.ly/VSKProgram2019

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MEDIA RELEASE 15 MAY 2018 VRYSTAAT LITERATURE FESTIVAL GROWS FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH In 2018, the Vrystaat Arts Festival, in collaboration with the University of the Free State, will host the third Free State Literature Festival from 9-14 July. With almost 60 presentations, involving a wide variety of topics and themes, there truly is something for every taste. Thematically, this year’s festival involves questions related to the migration of people as well as the multicultural societies this movement has as a consequence. Language, culture, race and identity are only some of the topics to be questioned by international, national, and local authors and poets. http://bit.ly/Litfees2018

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MEDIA RELEASE 10 MAY 2018 #LOSTLOVE IS IN THE A.I.R: VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL BROADCASTS TO THE WORLD http://bit.ly/2rzcHX6 The Vrystaat Arts Festival, a core Afrikaans language celebration, is on its way to become one of the key international arts festivals on the African continent. Bloemfontein has all the ingredients to ensure this success, as it is centrally located, has excellent transport options (including an international airport), brilliant accommodation to choose from, and some of the best theatre and technical infrastructure of any secondary city in Africa. Most importantly the festival attracts a creative pool of local, national and international talent whose mark is clearly being felt on the world stage. In addition to local artists, more than 40 international writers, poets and cultural workers are involved in the offerings on the programme this year. They are coming from as far away as Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Ghana, Holland, Nigeria, Namibia, Lesotho, Senegal, Singapore, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, the UK and the US. The festival welcomes a significant number of visitors for the inaugural Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), thanks to its founding sponsor the National Afrikaans Theatre Initiative (NATi). PACE starts the Vrystaat Arts Festival as a three- day provocation for the interdisciplinary arts on the continent to facilitate discussion on African cultural development, with keynote Goretti Kyomuhendo, Director of the African Writers Trust (Uganda). This year the festival also hosts the first South African Arts and Health Summit, an initiative addressing the need for increased collaboration between the arts and health communities. The summit, hosted by David Doyle, CEO of DADAA (Western Australia) will explore new health and arts partnerships and connect cultural practitioners interested in community well-being. A.I.R. (Altitude Immersive Radio) is the 2018 signature festival project through the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), an initiative of the University of the Free State and the Vrystaat Art Festival supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and SITUATE Art in Festivals, Tasmania. A.I.R. is a performative poetry book launch and public community artwork that creates a cloud of transmission through a relay of radio broadcasts ending with a picnic on Hoffman Square. Based on posters seen in the streets of Bloemfontein, a “Lost Lover” group of walkers costumed with a giant radio receiver will enact parts of the book to the public, embodying both the poetry and the airwaves. Join A.I.R. with your “lost lover” contribution and share it at the radio picnic (see images below). The Vrynge festival has grown in leaps and bounds, offering a record number of productions and workshops from emerging artists and professional practitioners presenting works in progress. From artist open studio tours (VROST) to new short films (Vlieks) and drag (What the Tuck), you will leap into several possible cultural futures with every Vrynge production this year. A world debut play reading of Orphans – the spaghetti house three by British playwright Hassan Mahamdallie will also feature on the Vrynge The Vrystaat Literature Festival has established itself as one of the key international literary events in the country, with writers and poets this year dealing in particular with notions of migration and cultural mobility. One highlight will be Dimitri Verhulst from Belgium, who spent several days in a Belgian centre for asylum seekers. This experience led him to write Problemski Hotel, told from the point of view of an Ethiopian photographer, and sketches a fascinating picture of a tightly knit but closed community. Not to be missed under any circumstances. Pubic Art Projects (PAP) and Vrywees bring the best of site specific productions to the city centre and the campus of the university of the Free State. Every event will surprise and challenge our sense of what can be done in public spaces. To celebrate the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s birthday a century ago two of his biggest hits are included in this year’s film programme. Lastly, we have an enormous programme full-of debuts with some of the best theatre, music, visual arts, film, performance art, live art, experimental art, craft and food this country has to offer – often in collaboration with international partners. You will be left breathless at what the creative minds in this programme have come up with to entertain and delight as well as help us grapple with some of the most complex problems we face as human beings on this delicate, dynamic and fragile planet of ours. THE END

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It is with great pleasure that we announce the 2018 Vrystaat Arts Festival programme. Please download the full line-up here: http://bit.ly/VSKunstefees2018 Looking forward to seeing you in Bloemfontein from 8-14 July 2018!