INFECTING THE CITY RETURNS – CAPE TOWN’S PUBLIC SPACES REIMAGINED

The countdown has begun to the Africa Centre’s 8^th Infecting the City, Cape Town’s annual festival of public art that takes place 9-14 March 2015.

The Cape Dance Company – Blue

The Festival is comprised of artworks derived from a multitude of disciplines that include dance, poetry, music, performance and visual art. Collectively the body of work seeks to uncover and explore the underlying experience of the human condition. All the performances and programme items for Infecting the City are free to the public and take place in the central city.

The 2015 Festival expects to build on the success of 2014, when 419 artists and over 32,000 audience members were in attendance.

The 2015 Festival is being curated to bring freedom of expression and unexpected meaning to the streets of Cape Town, whilst shifting artworks out of theatres and reinventing the notion of how we use and interact with our public spaces.

From the deeply poignant, to the thought-provoking, humorous and curious, Infecting the City’s 2015 programme includes work from both local and international performance artists. Says the Africa Centre’s  Executive Director, Tanner Methvin; “Our intentions for Infecting the City 2015 are to provide a unique moment in time when all our complexity can be laid bare and felt by everyone. Where we take that exposure is up to us.”

A sample of the artworks includes: Living Room Dancers by Swiss choreographer Nicole Seilers, in which audiences are invited to view dancers through binoculars as they dance simultaneously at the windows of an apartment block. Johannesburg-based artist, Sandile Radebe, brings us Colour Me In, in which he presents us with an old City map depicting the geographic lines of racial segregation and asks us to redraw and colour in the City we want to see.

Nicola Elliot, recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance (2014), will present a piece called Chalk which explores how the delineation of chalk can change meaning, whilst Jacqueline Manyaapelo and Khayalethu Witbooi ask some important questions about South Africa’s education system in UnEducated.

Berlin-based artist Hilla Steinert and Elize Vossgatter will make connections in The Braid by plaiting a braid using grasses they have collected.  Audience members are invited to contribute materials to plait into the braid. Other works explore social issues and events such as Marikana and the 2014 kidnapping of 273 girls in Nigeria.

Works in the Festival can be experienced either as part of a route, or independently – and often experienced unexpectedly. Routes will be activated by day and night to ensure there are plenty of spaces to enjoy refreshments and conversation along the way.  90% of the programme has been released online and will be complete by 15 February 2015 – including information on all the routes. Visit and return to http://infectingthecity.com/2015/artworks/ to view confirmed programme items.

This year, the Festival’s curation has changed to a team approach. Several curators; Mandla Mbothwe, Farzanah Badsha, Nadja Daehnke – and Mandisi Sindo, as curatorial intern – join, Jay Pather, who leads the curatorial team. Having curated a number of festivals previously, Pather says that bringing in new curatorial perspectives brings fresh energy to the Festival: “Working with a team of curators allows us to explore further and open some new territory.

Each individual curates an allocation of artists and productions that follow various routes through the City, so there is sure to be sharp differences in perspectives from programme to programme, which will serve to enrich this growing Festival.”

Three major sponsors have partnered with Infecting the City this year: the National Department of Arts & Culture, founding sponsor Spier and the City of Cape Town.

Cape-Mongo, an anti-fable regarding the mythologies of Cape Town’s consumer culture.

The National Department of Arts & Culture’s Moleleki Ledimo notes that Infecting the City stimulates local artistic participation. “It further contributes to growing diverse creative industries – visual arts, music, dance, film, storytelling, whilst bringing Cape Town to its own people. As diverse as it is to its audiences, it gives the public new senses of ‘looking, hearing and language’, as it challenges and engages them.”

Founder sponsor Spier‘s CEO Andrew Milne comments; “Spier is a proud partner of Infecting the City. We look forward to the annual transformation of Cape Town as people from all backgrounds are engaged through the arts and the city comes alive with new perspectives.”

Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development, Councillor Garreth Bloor agrees: “The City of Cape Town welcomes the Festival’s use of its most well-used and recognisable spaces. It’s a great activation of public space and it furthers inclusivity.’

Additional sponsors include: Santam, Pro Helvetia, Western Cape Government and the Goethe Institute. For the first time, Infecting the City partnered with crowdfunding platform, Thundafund, to diversify the works included in the Festival by selecting ten works that called for public funding.

For more info, go to: – www.infectingthecity.com

Fire season razes the Cape

Its summer in Cape Town and with temperatures hitting the high 30’s and 40+ in some areas of the Western Cape it’s a perfect time to hit the many beaches in the Cape Peninsula but spare a thought for the for the firefighters of the Cape for whom its “High Season”.

A helicopter water bombs a bush fire on the Cape Flats.

On December 01, 2014 the Western Cape Fire Services officially launched Western Cape Summer Fire Season

Hot dry summers and high wind speeds across much of the Western Cape, causing wild fires to spread quickly and easily.

Fire fighters fight a township blaze.

With this in mind, the Western Cape Government, Disaster Management, Fire Rescue Services and Working on Fire (WOF) spent the winter months training to combat the many fires expected to raze the Cape this summer.

A fire in Hout Bay as seen from Wynberg, Cape Town.

At risk is the green belt of the Table Mountain Nature Reserve as well as the dry plains of the Cape Flats.

The mountain above Simonstown and Signal Hill have witnessed the most devastating bush fires in the Western Cape recently. Also in the mix are the many fires in our local townships that leave destruction and devastation in its wake.

On the morning of January 08, 2015, a fire broke out on Cape Town’s Signal Hill, the city’s fire and rescue department worked around the clock to contain the blaze finally damping the area before lunch time.

Days later on January 19, local firefighters battled 14 fires across the Western Cape, the largest blazes were in Steenberg, Strandfontein and Atlantis. Helicopters were called in to douse the fires with 76 firemen and 52 fire fighters of the Table Mountain National Park. They used 11 fire engines and four water tankers to prevent it from spreading.

Last year a candle started the fire that caused 25 shacks to burn down in Imizamo Yetho informal settlement in Hout Bay leaving many people homeless.

It’s been proved that 90% of fires are caused by human negligence, by being prepared and taking the correct precautions this high percentage can be reduced significantly.

The Volunteer Fire Services based at the Newlands Forestry Station

The Volunteer Wildfire Services (VWS) have been combating dangerous and often deadly runaway fires since being baptized through the devastating fires in 1999 / 2000 in Cape Town. With approximately 180 members at three stations (Newlands, Jonkershoek and the newly developing South Peninsula Station).

Working closely with other emergency service organization’s in wild-land fire management such as Table Mountain National Park, Cape Nature, Cape Town Fire & Emergency Services, Disaster Management, Winelands Fire Brigade, Stellenbosch Fire Brigade and Working on Fire has meant that the VWS has, to date, achieved over 39,000 active fire-fighting hours between its members and stations. For more info go to; http://www.vws.org.za.

Fire Safety Tips and Rules (http://www.westerncape.gov.za)

• General Safety Rules:
  • ​Keep a well-maintained fire extinguisher in your house, and know how to use it.
  • If you have a garden hose, keep it rolled up and ready in case of a fire.
  • Where possible, have more than one exit from your house.
  • Have an escape plan, and make sure that the whole family knows the plan.
  • Do not park in the way of a fire hydrant (and remind your neighbours and visitors to do the same).

• Safety around an Open Flame:
  • Keep matches and lighters out of children’s reach.
  • Cut candles in half to prevent them falling over and use a candle holder.
  • Never leave an open fire – for example around a braai – unattended.
  • Do not let open fires, like a braai, get too big and out of control.
  • Monitor weather conditions. If the wind is strong, rather put the fires out until the wind calms.
• What if a fire breaks out in my house?
  • Warn people inside the house to get out safely.
  • Help people to get out and stay out of harm’s way.
  • If there is a lot of smoke, crawl out below the smoke to escape the fire.
  • Where possible, have more than one exit from your house, with clear routes to the door.

For more tips on how to prevent fires, you can visit the Fire and Rescue Services at the City of Cape Town’s webpage.

When reporting fires, please contact your Local District Municipality

• City of Cape Town: 107 or 021 480 7700 from a cellphone
• Overberg: 028 425 1690
• West Coast: 022 433 8700
• Eden: 044 805 5071
• Central Karoo: 023 414 2603
• Cape Winelands: 021 887 4446

Be sure to save the appropriate number on your cellphone and to teach it to your children.