Thupelo workshopTAGreceives exclusive feedback from artists who participated at a recent Thupelo workshop …(read more)
Movement:TAGreflects on a past visiting artists’ collaborative exhibition…(read more)
Entangled Conversations:TAGsoaks up the sun with three recent visiting artists, who share their experiences on work, life and their unusual connections with Cape Town. …(read more)
Tatiana’s traveling Shoes: 2 minutes with visiting Argentinean artist, on her travels across the continent and her passion for art making…(read more)
Artists lead skills training workshops:Artists share their challenges and joys about recent ‘outreach’ project …(read more)
A place like home:artists’ residence, moves to Woodstock…(read more)
IN THE LOOP…BEYOND GREATMORE
A historic narrative in bronzeMadi Phala installs a sculpture for The Sunday Times Centenary Heritage Celebrations…(read more)
Life drawing classesat Orange Street Studios…(read more)
VANSA hosts curators’ workshop Curators converge for a workshop at RobbenIsland…(read more)
EXPERIENCE IT OPPORTUNITIES IN RESIDENCY, COMPETITIONS & EXHBITION OPPORTUNITIES
Artists are invited to submit applications to exhibit work at the Design Indaba Expo…(read more)
X-Cape invites Artists to submit applications for participationin TRANS CAPE 2007…(read more)
AMAC calls for applications for the post of director…(read more)
Fri-Art invites applications for the post of director Switzerland…(read more)
Visiting artists host a collaborative exhibition in December...(read more)
EDITOR’S LETTER
In hardship, is wrought patience and perseverance to arise and finish the race,
When its winds beat upon your chest, drawing you down to its gallows,
Rise up! Rise up!
Press on, finish strong.
For in patience you are yet stronger.
-Bekezela Ngwenya
The last few months of any year are always wild to say the least! Confronted with a list of insurmountable deadlines and activities, one wonders how all the dots will finally connect. Sometimes it may seem as if we are going slower, regressing, being reduced, only to find ourselves refueled to make that final lap-to finish strong! October saw our TAG newsletter take a hiatus, however activities at Greatmore Studios have maintained a steady rhythm, and exchange between artists remains as rich as ever! In this issue we capture the most exciting moments at the Movement exhibition during the CAPE Art Circuit, the recent Koekenaap Matzikama Workshop and the insightful comments from ongoing artists’ training workshops within the studios. This month also marks the historic Thupelo Workshop at Rorke’s Drift in KwaZulu Natal that started from 11to 26 November. The Thupelo workshop features artists such as Velile Soha (Thupelo Trustee and Rorke’s Drift Alumnus), Pro Mgcineni Sobopha, Avashoni Mainganye (Rorke’s Drift Alumnus), Gabi Nkosi, David Koloane (trustee at Bag Factory, a sister organization of Greatmore Studios), Pat Mautloa (co-director of Bag Factory) and Vuyile Voyiya (Rorke’s Drift Alumnus) to mention a few. Be sure to read the December issue of TAG for the highlights of the workshop.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of a revolving visiting artists' programme, is having the privilege of introducing to the studio a diversity of voices and skills from across the world. While the end of September bade goodbye to our artists from across the continent, November welcomes artists from as far as Argentina, Berlin, Australia and France who in exclusive interviews with TAGshare their personal narratives on life, art and the Cape. What is most intriguing for me is to witness the incredible synergy between these artists as well as see how their very different backgrounds intertwine and converge into a colourful conversation. Working in film, photography, performance and painting, these artists bring a mature, sophisticated language to art making in the studios-we have been forced to all learn something new! Be sure to DIARISEtheir collaborative exhibition in mid- December, which only promises to be a truly rich and meaningful experience!
Tambudzai La Verne Sibanda, Editor in Chief
P.s. To all our readers who so eagerly await the TAG newsletter at the beginning of every month, on behalf of the team, I would like to extend my greatest apologises for the absence of last month’s newsletter. With circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to distribute an October issue. We do hope that’s this month’s rich content will make up for your disappointment! Once again thank you too all those encouraging notes that come our way. It truly gives us the impetus to keeping doing what we do! A recent comment that warmed our hearts comes from Mr. Calisto,
Thank you very much for all the information you sent to us.’O Nosso Muito Obrigado’.
Best Regards
Henrique Calisto
Your letters
Every month in EXPERIENCE ITwe feature artist residencies offered across the world. In our May issue of TAG, we included an invitation by the Global Arts Village Fellowshipsin New Delhi, India calling international artists to participate in a full and partial artist-in-residence programme (www.globalartsvillage.org). As much as we do try and thoroughlyresearch and screen the residencies we do feature in the newsletter , honestly there is so much we can truly verify- we have to largely rely on past participants giving us their feedback from their first-hand experiences. This particular residency opportunity does however appears to have been one rotten egg and thanks to one artists’ courageous account (she will remain anonymous for obvious reasons) of her tragic experience, we hope to alert artists of the possible inconsistencies characterizing this residency. An extract of her letter reads as follows:
“…Just want you to know that things at Global Arts Village in Delhi have not improved but gotten worse in the last residency. They have improved their website but it is totally misleading. The actual experience terrible…GAV really should not be an art residency place.It's scary how misleading all the pictures are from just one lot of residents who were there from Nov to Dec 05 …”
On behalf of the team at TAG we extend our greatest regrets to you for the pain and trauma you and many other artists have experienced. I think the lesson learnt for us all, is to always get thorough feedback from past participants, before taking the plunge and investing great sums of money in any residency no matter how reputable it claims to be. May such incidents not dampen your enthusiasm for fulfilling and insightful opportunities on offer in the future!
We always welcome your contributions to the content of this newsletter. Please e-mail us your comments at tagnews@gmail.com
From 9 to 19 October seven skilled artists from Greatmore Studios, Cape Town met with ten local artists from the Westland Art Society in Matzikama for a vibrant and dynamic Thupelo workshop in Koekenaap. This marks the second successive workshop held at the campsite. In a report by participating artist, Desireé Brand, she recalls that,
“The flow of creative energy seemed to move and weave its way around touching all at different intervals. A wonderful group of artists freely exchanged life experiences, art, music, techniques and knowledge…there was also enough diversity in work and personalities for a lively group dynamic to exist.”
This sense of exchange was evident when artists from various technical backgrounds converged to produce a collaborative, experimental piece of art, layering paint, charcoal drawing and oil pastels on one canvas. The ten-day workshop saw children from the schools in Lutzville and Koekenaap visiting the artists’ working stations. Some of the artists provided informal explanations to the youth about their choice of medium or subject matter they were negotiating with.
Every workshop is marked by its challenges, amongst fears that artists were initially wasting resources, some artists reported that the momentum and energy to create was difficult to maintain with ‘distractions’ from visitors. The infrastructure at Westland Art Society remains rather fragile and local artists are doubtful they will be able to sustain similar workshops on their own in the future. It is imperative Brand argues that artists come together as a team to overcome such fears make future workshops a reality. From team at TAGand artists at Greatmore studios, past and present, we wish The Westland Art Society all the courage and success for future endeavors!
TAG managed to capture some of the honest opinions of other participants during the workshop:
“I am pleasantly surprised at the manner of interaction between the artists; artists mutually assisted each other throughout the workshop. The materials that were donated were the best of everything. Although I did not know how to use half of them, I quickly learned from the professional artists. At the end of the workshop. I had tried most of the materials and subsequently broadened my horizons.”
Elsa Smal Matzikama
“A more varied and diverse a group there couldn’t have been – from poets, verse makers and amateur guitarists! All dumped together to find their way or get lost in what one habitually does… I’d love to see this kind of workshop idea continued, however with more participants, preferably the youth included.”
Ivor Sias visiting artist from Berlin
“The love, laughter and help of all my new Thupelo friends let my wings grow again. I feel I can now fly – thanks to them and God.”
-Reinette Thiart Matzikama
“The only issue people find taboo is the race issue, no one seems to want to indulge in it, though I found it problematic in terms of the local selection process.”
Movement: Tag reflects on a past visiting artists’ collaborative exhibition
When it comes to collaborative exhibitions hosted by our visiting artists at the Studios, the offering is always fresh and inspiring! As September drew to an end, artists visiting Greatmore opened up their studios to a community of art lovers, family and friends to reveal a melody of mature and experimental work. Entitled Movement, the exhibition showcased the work of Coster Mkoki from Zimbabwe, Petros Ghebrehiwot from Eritrea and Uguchukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi from Nigeria. Work by emerging artist Xolelani Pat Matshikiza from South Africa, Yeul Lee from Korea and Mambakwedza Mutasa from Zimbabwe, and significant pieces by a pool of long standing resident artists were also on display. The collision of cultures, diverse backgrounds and artistic skills formed a rich conversation challenging the viewer to engage in topics around the scar of AIDS, modernity, and the hardships of life. Petros’ monumental triptych displayed figures on a journey rendered against a tortured surface of quiet grays and blues. Forming part of an ongoing inquiry into our social world of meeting and crowds, this artist’s strongly contemplative work is somewhat difficult, speaking of the universality of silent suffering; a glorious ball of reds and rich yellow that resembles a sun in one of his images does however offer a moment of respite and alludes to a hopeful future in unity.
Sharing a studio with up and coming artist Xolelani one can see similar themes and techniques appropriated in his work. This is the nature of the exchange offered at Greatmore Studios-young artists are able to glean from those more established, encouraged to expand their skills, experiment with new themes, pushing the boundaries of their art practice, eventually incorporating these methods into a unique voice of their own.
Committee member and veteran artist to the studios, Velile Soha when asked about the progress and growth of such exhibitions over the years, commented that,
‘Thinks have changed a lot; the young artists have much more spirit and strength. It’s good”
Xolelani truly has blossomed and matured as an artist in his time at Greatmore- a series of thoughtful plaster of Paris pieces that explore memory evoked in clothing invited the viewer into quite contemplation and echoed an experimental installation by Smooth, whose work also investigated the materiality of memory. In a series of colourful pastel drawings of the female body incorporating text, the Nigerian artist questioned his own understanding of his existence.
Coster Mkoki’s sophisticated, elegant sculptures formed a strong anchor in the exhibition. Importing his stones from his homeland, in Zimbabwe, Coster chose to narrate a very poignant story of an old issue albeit in a new way. The scourge of AIDs continues to be pervasive in Zimbabwe as well as across the continent, and a sculpture of two bodies intertwined into one, under a suffocating blue blanket addresses such issues in a sympathetic way. The corpse like figure evokes themes around intimacy, secrecy and death that have become synonymous with this pandemic.
Collaborative exhibitions always challenge the boundaries of established art practise and Kitty Dorje’s Building Ship (2005) was one such piece. A short film depicting the deconstruction of modern skyscrapers rendered in wood and cardboard to form a well constructed ship strongly captured a sense of movement that characterises our existence. Kitty’s piece engages the viewer in ideas of transformation and transition that our lives often take; the image of a solitary ship is telling of the moments of isolation that modernity forces individuals to embrace, provoking people to embark on wild, unmarked journeys.
No exhibition at Greatmore is complete without the lighter more colorful themes of music and jazz spreading life, energy and movement into the space. Madi Phala’s energetic and colorful series of jazz players sang a sweet tune that resonated with work by his friend and renowned artist SamNhlengethwa based at the Bag factory a sister organisation of Greatmore Studios –Xolelani also joined the symphony of colourful sounds, whose collages added a youthful fresh look at the heritage of jazz that charcterised places like Sophia Town and our local communities in Gugulethu and Langa.
To mark the closing of Movement, Greatmore Studios joined a team of other exhibitions occurring across the city at various galleries and alternative spaces, to form CAPE art Circuit initiated by CAPEPlatform’s X-Cape. With a strong security presence circling Woodstock visitors were reassured of their safety and encouraged to move from one exhibition to another by foot, enjoying the sights and sounds of a culturally rich precinct. Throughout the evening Greatmore Studios welcomed over 250 visitors from all walks of life, including a traditional gallery audience that are often not drawn to our exhibitions. At one point in the evening, a visitor to the studios and various other resident artists converged in an impromptu performance boasting spoken word, the sounds of the drum and the mbira that spoke of the fusion of cultures that occurs around art making.
This month we welcome to the studios three new artists from Berlin, France and Australia whose work is tied together by themes of nomadism, displacement and loss, that form a testimony to their scrambled yet sophisticated histories. TAG this month took some time with these artists to talk about work, life and their unusual connections with Cape Town.
Frederic Koenig France
Labeled a mixed media artist from France, Frederic Koenig brings to the studios a unique blend of photography, film and performance. An artist familiar with South Africa, last year Fred’ served a residency at the Bag Factory, a sister organization of Greatmore Studios in Fordsburg where his piece My African Safari narrated his impressions of the city. In a personal statement he commented that,
“The spirituality, memories and history that charge so many places in Johannesburg have found their way into my work”
In a recent interview with Maria McCloy, Frederich openly discloses his HIV positive status and speaks about how themes around AIDS and being homosexual, are strongly embedded in his work.
“I am personally aware of who I am and where I come from, so there is always an activism part in my work”
Fred is a well-traveled artist whose portfolio boasts several images that capture the experiences of people and sites in Haiti, Mexico and France. He speaks of the need to document his subjects’ experiences through his “observations”, playing on the study of ethnology. Unlike an anthropologist however Fred claims to “ interact, live and participate” in his subjects’ realities, bringing a greater level of sensitivity and depth to his work. Fred’ works largely in black and white claiming that this medium has an immediacy, confronting the viewer with the emotional truth of the experiences he attempts to document. Some of his images are rendered in varying degrees of color, and the manipulation of these images is evidence of the performative aspect of his practice. The art of photographic manipulation allows Fredrich the opportunity to expose the fiction and construction of our identities. Fred’ formally studied photography in Germany and France, and later worked with photographer Trix Rosen in New York. He currently works in close collaboration with the Haitian art foundation AfricAmericA (http://www.africamerica.org) on various projects.
Fredrich defines his body of research as ‘the longing of belonging’. He speaks of a tension between wanting to be a part of other people’s worlds, and being a spectator who is French, with an obvious accent. His artistic scholarship forms obvious ties with Ivor Sias’ and Newell Harry’s journeys of displacement; Fred’s sense of displacement is perhaps a little more abstract. The French artist along with some colleagues, recently initiated a workshop with school children that explores performance art, and it is this medium that he will use to tell a narrative about a topical issue at present concerning gay marriages in Cape Town. Fred and South African Artist, Toni Morkel form the Voodoo Divas, a duo that though absurd, risqué performances serve to challenge and dismantle conservative notions of art making.
The French Embassy in South Africa has sponsored Fredrich’s residency. For further information on this artist please visit, http://www.fredkoenig.com/
Ivor Sias Germany
Returning from a recent Thupelo Workshop in Koekenaap, Ivor Sias arrives at Greatmore Studios as a mature artist whose poise and sophistication of character speak of a man who has seen the world! Originally from Durban, South Africa Ivor began studying law at a local university in KwaZulu Natal, during which time he realized his intense passion for fine arts. This passion led him to study at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in Italy in 1987 and after his studies were complete he made a final move to Berlin, where he resides to the present. Ivor is fluent in German, Italian and English, making him a cosmopolitan man par excellence! Ivor’s reasons for seeking study overseas stemmed from a frustration of suffocated by the familiarity of his surrounding and the desperate need for a challenge that the culture of art in Berlin has afforded him.
“It is important to get exposed…to test other waters.”
Ivor emerged from a densely political space of apartheid in South Africa, and he chooses not to explore politics in his work. His paintings boast brilliant yellows and reds and his German counterparts have immediately traced this vibrancy to a nostalgia and celebration of his African heritage. Ivor sees himself purely as an artist whose work is “highly expressionistic in terms of its bold colours…”
Ivor has been playing piano from a tender age and his art is marked by a degree of musciality, movement and texture. His sense of musical discipline is evident in the control that marks his technique of painting. His past work has explored themes of fire, rebirth and destruction. He also chooses to work around images of nature, forests intertwining with German myths. Although his family is well established and secure in Berlin, he arrives in Cape Town he claims, to attempt to resolve personal issues specific to city. His current work is highly confrontational, due to its sheer magnitude, with larger than life size figures demanding the viewer to engage with it. Ivor is only too aware of the synergy between him and younger Australian artist Newell Harry who this month arrives to the continent for the first time in his life.
Newell Harry Australia
Newell’s is a colourful, history that speaks of his mother originally born in Cape Town, relocating with her parents to Australia in her youth and never returning. Born in Sydney himself Newell, 34, is using his arts form to make sense of the imaginations and contradictions about Cape Town and its people that have marked his life. During his visit to the city Newell tells TAG that he has been able to meet his mother’s extended family. Although there are strong psychological and blood connections with these new found family members, the geographical distance between Australia and Cape Town has resulted in various inconsistencies with Newell’s largely Australian worldview.
The young artist has served other residencies at various studios in Australia, as well as more recently on the pacific island of Vanuatu, which like Cape Town is a port city. Following his stay in Cape Town, which has been afforded by the Australian High Commission to South Africa, Newell will head off to Paris for yet another residency! Newell’s oeuvre includes photography; film and site specific public art works that take the form of installations and lives performances he chooses to document though film.Newell’s current work explores text, examining the playfulness and irony of homologues in the Afrikaans language and various other colloquial phases characteristic of Cape Town.A humble man, it is obvious he is well read and his work highly researched. After completing honours in Fine Arts, the Australian artist went onto study his MFA, focusing on themes of displacement through site-specific sculptures.Newell arrives at the studios in essence with no expectations, and acknowledging the short time duration, he does not hope for much closure to his enquiry.
“It would be good to have enough seeds…to pick up enough things that I can work on at a later date.
This month artist Ivor Sias will interview Peter Clarke in an exclusive event at a local wine farm, in an attempt to educate art lovers about their local artists.
Tatiana’s traveling Shoes: 2 minute account of a visiting artist’s travels across the continent, and her passion for art making
November marks Argentinean artist Tatiana de Louvois’ final month in her visit to the studios, after which she will take up her traveling shoes again, off to yet another nation on the continent. TAG managed to catch up with her in the resource center a Greatmore Studios.
TAG: How long have you been in art practice for. When did you ‘become’ an artist?
Tatiana: I have been working for over 15 years now as an artist. I decided I wanted to become an artist at 18, and this lead me to do a degree in fine arts and creative advertising.
TAG: What medium do you prefer to work in? What work are you currently embarking on?
Tatiana: I enjoy working in sculpture and collage. Currently I am working on a series of very fun pieces about sausage dogs. I am making collages using glitter and paint and whatever I manage to find. They are not serious pieces…
TAG: Tatiana you are a woman who is has an obsession with traveling; tell us a little about where this has taken you.
Tatiana: Well when I was studying in Argentina, I became interested in woodcarving that is popular in West Africa…that is what drew me to the continent. I am yet to l visit that side of the world, however I did live in Tanzania for two years. I learned a lot about batik from the local artists. I also worked in mosaic. At one point I had a vibrant after school class where I used to teach children ceramics and other art forms. I have also visited Zimbabwe.Fantastic people! I went to learn the indigenous skills of basketry from local artists in Hwange.I just love to travel- I guess I don’t have any fear!
TAG: You speak of your current pieces being light and fun. Have you every explored more difficult themes or inserted political undercurrents in your work?
Tatiana: Growing up in Argentina under a heavy political regime, there was a lot of propaganda on television- everywhere, everything was politically saturated. I find these themes boring. My art is different- it’s fresh…
TAG: Why the residency at Greatmore Studios? I believe it is your first.
Tatiana: I realize the importance of making links and getting connected.
Well on behalf of the team at TAG, we wish you all the best in your in you art practice and your travels across this continent-may it only produce a more rich, sophisticated style ad depth to your work.
Spanning over the months of September and October, the artists at Greatmore Studios converged to host a series of workshops that sought to train fellow artists within the studios as well as invited guests about specific art making techniques. An array of workshops were opened up to the artists that included, video editing by Nicholas Hales, Photoshop and web design by Kitty Dorje as well as a lesson in sculpting by Ena Carstens. TAG asked two workshop coordinators Kitty Dorje and Ena Carstens to trace the conceptualization of their workshops, highlighting their challenges and successes.
In her report about a workshop about web design and Photoshop skills, Kitty Dorje commented that,
“It all started in a meeting at Greatmore Studios where artists were asked to make proposals for workshops to share with fellow artists. InitialIy I thought I had nothing to offer but with some encouragement, I realised that art can include anything even html.”
Kitty’s class of four students arrived with very different computer knowledge and she had to work closely with each individual attempting to get them to a point where they could reach sufficiency in the manipulating a personal website that they were encouraged to produce. Artists were given a choice of working in Dream weaver or blog website. Although Kitty remarks that the cycle of lessons is still incomplete, she commented on how the response from the artists has been great, with the skills the artists picked up hopefully invaluable in boasting marketability of their work. A challenge to organizing the workshops kitty recalls was converging all the artists for the classes on time. Future workshops she adds would work best after a thorough assessment of an individual’s skills. With a strong emphasise on computer technologies, the committee at Greatmore Studios through the assistance of various funding streams is looking to invest 2 new cameras as well as an Apple Mac computer to afford artists the opportunity to push the boundaries of their art practice.
Ena Carsten’s sculpting workshop was equally as insightful and attempted to expose keen individuals to the tools and different finishes that go with the practice. In her workshop Ena spoke about where artist could source the material that they were looking for. In essence the workshop was not a practical lesson in sculpting but rather it leaned on demystify the practice of sculpting, opening up her students to the fact that sculpting is more about an artist’s ‘feeling’ of the piece, than about the technique. Ena’s class boasted veteran trustee of Greatmore Studios, Lionel Davis, who always brings much needed humour into any event! Ena comments that the only challenge to the workshops was capital investment limited the practical component of the workshops.
This month sees the residence for artists visiting Greatmore Studios moving from its previous location in Observatory to a more convenient community in vibrant Woodstock, close to the studios. The self-catering house boasts 4 bedrooms to accommodate artists that Greatmore receives as part of its revolving artists programme. For more details about the location and rental fee for those artists considering taking up a residence at Greatmore, please contact André Barnard on +27214479699 or email your enquires to artmore@mweb.co.za.
South "Be quite and calm my countrymen, for what is taking place now is what you came here to do. We are all going to die, and that is what we came for. Brothers, we are drilling the death drill. I, a Zulu, say here and now that you are all my brothers... Xhosas, Swazis, Pondos, Basotho and all others, let us die like warriors. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war cries my brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais back in the kraals, our voices are left with our bodies..." (The Reverend Isaac Wauchope Dyobha)
Resident artist to Greatmore Studios, Madi Phala was recently commissioned by The Sunday Times to produce a public sculpture at the Old South African Native Labour Contingent training ground that forms a part of the University of Cape Town. Phala’s piece that is yet to be unveiled brings a voice to a silent story about blacks working in defense of South Africa. The public monument commemorates the sinking of the historic SS Mendi ship in 1917 that marks one of South Africa’s worst military disasters, taking the lives of 607 black privatesduring World War I. The legend of the bravery of the ship’s chaplain Reverend Isaac wauchope Dyobha’s encouraging prayer for the soldiers as the ship sunk, is also captured in this piece. 2007 will be the 90th anniversary of the Mendi tragedy. TAG would like to congratulate Madi Phala on such a prestigious opportunity that will have resonance throughout the generations. It is truly in looking at the tragedies of the past that we can carve a path forward.
Greatmore Studios’ trustee, Jill Trappler, invites keen individuals to participate in life drawing classes on Tuesday evenings at the Orange Street Studios for a fee of R60 per session with live models posing.Jill appeals to artists who have worked at the Studios, to submit work between 4 and 6 December for an opening exhibition on 8 December at 6 pm to close on Sunday 10 December. The studio is scheduled to reopen on 16 January 2007. For more information please contact Jill Trappler at trappler@telkomsa.net.
A team of international curators from Switzerland, Senegal, and Nigeria will converge with ten local emerging and established curators on RobbenIsland from 20 November to 1 December, as part of a two-week workshop organised by VANSA. The workshop will provide an opportunity for invited curators to showcase there past work as well as create a platform for the exchange of ideas for future collaborative projects. Formal curatorial practice is still embryonic on the continent, and the series of workshops will attempt to address the challenges facing contemporary curators working in various African contexts. The role of the visual arts to promote social change and activism will be emphasised. Local participation in the workshops has since closed.
EXPERIENCE IT OPPORTUNITIES IN RESIDENCY, COMPETITIONS & EXHBITION OPPORTUNITIES
Artists are invited to submit applications for to exhibit work at the Design Indaba Expo
The Department of Economic Development and Tourism is calling for artists and designers to submit applications to be considered to exhibit their work at the Design Indaba Expo 2007 in Cape Town. Artists and designer who have an existing product or professional body of work that is finished and market-ready, that has a contemporary design aesthetic and could be marketable in an international context are welcome. The opportunity will afford local artist international exposure. Please direct queries to Cindy Poole at Trans Cape http://www.capeafrica.org/
X-Cape invites Artists to submit applications for participationin TRANS CAPE 2007
X CAPE invites artists and cultural practitioners from across South Africa working in film, performance, music, film, street art, or poetry that engages contemporary African themes, to submit proposals for forthcoming exhibitions or events that will coincide with the TRANS CAPE exhibition running from 24 March to 02 May, 2007 spanning over 20 venues and sites along a cultural route across Cape Metropolitan area. CAPE will provide artists and projects with administrative and marketing support through funding from various streams. All participating events will be included in the TRANS CAPE Pocket Guide Book given to visitors at the exhibition. Registration forms available online at http://www.capeafrica.org/ must be submitted by 20 January 2007. Alternatively email a request to X-CAPE Coordinator Storm Janse van Rensburg at storm@capeafrica.org .
Fri-Art invites applications for the post of director Switzerland
Fri-Art, centre d’art contemporain – kunsthalle a cultural institution dedicated to contemporary art in Fribourg, Switzerland, invites applications for the post of director. Since its creation, Fri-Art has developed several socially and politically conscious projects. It has also presented some of the most innovative artists, ideas and movements around on the regional, national and international contemporary art scene. The general responsibilities of a director at the center would include managing the general day-to-day running of Fri-Art, as well as creating and implementing innovative artistic projects that have a strong resonance for the national and the international contemporary art scene. Other tasks include human resource management, administration, as well as the establishment and development of an educational outreach project. The director is expected to also foster links between Fri-Art’s public and private partners from other organizations in the contemporary art community. A team of professionals is committed to assist the director(s) in these tasks. Applicants should be actively involved in the contemporary art scene, display leadership skills as well as have an in-depth knowledge of the Swiss and international art scene. Fluency in French, German and English are required. The successful applicant will commence work on 1 September 2007 with residence provided in Fribourg, Switzerland. For more information visit www.fri-art.ch. Applications should include a covering letter and a detailed description of the artistic project (2 A4 pages) developed with Fri-Art specifically in mind. Applications should be posted to: Fri-Art, Madame Claudia Buol, Route de la Vignettaz, 27,1700,Fribourg. The deadline for submission is 29 December 2006. For any enquires contact Claudia Buol at claudiabuol@dplanet.ch.
The Cartier Award for emerging artists living outside the UK is a major initiative by Frieze Projects in collaboration with Gasworks. Artists are invited to propose a new work to be realized at Frieze Art Fair 2007 , which will be produced under the auspices of Frieze Projects. Projects may take the form of site-specific installation; performance, film, video and print work. The award includes: 3-month residency at Gasworks from mid September to mid December 2007 including accommodation, per diems and travel expenses. Deadline for applications is 5 January 2007.For more information visithttp://www.friezeartfair.com/cartieraward/faq.htm
Art Omi International Artists Residency 2007, New York
The International Artists Residency is a three week Residency Program for visual artists in upstate New York. Art Omi provides artists with a studio, living quarters and meals at no cost to the artist. Artists are required to pay for their travel and art materials, however, artists are encouraged to apply for one of several Fellowships to help with such costs. The Residency takes place for three weeks during the month of July. Each year, a different critic-in-residence leads a set of panel discussions and initiates one-on-one studio visits with the artists. Proximity to New York City, affords artists exposure to prominent critics, gallerists, curators, and fellow artists. The opportunity promises to provide valuable contacts through various informal encounters. For more info please visit
http://www.artomi.org/artomi.htm
Kuona Trust, a sister organisation of Greatmore Studios in Kenya have opened up applications to artists wanting to participate in a Wasanii International workshop is in 2008. Applications for the workshop will be accepted until early 2008.For more information please email danda@kuonatrust.org .For for information about Kuona Trust,please visit http://www.kuonatrust.org
