Public Art Talk / by Valeria Geselev

Contemporary Public Art from Cape Town A TALK BY CURATOR VALERIA GESELEV

page 1 of 4

XCollektiv

Tired of old-school statues and disillusioned by modern notions of public art, the born-free generation of Post Apartheid South Africans uses their creative practice to construct new reality. On the way they re-imagine the power of art in the social context

A walk through the streets of cape town feels like classic Europe, imported trees are shedding beautiful brown leaves, Victorian architecture that makes you feel intimidated by the scale of governmental buildings, White tourists trying to take pictures of all that utopia – making sure to crop out the homeless person from the frame.

ways of expressing creativity in public spaces.

The new public art scene that emerges from postApartheid has a potential to inspire globally.

Corresponding between old-school notions of public art and gentrification, Cape Town’s born-free artists are exploring ways of addressing creatively real social issues.

Cape Town has inherited most of its aesthetics from the Euro-centric colonial settlers that ruled the Southern African land, until officially removed in 1994. The task of de-colonising the way things work & look is an urgent obsession of the new generation. Artists are playing a significant role in this fascinating reality – re-imagining site-specific

The stories of those individuals and their creative projects provide a window into recent interventions from Cape Town, which is emerging as a capital of new public art. Including works by Tebogo Munyai, XCollektiv, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Frank Lunar, Khanyisile Mbongwa and Burning Museum.

Illustrator Frank Lunar playfully publishes a colouring book for the hyper-policing/ed residnets of one fancy neighborhood, which requires all its flats to hang white curtains only

Visual artist Haroon Gunn-Salie uses as his canvas street signage that often carries irrelevant names and meanings

The archive includes, but is not limited to :

Choreographer Tebogo Munyai bridges the gaps between the ‘developed’ suburbs and the ‘informal’ settlements with dance installations

page 2 of 4

©Valeria Geselev 2016

Valeria Geselev is an independent curator with passion for public art and an extraordinary SovietIsraeli accent. Since graduating UCT Honours in Curatorship (2013) she parked in Cape Town and is busy with experimental projects, which include interventions, pop-up exhibitions in public spaces and publications. Via Yalla Shoola independent art agency she researches, writes and curates with socially engaged art in mind. Her current projects are –a tour of Halfbread Technique performance lecture on post-Capitalism; Social Engineering travelling lecture

introducing public art for high schools; Harare

Yallashoola.tumblr.com

YallaShoola@gmail.com

Academy of Inspiration and White Curtains exhibition about politics & conformity.

In the last 3 years Valeria Geselev has lived and breathed Cape Town politically engaged arts practice.

She has gathered stories from local artists that act as social engineers, and is sharing her archives of inspiration to initiate conversations about the potential of arts in transforming social constructions.

Previously collaborated with :

page 3 of 4

ŠValeria Geselev 2016

Dathini Mzayiya, Woodstock Cape Town 2015

page 4 of 4