K2KPAF 7784 INVASION Kasi-2-Kasi Public Art Festival in Khayelitsha on 4 June

After two successful editions of the Kasi-2-Kasi Public Art Festival (K2KPAF) in Delft and Gugulethu, Theatre4Change in partnership with the Community Arts and Culture Centres Federation of the Western Cape and the Collective of Creative Artists (COCA) are pleased to announce another round of the festival, subtitled 7784 INVASION, to be held in Khayelitsha on 4 June at 13:00. Leading the festival are Mandisi Sindo (artistic director and curator) and Azuza Radu (project manager and co-ordinator), with COCA offering strategic help to the organisers and artists.

K2KPAF 7784 INVASION will travel through Sections TR, U, SS and SS of Site B in Khayelitsha, departing from Tembisa Ratanga and journeying through creative spaces, backyards, intersections, taverns, shopping malls and gardens, with stops on street corners and traffic islands and under trees, all leading to the final performance at Makukhanye Art Room. Audiences will witness performances featuring the best of Cape Town's professional and upcoming creatives telling their stories, in their individual languages, and in their own community corners, as all performances, exhibitions, feedback sessions, reflections and discussions take place in open public spaces or in any other space where performances can be positioned or take place. Azuza Radu comments on the reasons why K2KPAF is set up in this way:

I believe public space is something each community deserves to honour and appreciate as a reflection of a shared expression, but many don't see public art as means to that end. Every space can be a performance space.

Approximately fifteen performances of about 15-25 minutes are performed on each K2KPAF festival day, with each company, group or individual allocated one performance per programme, after which discussions will occur based on all the works presented. Everyone who is present is allowed to take part in the discussions. Artists will be encouraged to research themes, topics and concepts by using the mass media and social media as well as by interacting with their communities as sources to develop their pieces.

Prior to the festival day itself, from 23 - 27 May, there will be classes in dance, drama, visual art and music facilitated by active and committed Capetonian artists at the Makukhanye Art Room, Tembisa Ratanga, the Andile Msizi Recreational Centre, the Khayelitsha Stadium and Outside on the Street. On 29 May, flashmobs directed by Mzo Gasa of COCA and Sibonelo Dance Project, will be seen around the streets of Khayelitsha. Gasa says:

Young people and adults in the communities are hungry for knowledge and this is our opportunity to serve our black nation by providing the need

K2KPAF is a unique and original public art festival, regarded as one of the premier public art platforms in South Africa. The festival is designed to take place in different disadvantaged townships and rural areas. Mandisi Disi Sindo of Theatre4Change reflects on the social function of these festivals:

The concept behind the festival is to awaken the dead spaces in the communities, areas that are not seen to breathe or represent the people who occupy them. Our two previous festivals shown that public art is a need to our people hence we want this festival to take place quarterly in each deprived township of this country.

Every run of the festival aims to feature semi-professionals alongside established choreographers, directors, composers and visual artists, as well as to introduce multiple forms of creativity to both upcoming and established artists and to audiences. Through this interaction, K2KPAF hopes to encourage and contribute to the development of new artistic South African work by providing a platform for artists who want to venture into public art creation, thereby improving the arts industry and creative sector. To this end, K2KPAF provides mentorship programmes, consultations with and workshops to needy artists from the community theatre stream. Ultimately, K2KPAF hopes to develop a space that creates unity amongst artists from different communities of Cape Town, one that is beneficial not only to artists based in Cape Town, but also to those working on national and international platforms.

For further enquiries about K2KPAF or more information on routes and times for 7784 INVASION, contact K2KPAF by email on kasi2kasipublicartfestival@gmail.com.

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