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Bernardo (Pak) Guiamba performs in Influx, a work he created with Gerald Machona. -
iJoowish (all the girls in pretty dresses) was a live performance by artist Buhlebezwe Siwani. -
An installation of speaker cabinets evocative of the Intonarumori acoustic musical instruments of Italian Futurist composer Luigi Russolo, through which James Webb’s aural work Children of the Revolution played. It’s a reworking of the eponymous T. Rex glam rock anthem into a Xhosa protest song. The track was arranged in collaboration with composer and choir leader Bongani Magatyana, and sung by Aviwe Kalipha, Linda Thole, Babalwa Mrwetyana, Lindelwa Siqwepu, Marompo Runeli, Simthembile Lugotyo, Ziyanda Siqwepu, Thembulethu Bolo, Paul Petros and Siyabulela Qwabe. -
In the work Cut, Make Trim, Igshaan Adams evokes the kind of makeshift home factories to which the clothing industry in the Western Cape has moved. -
Nelisiwe Xaba -
Amy Watson -
Mary Corrigall
PHOTOS Adam Munro / courtesy of Off Plan International WORDS Malibongwe Tyilo
A new collective on the local art scene, Off Plan International, is set on creating new platforms for performance art.
One of the featured projects during Art Week Cape Town in February was Live Architecture: The 55 Minute Hour. Staged in an unused factory building in Woodstock, it was an exploration of the area’s industrial history and gentrification by artists across various disciplines, including performance art, sound art and fashion.
The event was curated by a new collective, consisting of art historian and consultant Mary Corrigall, independent curator Amy Watson, and dancer and choreographer Nelisiwe Xaba. Called Off Plan International, it focuses on creating alternative platforms for visual art and performance art outside of commercial spaces such as art fairs, galleries and museums.
How did Off Plan come about?
Mary: It evolved out of discussions over a number of years with people in the arts who were interested in creating new platforms for performance art in Johannesburg. We felt that the current platforms where performance art are accommodated limit how it is conceived, and as such it has been unable to evolve.
Amy: Off Plan is a collaborative effort to create the conditions and opportunities for artists across disciplines to realise experimental, ambitious and critical works that might otherwise not have been realised.
What kind of projects do you plan to focus on?
Nelisiwe: We are only interested in live art, performance art and performance, installations and video.
Amy: We especially want to commission interdisciplinary works that respond to architectural sites, in particular those with a history that’s been largely obscured or overlooked.
Mary: We’re looking at teasing out their histories and proposing future functions for them via performance that could contribute towards our society in meaningful ways.
As far as you can see into the future, will Off Plan always be presented alongside bigger events such as art fairs?
Nelisiwe: We hope to in time create our own platform, where we are not a side event but the main event.
What is next for Off Plan?
Mary: We have been developing a project that responds to a site in Johannesburg where we plan to realise a performance programme in the near future. We also plan to undertake research residencies across Africa to get a better sense of performance on the continent and to establish and develop relationships with practitioners in various creative disciplines.
