Last week was the irrepressibly contagious Infecting The City Public Arts Festival, which turned Cape Town’s central streets into a stage. Photographer Sydelle Willow Smith shot this striking photo essay for us so that you can either fondly remember the highlights or, at least, taste what you missed.

In recent years public art has continued to expand beyond the familiar and more permanent examples like sculpture. Instead, is a wider more inclusive spirit of public art champions dance, theatre, performance art and, even, controversial intervention. All of which is, of course, taken out of traditional spaces, into spaces where the public can’t interact easily. 

Pioneering this progressive approach to public art for the past seven years now, is the Infecting The City Public Arts Festival that, from 10 to 15 March, gave Capetonians a taste of what life could be like if our city throbbed with daily public art events. The festival saw over 300 artists take over the city and present work in a variety of venues including street corners, sidewalks, squares, gallery steps, public gardens and museums. The real treat for is that all of this was free, gratis, mahala. With an evening and an afternoon programme, a step outside the office for lunch turned into surprise art shows for many.

Besides being an official World Design Capital 2014 project, this year’s festival was also made special by award-winning shows like Nelisiwe Xaba and Mocke J Van Veuren’s Uncles and Angels, which won the coveted FNB Art Prize in 2013, made it all the more special. Standard Bank Award winner for dance in 2011, Mamela Nyamza also presented a new work in collaboration with actress Faniswa Yisa, which they debuted last year in France at the Festival d’Avignon, and brought home for the first time at the festival. 

“Our intentions with this festival are to bring curiosity, wonder, beauty, empathy, pain and new ideas out onto the streets for everyone to engage with,” explains Tanner Mervin, executive director of the Africa Centre, the non-profit organisation behind the festival.

infectingthecity.com

View our highlights from last year’s Infecting the City here.

See more of Sydelle Willow Smith’s photo essays here.

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Coming up from Friday 27 September to Sunday 29 September at the Sandton Convention Centre, we’re excited for the FNB Joburg Art Fair, which this year turns its lens on the fine art of photography. Here’s a taste of what’s to come.

The often under-appreciated medium of photography takes centre stage at the sixth Johannesburg Art Fair with the featured artist for the year being the acclaimed David Goldblatt. He will show work from his series The Structure of Things Then – and After, which is a rather architectural collection, looking at personal expression through what we make and build. Spanning the years from 1961 to the present, the images tell a story of South Africa’s cultural, political and economic milieu through buildings.

Other notable photography on display includes Roger Ballen’s, which will include a retrospective of his work at the CIRCA Gallery Space stand, as well as the launch of the Roger Ballen Die Antwoord monograph by Jacana books.

Santu Mofokeng’s The Black Photo Album: 1890-1950 will show in a curated space; and Nandipha Mntambo’s new photographic series will take up the Pirelli Space.

The exhibition African Emerging Photography, meanwhile will present an overview of a new generation of African photographers.

Video installations also play an important role in this year’s art fair. Mohau Modisakeng will show his latest video installation, Inzilo, which looks at bereavement and the process of grieving.

The winner of this year’s FNB Art Prize is also a video installation piece. Using 3D video techniques. Uncles & Angels is a collaboration between artist Mocke J Van Veuren and dancer Nelisiwe Xaba, which is based on the Swazi reed dance and explores feminine notions of purity and virginity in a patriarchal context.

Aside from the digital arts, a huge range of artists from various of traditions, including painting, printmaking and sculpture, will be represented by 33 local and international galleries, and featured in 21 special projects.

Tickets are R50 a person on Friday, and R100 a person on Saturday and Sunday, and can be bought online at www.webtickets.co.za. For more information visit www.fnbjoburgartfair.co.za.

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