Organising: a workshop hosted by Visual Arts Network of South Africa
In October 2018, Ba re e ne re was invited to Johannesburg by VANSA to participate in a gathering of collectives, collaboratives and collaborations from the Southern African region. These forms of organisations (represented during the meeting by Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho) point to a shift in the power dynamics of creative practice, and a collective response by artists to find ways around and beyond limitations.
In summary, the call to action was sparked by VANSA’s reflections on the fact that in the absence of formalised infrastructures for production, skills transferal/professionalisation and development of new artistic expressions, young practitioners are coming together to make for themselves, informal and flexible structures that service as space to develop new productions, professional skills and shift the face of their creative landscapes. In so doing, loose groupings of organisers – who are often both creative and organising practitioners – are playing the role of both creative producers and ‘infrastructure’ for the development of the arts in their contexts.
These moves mirror interesting shifts in other parts of the ‘so-called’ Global South but exist still in small and under-explored ways. It was under this pretext that VANSA wished to begin the process of their exploration.
The full list of participants and facilitator are listed below:
Ba re e ne re literary festival – Lineo Segoete (Maseru, Lesotho)
Beyond Entropy Africa – Paula Nascimento (Luanda, Angola)
Counter Space – Sumayya Vally (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Da-Mai ensemble – Trixie Muyama (Windhoek, Namibia)
Inkanyiso – Lerato Dumse (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Invisible Cities Radio – Joao Orrechia (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Kino Kadre – Siphokazi Gwapi (Cape Town, South Africa)
Mushroom Half Hour – Andrew Curnow and Chumisa Ndakisa (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Poetavango – Legodile Seganabeng (Maun, Botswana)
Village Unhu – Misheck Masamvu (Harare, Zimbabwe)
facilitated by Ferdi Thajib from KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta Indonesia.
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