According to Ravi Naidoo, the managing director of the Design Indaba and its founding company International Africa, the Design Indaba is the “single biggest exhibition of contemporary African design”.
It draws from all quadrants of Africa including 18 African countries and showcases the work of 56 designers. The Indaba offers the Design Indaba Conference, Simulcast, Expo, FilmFest and Music Circuit plus various community initiatives, training workshops, design projects and publications. Whereas the conference has a global focus the expo or exhibition part is local.
However already the conference is fully booked. In fact, Naidoo said people bought tickets to the conference blind not knowing what was on offer. Such is the public’s faith in the reputation of the 19 year old Indaba.
Context is what Design Indaba offers. “We don’t try and outdo Milan –rather we are in context with Nairobi” And there is something for everyone, film buffs, musos, designers. It elicits global attention from both media and the public alike from Portland to Tokyo. Next year Naidoo has been invited to take a major African exhibition to Switzerland.
Why February? Isn’t Cape Town saturated with fairs and expos? Naidoo explains that in Europe every month is booked with fairs except February. So it’s a perfect slot in the global circuit calendar because it doesn’t clash with any other shows encouraging the international market and press to attend.
The design indaba isn’t about gallery or museum exhibitions nor is it just about decoration. It includes cutting edge apps and technology and it serves a buyers market and creates work. It doesn’t serve the have- it –alls 1% of the population but the 99%.
Proof of this in a report by the UCT Graduate School of Business which indicates that over the last five years the Design Indaba has added 1,3 billion to national revenue . Naidoo believes that the Design Indaba deserves more support from the government funding. Our government is shown up by the Danish government who have spent more in support of the Indaba than our own “With our revenue record we should be its poster boys.” said Naidoo
It’s easy to be completely overwhelmed by the choice of 200 events on offer at Design Indaba with music, fashion, film and design platforms. Naidoo suggest a few winners.
In apps and technology section is BRCK. It’s a new type of Internet modem perfect for coping with the outages and power surges experience in Africa. BRCK was developed by Ushahidi a Kenyan company which specialises in developing free and open source software, co-founded by Juliane Rotich who is also the executive director.
And from Cote d Ivoire is work by the architect and Yale graduate Issa Diabaté. Diabaté is the managing director of Koffi & Diabaté Architects and co-founder of the Koffi & Diabaté Group based in the Ivory Coast.
Entertainment comes in the form of ten movies. The expo will be previewing one a day. Two of the movies are Oscar nominees and another two are only being seen for the second time in the world. Naidoo mentions two particularly, Finding Fela and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Finding Fela premiered at the last Sundance Film Festival and its screening at the Design Indaba will be its African premiere. The venues are retro and al fresco. You can hop onto a MyCiTi bus and watch the film from one of 30 parked mini cars at a venue in Clifton or from the grass of the second quadrangle at the Castle with a picnic hamper.
The Design Indaba music festival show cases the work of 38 artists and includes genres such as jazz, hip hop, R & B. You’ll find the artist performing in a variety of venues from small intimate venues for 50 people to those that can accommodate 1000.
As for surprises, there are a few, and includes one to be unveiled at the conference. Naidoo will only hint at a new building project with Gaudi-esque feel.
Be there to catch the excitement, concludes Lucinda Jolly.
This article first appeared in The Cape Times on 24 February 2014. Lucinda Jolly is a freelance arts writer and Head of Journalism at City Varsity.
DESIGN INDABA. At the Cape Town International Convention Centre. From 28 February to March 2.
INFO: Contact 021 465 9966
021 465 9966. Website
