Brave the Cold this winter for HEAT Winter Arts Festival. The rain will fall and the wind will blow but over 12 days in July the city centre will feel some heat with a new arts festival designed to combat the winter blues. Â
- From July 11 to 21 HEAT festival boasts a feast of art with over 15 exhibitions in walking distance of each other united by the theme Common Ground.
Abongile Sidzumo is one of the artists showing at Ebony/Curated. (Photo above)Â Desire Marea, the musician, will debut paintings at Ecletica Contemporary, depicting an imagined love story between two male Zulu warriors. At Kalashnikovv Gallery, Kylie Wentzel turns her painterly gaze on the community hub that the Botanical Gardens in Durban has provided. The politics of taste and social mores are tested at Sisonke gallery’s Unfiltered, which presents artworks that have been ‘censored.’ Sue Pam Grant will create an immersive set, made up of paintings for her theatre/art installation at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Complementing these exhibitions are opera performances, jazz, a comprehensive theatre programme and Angolan salsa classes at venues all within walking distance enabling festivalgoers to navigate the offerings on foot.
Common Ground is a fitting framing for the HEAT festival not only due to the political outcome of the recent elections but as it has been conceived to connect galleries, artists, performers, venues, collectors and theatre practitioners during Cape Town’s cold and quiet month of July.
The participating galleries presenting exhibitions are; The AVA, Christopher Moller, Ebony/Curated, Eclectica Contemporary, Kalashnikovv, 99 Loop Gallery, Iziko South African National Gallery, Michaelis Galleries, Nel Gallery, Reservoir Projects, Sisonke Gallery, Under the Aegis, Union House by Spier Arts Trust, Vela Projects and WORLDART. The public can engage directly with some artists and curators during Meet-the-Artist events. The first will be staged at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel on July 11 and hosted by Moloi.
Myanyiseli Dyanti
As with the art, the focus is on presenting works by young rising performers. Acclaimed conductor and pianist Jeremy Silver has curated three operatic concerts performed by some of Opera UCT’s most promising students. Myanyiseli Dyanti is one of the tenors performing at a concert staged by Opera UCT at the Spin Gallery on July 21. Slowlife, a jazz platform established by Paul Kahanovitz, will bring two rising jazz bands to HEAT; Operation Khataza and The Johnny Wxlf Experience.
The theatre programme is headlined by Rob Van Vuuren, a celebrated local theatre-maker and actor who will present two works at the festival. Sophie Jones of Spark in the Dark, Sibuyiselo Dywili and Siphenathi Siqwayi of Double Impact, Dara Beth of Furies & Co, Andi Colombo, Aldo Brincat, Ayanda ka Nobakabowna and Mfundo Zono of Okwamanzi Arts Junction and Pichi Keane will stage works that connect to some of the pronounced themes that define the visual arts programme. The theatrical works are mostly staged at the Wave Theatre on Long Street.
“In creating a themed festival we wanted to establish a context for connections to emerge between artists, musicians, theatremakers and curators. This not only brings a fractured art community closer together but makes for an enticing experience for festivalgoers,” says Mary Corrigall, founder of the HEAT festival.
Bringing Capetonians closer together will manifest literally through a series of Kizomba classes by Klinsmann Ferreira. This Angolan dancer will introduce this slow, intimate dance form, which not only generates heat but demands that people come together. A night of stand-up-comedy curated by S’Qhamo Mangcu and Nishen Pather, which will be headlined by Yaaseen Barnes.
HEAT is staged at multiple venues across Cape Town’s city centre from July 11 to 21
WHAT: HEAT Winter Arts Festival
WHERE: Cape Town City Centre – multiple venues
WHEN: July 11 to 21, 2024
TICKETS:Â for performances, walkabouts and Meet-the-Artist events book HERE
INFO: E hello@heatfestival.org | VISIT
PHOTO: Abongile Sidzumo showing at Ebony/Curated
