ICA Live Art Festival, is back in the flesh! The Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) at UCT is hosting its flagship Live Art Festival (LAF) in the public spaces it is meant to serve. “Our favourite biennial interdisciplinary event is back to disrupt and inspire!”
Numerous live art performances will play an integral part of the festival, which runs from 19 March until 3 April 2022 and is located at multiple, intriguing sites across the city, including the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
The artists taking part in the 38 productions in this groundbreaking festival will explore new forms, flout aesthetic conventions, confront audiences and experiment with different perceptions.
Featured South African artists include Tracey Rose, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Rehane Abrahams, Phumulani Ntuli, Albert Khoza and Princess Mhlongo, Ilze Wolff, Ntone Edjabe, Qondiswa James and Gavin Krastin. Also appearing will be international artists such as nora chipaumire from New York/Harare, Eric Androa Mindre Kolo from Paris/Kinshasa, Syowia Kyambi from Nairobi, and from Yaoundé, Zora Snake and Christian Etongo.
Cape Town’s iconic botanical garden, Kirstenbosch
The famed landscaped grounds are home to a myriad species of plants, insects, birds, reptiles and other animals.
But the irony of this setting is not lost on the festival’s curators and performers. In fact, they relish the opportunity to remind audiences that Kirstenbosch has a contested colonial past, and that our relationship with the fragile natural world remains complicated.
The seven works will engage with plants, politics, and history, allowing audiences to see and experience Kirstenbosch – and plants – in a fresh way. “Kirstenbosch is mostly framed as a site of nature, but once we look at it as a place of work, it becomes clear that it is also a space of politics,” says festival co-curator Melanie Boehi.
The Kirstenbosch programme explores different aspects of ecology and history. On Saturday 2 April 2022, Cape Town artist Ayesha Price and Adderley Street flower seller Karin Bachmann will lead a public workshop for participants who want to learn how to make flower arrangements and plant sculptures that reflect on stories about the past, place and belonging, using plant material from Kirstenbosch.
Asemahle Ntlonti, Infecting The City
Now in its ninth year, this flagship festival from the ICA touches on everything from how water is connected to blackness, rituals and the ancestral realm, to queerness and ecological urgency. This year, it will touch particularly on the effects and after-effects of the pandemic.
The festival is a journey you won’t want to miss for the inspiration generated by its spellbinding, sometimes unsettling, always engaging subject matter.
“After the past two years in which the global arts community and its passionate audiences and consumers have largely lost access to cultural events such as these, it is a relief that we can once again experience these immersive artworks in person,” says Jay Pather, director of the ICA.
Pather says: “It is incredibly heart-warming that the concerts, art events and festivals we all relish for inspiration and enrichment can be enjoyed in person once again.”
The full ICA LAF programme can be viewed online HERE.
WHAT: ICA Live Art Festival
WHERE: Throughout the City and Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens
WHEN: 19 March – 3 April 2022
BOOKING: Tickets are FREE but space is limited, so those who are interested are encouraged to book early. Bookings are NOW OPEN.
INFO: E ica@uct.ac.za | Visit
PHOTO: Lead Photo Nico Athene, Surfacing (Emerge) 2019;
See also Cape Town Green Map
