new Art new Audiences 2020 selected projects

Drum up a Circus (with Southern Africa)

Partners: Circus Zambia, Ingoma Nshya, NoFit State Circus from Wales

The collaborative creation of a new cross art form production, that challenges the gendered roles prescribed by society. Fusing Zambian and European circus styles together with a female led development of traditional Rwandan drumming, the new production will celebrate the unique strengths of the partners. Together they will create a piece of live arts that can not only cross audience boundaries but also change their assumptions of the performers and the arts forms.

The Feminine and the Foreign (with Southern Africa)

Partners: LIFT Festival, Infecting the City, The Nest Collective

The Feminine and the Foreign is a series of short films profiling activists involved in queer, feminist and anti-colonial movements in Cape Town, Nairobi and London. This multi-city exploration will be made by Nairobi’s The Nest Collective and commissioned by Infecting the City and LIFT festivals. Working with British, Kenyan and South African young activists aged 18-35 as film subjects, The Nest will develop a new style of festival-ready filmmaking. Films will be created in London, Nairobi and Cape Town and reach live and digital audiences through festival screenings and online dissemination. Wrap-around events such as talks and workshops will further embed and deepen the project and The Nest's reach in both cities.

Powerplay (with West Africa)

Partners: National Gallery Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, arebyte Gallery London

p o w e r p l a y is a group exhibition featuring artists working with digital media, video and technology co-commissioned by London-based arebyte Gallery and the National Gallery Zimbabwe (NGZ) in Bulawayo. Championing digital artists based in Nigeria (Mr Color, Tito Aderemi Ibitola), South Africa (Vincent Bezuidenhout, Scumboy, King Debs), Zimbabwe (Mbakisi Sibanda, Kumbirai Makumbe), Nairobi (Isaac Kariuki) and the UK (Dani Ploeger, Christopher MacInnes), the exhibition discusses the use of technology in creating a sense of identity and place. Taking place both online and offline, the multi-sited exhibition format interrogates the juxtaposition between the virtual and the real.

Is’Xaxa: A Communal Practice (with West Africa)

Partners: Mushroom Hour (South Africa -SA), Total Refreshment Centre (UK), Church of Sound (UK), Emma Warren (UK), Theodorah Ndlovu (UK / SA), Tabara Korka (Senegal).

South African based independent music label Mushroom Hour Half Hour has partnered with the Total Refreshment Centre (UK), the Church of Sound (UK), Tabara Korka (Senegal), Emma Warren (UK) and Theodorah Ndlovu (UK) to conceptualise and produce Is’Xaxa, a music-centred multi-disciplinary collaborative project that will bring together creative organisations, musicians, producers, writers, fine artists, photographers, filmmakers and designers from London, Dakar and Johannesburg to create and showcase new experimental works across disciplines and to new audiences. The core discipline at the heart of the Is’Xaxa project is music with a selection of musicians from the burgeoning “New Jazz” scenes in South Africa and London working together to record and co-release a collaborative 4-track music EP. Selected musicians from South Africa will travel to London UK for a week to collaborate and record four songs with selected UK musicians at the Total Refreshment Centre studios. The UK trip will end with a live performance by the South African artists at the Church of Sound in London. The project will also bring together writers, fine artists, photographers, filmmakers and designers from South Africa, Senegal and the UK to create experimental films and zine publications documenting the artistic processes and experiences of the Is’Xaxa project. The Is’Xaxa project will end with the online and physical release of the 4-track music EP, screening (online and offline) of the project film, the distribution of the Fan Zines and project product launch events in London, Dakar and Johannesburg.

Ubuntu (with Southern Africa)

Partners: Conor Cronin, Kate Cox, Nataal (UK), Mami Wata

Unbuntu is a 10-minute Conceptual Documentary exploring the ways in which surfing empowers women in Africa through a new lineage of female surfers in Dakar, Senegal, and the spreading wave of collecting and repurposing ocean plastics into African craft. By linking filmmakers in the UK with artists and designers in South and West Africa through sustainable design we repurpose ocean plastics to highlight the important role the ocean plays in empowering women to learn to surf against the tide of the patriarchy and to look after the ocean for future generations of women to be able to surf also.

Tone & Trait (with Southern Africa)

Partners: Terra Alta (Ghana), Bubblegum Club (SA) / Featuring: Efua Sutherland, Halima Gadji, Marvin Dieterich / Directed by: Oualid Khelifi

Tone & Trait will explore misconceptions and myths around fitting or not within a spectrum of skin colour and facial features in Senegal, Ghana and South Africa. Through three emblematic performers, It aims to present contemporary portraits of how tone and trait still shapes artistic postures of African youngsters. This body of artwork will have two outputs: three docufiction art films of 3 minutes each + a 30 minutes interactive multimedia performance. In both formats, each performer will take on societal perceptions towards her/his own persona: physical and cyber as two-pillar dimensions to one’s image in today’s hybrid reality.

HAFIKA (West Africa + East Africa + UK)

Partners: Open Arts, Hekaya Initiative, Afrikult

Return (West Africa + East Africa + UK)

Partners: Akeelah Bertram, Jonathan Dotse, Irma Wange

Rewomb (East Africa + West Africa + UK)

Partners: Natacha Muziramakenga Natacha,  Tabaro Poupoute, Orlane ‘Aela’ Mwanayera, Grace Holyoake-Ward (Grackyl), Maria Velasquez.... and more

Telling Tales (Southern Africa + West Africa + UK)

Partners: Djamila de Sousa, Wacy Zacarias, Thabisa Mjo, Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg, Yemi Awosile