Performance: ICA Live Art Festival (LAF) is on March 19 to April 2, 2022 in Cape Town, with 38 productions and will “touch particularly on the effects and after-effects of the pandemic.”

What: ICALive Art Festival (LAF)
When: March 19 to April 2, 2022
Venues: Sites across the city, including Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
Programme: The full ICA LAF  can be viewed online here
Cost: Tickets are free but space is limited. Booking recommended. Booking will open on March 9, 2022.
Direct link on ICA website: http://www.ica.uct.ac.za/ica/projects/LiveArtFestival
Information: ica@uct.ac.za.
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Great news that the ICA’s Live Art Festival (LAF) is back as a live iteration – with an audience-in-attendance. LAF will be presented at sites across the city – including Kirstenbosch – from March 19 to April 2, 2022. As always, there is no charge to attend but it is essential to book. We are in Covid and still in lockdown and that means that tickets are limited for each performance. See box above for programme details or go directly to the ICA website http://www.ica.uct.ac.za/ica/projects/LiveArtFestival. The 2022 LAF – the 9th edition of the festival – will feature38 productions. The ICA is the Institute of Creative Arts, based at UCT. It was formerly called GIPCA. The ICA’s flagship Live Art Festival (LAF) is a biennial interdisciplinary festival, which began in 2012. “It is designed to challenge and extend the public’s experience of live art in a non-commercial environment and make accessible the work of visual and performing artists who explore new forms, break boundaries, flout aesthetic conventions, tackle controversy, confront audiences and experiment with perceptions.” The curator is Jay Pather. This year’s LAF, “will touch particularly on the effects and after-effects of the pandemic.” Info as supplied:

From ghost tours to sentient beings, the ICA Live Art Festival is back in the flesh!

Now that we can attend in-person events once again, 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!

“Ghosts rupture time by reminding us of the unfaced, unrestituted and unresolved,” says performance artist Chanelle Adams of the part meditative journey, part ghost tour that she is scheduled to present at the 2022 ICA Live Art Festival (LAF).

This is just one of numerous live art performances that will play an integral part of the festival, which runs from March 19 until April 3, 2022 and is located at multiple, intriguing sites across the city, including the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Like its counterparts on the programme, Adams’s performance Ghosts of Ravintsara/Camphor Trees has been created to challenge and extend the public’s experience of live art in a non-commercial environment. She describes the work as “an experiment in face-to-face encounters with ghosts… to release the future from historical horrors.”

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.

Artists participating at 2022 ICA Live Art Festival (LAF)

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.


Live Art in the era of the global pandemic

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.

Reflections from Jay Pather, director of the ICA

“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.”

Online programme

The full ICA LAF programme can be viewed online here. Tickets are free but space is limited, so those who are interested are encouraged to book early. Bookings will open on March 9, 2022. For more information, please email: ica@uct.ac.za.

International artists at LAF: Erick Androa Mindre Kolo from Paris/Kinshasa will be doing a performance at LAF 2022. Supplied.
LAF 2022: Mthuthuzeli Zimba’s Nature vs Nurture. “Zimba’s project explores the concept of ‘Nature vs Nurture. He looks at structural violence in relation to the black body. Through the iconography of a zinc metal shack, Zimba investigates how structure (the shack) nurtures the black body and how it is in the nature of the body to respond to the violence that comes with the structure…” Read more at: http://www.ica.uct.ac.za/MAMedium2021/Zimba

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