Infecting the City: All you need to know

Streets, walkways, plazas, and corridors all became performance spaces as the 8th annual Infecting The City kicked off in Cape Town yesterday evening on March 9 at 6pm on Church Square. The programme continues to unfold throughout the week ending on Saturday, March 14.

Here’s a message from the festival detailing all you need to know about the events.

Here are some of the key things to know about Infecting The City 2015:
·Curator(s) – Infecting The City 2015 has been curated by a team with diverse ideas about how art engages audiences and functions in public space. The Festival has a wide variety of art forms including dance, visual and performance art, music and some that defy definition all of , which will provide audiences with a variety of different types of experiences.

·Routes On and Off – There are daytime and evening performances, and much of the Festival is designed as routes. This year, some of the routes are planned around hubs of activity – central spaces that are activated for the whole day with various installations, participatory artworks and performances. Beyond the scheduled performances, there are artworks that run throughout the Festival, as well as artworks that are mobile, without time or place, and that can only be experienced if stumbled upon.

·Performance Times – The Programme indicates the locations and order in which works will be presented on the respective routes, as well as the timeframes for these presentations. We have to use timeframes, as moving audiences from artwork to artwork along a route makes it impossible to publish exact starting and ending times for each performance.

·Festival Information – This year, there will have two Festival Information Centres on St George’s Mall, between Wale and Waterkant Street. These will offer detailed Programme and Festival information. Consult www.infectingthecity.com for regular updates.

·Dinner Time – The evening Programmes have been structured to include a dinner break, where audiences will be treated to a broad range of food and drink delicacies thanks to the creativity of one our key donors, Spier. Come hungry and thirsty, as this isn’t to be missed.

·Youth Development – In previous versions of Infecting the City, youth attended workshops and were brought in largely as spectators. This year, they actively participate in the Programme throughout the week as well.

Public Art Symposium – in collaboration with Infecting the City, The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) will host Remaking Place, a symposium about public art, from 8-13 March 2015. Members of the public are welcome, and admission is free.

All of the items in the Festival are free of charge.

Speaking at the launch of the programme, curator Jay Pather summed up the audience experience of Infecting The City; “There is something extraordinary about standing next to a complete stranger and taking in an artwork in a public space, a space that on any other day is purely functional, but that – from then on – is embedded with meaning that both yourself and your neighbour will take home, turn over in your mind and remember. The space may never be the same and nor will your association with it.”

Here is programme B outlining the activities for today:

Watch the video from yesterday’s shows:

For more information, visit www.infectingthecity.com