Art in the Capital City

My home town, Pretoria, does not always seem to be a great place to live when one is an artist. Yes, I know it is the capital city, but there is something nostalgic about calling it a town. Artist André Naudé once told me that he sees Pretoria as still being a “dorp”. How will the Jacaranda city respond to Cape Town being the 2014 design capital of the world?

The answer is an initiative called The Cool Capital 2014 Biennale. It is described on the official website, www.coolcapital.co.za, as “the world’s first uncurated, DIY, guerrilla biennale: a place for citizens of the Capital City to collectively contemplate and express why we love our City and how we can improve it”. For someone who really loves Pretoria I think this is an amazing concept and a chance to show the country what we have to offer in terms of not only visual arts, but performing arts as well. From 29 August to 15 November Pretoria will showcase what the city has to offer in terms of art, architecture, design, film and music.

Not only do I support Cool Capital 2014, I am very proud to say that I will be an active part of it. Keep 1 November open as we will be having a fashion show at St. Lorient Fashion and Art Gallery. The show will be collaboration between fine artists, fashion designers and textile designers from Pretoria. It works as follows: the artist will choose one of their works, in any medium and hand it over to a team of fashion designers and a textile designer. The team will interpret the work and create a garment and hand printed fabric based on their understanding of the artwork. The resulting garments will be showcased in an event at the gallery on 1 November. The garments, along with the artwork will then remain on display for three weeks.

Artists taking part in the collaboration are André Naudé, Celia de Villiers, Tommy Motswai, Petro Neal, Anton Smit, Thelma van Rensburg, Gwenneth Miller, Tanisha Bhana, Gordon Froud and Michaela Janse van Vuuren. To view their work, visit www.art.co.za.  The two artists that I will be working with for the show are Thelma van Rensburg and Gwenneth Miller.

Hope to see you there!

Peace and love

Clara

PS: Biennale refers to an event taking place every second year. Here’s hoping to participate again in 2016 and a successful 2014.

PPS: St. Lorient Fashion and Art Gallery’s address is 492, Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn Circle, Brooklyn, Pretoria and readers can visit their website at www.stlorient.co.za .