I attended the International Public Art Festival in 2020 earlier than the pandemic hit Cape Town. It’s one of many final occasions I attended. I’m an enormous fan of avenue murals as a result of it makes artwork accessible to everybody, it’s free to view and uplifts communities. I labored in Woodstock, Cape Town at the time my workplace constructing was proper between the border of Salt River and Woodstock. Both areas are well-known for his or her vibrant murals. And I typically noticed murals strolling to and from work. I used to be taking the bus on the time.
There’s murals principally in Observatory, Woodstock and Salt River. You will discover a couple of within the CBD however the remainder of Cape Town doesn’t have as a lot murals. So I did some analysis on murals in South Africa and Cape Town. I discovered numerous info. I’ll share a number of the hyperlinks I learn on the finish of this submit.
And that’s once I discovered about BAZ Art, it’s an NGO which seeks to make use of artwork to attach and uplift communities. They construct partnerships between native residents, communities, companies and artists. The secret is to make use of sustainable growth to establish alternatives after which construct up the abilities, data, coaching , expertise and many others. wanted to assist people profit from these alternatives. For instance in Salt River there are lots of open items of uncared for land, strewn with piles of garbage. BAZ Art has partnered with different NGO’s and group members to show these deserted garbage heaps into gardens, and playgrounds.
The IPAF is an annual occasion the place each native and worldwide artists paint murals round Salt River. Each yr there’s a distinct theme and every theme is linked to the goals of BAZ Art. The occasion consists of free guided excursions of the murals and the tour guides are very educated. My information spoke in regards to the murals, the artists, the organisation and the historical past of the group. It’s not simply in regards to the artwork. I bear in mind her mentioning the mural of a pangolin by the Belgian artist ROA and her saying how a lot she admires his work. She additionally spoke about how Salt River grew to become economically depressed as a consequence of globalisation forcing clothes and different textile factories within the space to shut down. Cheaper imports from China made South African garment employees out of date. The group suffered from excessive unemployment charges, which led to elevated crime, abuse, drug dependency and gangsterism. NGOs like BAZ Art assist rebuild the group by using locals to be tour guides and to take care of gardens in addition to playgrounds.
IPAF 2021 was very completely different. It was self-guided on condition that Covid got here alongside and wrecked the whole lot. The occasion continued nonetheless. This time I selected to not attend. All Covid protocols had been adhered to however I simply felt higher staying in doorways for this one. Hopefully issues might be higher quickly and I’ll get to go to the subsequent IPAF.
This yr I selected to take a look at earlier movies right here:
The web site:
I comply with the IPAF on Instagram:
More details about murals in South Africa:
Thank you for studying and let me know what you suppose within the remark part. I’d love to listen to from you. If you might have any questions on this text or about running a blog, Cape Town or South Africa on the whole please don’t hesitate to ask.
