09/04/2019
Soweto Camp Festival Plug-in by Decolonial Futures Cultural Exchange Programme Team Press Release
Date : 19-22 April 2019
Venue : Mofolo Park, Mofolo, Soweto (Soweto camp festival)
Time : 19 Apr 10:00 – 22 Apr 15H00
For immediate release
The Sowetan Easter weekend will never be the same since the introduction of the Soweto Camp Festival seven years ago. The Decolonial Futures team, which is a Mollo Wa Ditshomo Primary Art Cooperative – run exchange programme at Funda Community College, South Africa in partnership with Sandberg Instituut and Rietveld Academie in The Kingdom of The Netherlands will be plugging into the festival in many ways.
The program has been running for eighteen months, it will culminate in an exchange of Funda students with students from these two Amsterdam-based institutions in 2019 and 2020. It is an attempt to decolonize the arts from the level of institutions right down to the individual. Our main aim is to create a decolonized arts environment, hence the nature of our plugging – in.
The first of these plug-in activities is the called “Launching the Lies” and will be facilitated by Kozmo Nteboheng Madworldg “. Launching the lies is a space project, an idea executed through launching water propelled rockets with the concept of political leaders attached to it, mottos and logos to space. By teaching kids and parents that rocket science is not as difficult as is made out to be, through the use of everyday recyclable materials found around the house to make a fun toy anyone can make at home. As we grew up with Kasi invented games like bathi and moghusha. And by merging it with the Soweto Camp Festival’s 2019 theme , we hope to launch all the political lies into space.
As we all know about the type of emotional roller-coaster that 2018 was, filled with many losses, among them the loss of three great giants in the HIP HOP industry – we are given the high spirit to march in honor. This sad fact reminded one of the saying “death comes in threes”.
Later in the year we lost an underground veteran “Mr. ‘WHY!!?? Do we have a police protection service??!!” AKA “Ben Sharper” (R.I.P) on the 26/07/2018.
We then we lost the “Number One Soweto Boy” “uBaba uPRO” AKA “PRO Kid” (R.I.P), on the 08/08/2018.
A couple of months down the line we lost Jabba man AKA HHP. (R.I.P) on the 24/10/2018. The Soweto Camp Festival will duly have a 3-hour tribute dedicated to the 3 late great legends.
The Decolonial Futures team, consisting of Njabulo Malata (Njabz), Dumisani Radebe (Dr. Equinox), Bukhosi Mzi Nyathi Lords Pen, Siwaphiwe Gwama and Mvelo Nyana KaNtu Mthimkhulu will be performing in remembrance of South African independent artistry. Decolonial Futures (DF) commemorating (BEN SHARPA).
Iskhathi samapopayi is a plug-in by Kamogelo Obakeng Matlawe (GuyThatAwkward) that turns people to cartoons through drawing. Come get yourself a cartooned like Saturday morning cartoon show in three various styles for a small fee.
1930s cartoon
Modern
Anime
You will walk away with an A3 portrait of yourself in any style of your choice from the styles above. 1930s is the earliest art style of cartoons used in the likes of Micky mouse, Popeye, Looney Toons and the like.
Modern is the modern-day art style of caricature with the signature of the artist who will cartoonise you.
Anime is the Japanese art style of cartoons that graced us with the likes of Dragon Ball, Bleach and Pokemon just to name a few. Festival-goers can come through and get an A3 portrait of themselves as the superhero that they always wanted to be when growing up.
Dumisani Radebe will be turning the moment into a ForEver through the plug-in of an impromptu photobooth using polaroid photography. Known as the PhotogRapper, Dr. E will be sharing moments with the lovely festival goers. They get to pose as if taking selfies with a makeshift silhouette of a dancing president for a small fee. They get these photos tagged on social media and also through the photo printout. The booth will be mobile around the festival.
The plug-in that includes gaming Four Pali will be facilitated by Njabulo Malata “Njabz” and will feature a 32 player FIFA 18/19 tournament. The tournament will be controlled by an affiliation fee of R100 per player and the winner to take a portion of the funds collected from players. There will be 2 game-stations including one where people play sparring matches among themselves.
A portion of proceeds from this Decolonial Futures Collaboration with Soweto Camp Festival will go towards fundraising for the Funda Community College Library, which is currently under the custodianship of the Funda Board and Mollo wa Ditshomo. This will also be in honour of the Prof. Es’kia Mphahlele Centenary being celebrated by Funda in 2019.
Then last but not least on Saturday the 20th of April 2019 you can catch Free The Arts Live performance by the Decolonial Futures. At the Soweto Camp Festival by Lords Pen, DR.E, Nyana Kantu and Njabz you can anticipate a mind blowing performance by these prolific word smiths.
The significance of Decolonial Futures involvement in the Soweto Camp Festival is that we want to decolonize the arts by us bringing it more to our townships which is our back yard.
With the involvement of kids as guests at the Soweto Camp Festival we love the fact that we will be proudly catering lovely packages of edutainment with skills and tools that they can add into their tool box of life. By utilizing the model of alternative education, the Decolonial Futures Team is actively raising awareness about the power of responding to community needs through Art.
ENDS
Note to Editors
About Mollo wa Ditshomo
Mollo wa Ditshomo is a youth-led Art Primary Co-operative that was founded in 2014. It is an organization of young people active in the arts, both Visual and Performing Arts. The group started off meeting on a monthly basis on the last Saturday of every month just as a social gathering of poets, hip-hop artists, instrumentalists, musicians, performers, producers, visual artists, graphic designers etc. and using this platform to express and share their talents.
It has since gone on to actively address needs such as the promotion of the culture of entrepreneurship thinking and lifestyle among young artists. It is also doing this through initiatives such as the incubation, coaching, mentoring of members through the Funda Centre for Enterprise Development, towards creating sustainable youth livelihoods and entrepreneurship leadership through the arts.
Membership is open to youth between the ages of 18-35; people older than 35 are allowed membership as associates.
About Decolonial Futures Cultural Exchange Programme
Starting in January 2018, Decolonial Futures is a programme that is organised by the Rietveld Academie and the Sandberg Instituut in collaboration with the Funda Community College in Soweto, South Africa.
The programme starts from the desire to collectively work towards a decolonial future in which an equal exchange between knowledges and perspectives from art and design students working in both contexts will be established. With a duration of one-and-a-half year, the programme will allow both groups of students to develop an in-depth conversation over time and to initiate various forms of collaboration across nation borders.
The programme takes place once a month and is divided in three themed semesters that consists of public lectures and a series of workshops led by local artists, activists and theorists. The thematic focus of each semester will be informed by current struggles around questions of decolonisation, specifically in the context of art and education.
Contacts
Bukhosi Mzi Nyathi
Email: [email protected]
063 199 7618
Dumisani Radebe
Email [email protected]
067 699 0109
560 followers
