THE LIE OF THE LAND: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LANDSCAPE
An exhibition I've been looking forward to for ages, The Lie of the Land: Representations of the the South African Landscape opens at the Old Town House on Wednesday evening. It is curated by UCT professor Michael Godby and is a sequel to his popular Still Life show which was in the same venue a couple of years ago, and had a beautiful catalogue. Landscape art is so charged with meaning and feelings relating to history, perhaps more than any other kind of art, and perhaps most especially in South Africa, and Godby has written many incisive pieces on the subject.
The Old Town House on Greenmarket Square has just been renovated to make it accessible to disabled visitors.
Opening Wednesday 9 18h00 for 18h30. The exhibition will run till 11 September.
Enquiries Hayden Proud on 4674676 or email hproud@iziko.org.za
BOOK LAUNCH: BUSHMAN LETTERS
I won't make it to the opening of the landscape exhibition, because at the same moment there's the launch of a new book by my friend Michael Wessels. Bushman Letters: Interpreting |Xam Narrative is about the Bleek and Lloyd collection, the notebooks in which German linguist Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd "transcribed and translated the narratives, cultural information and personal histories told to them in the 1870s by a number of |Xam informants. It represents a rare and rich record of an indigenous language and culture that no longer exists, and has exerted a fascination for anthropologists and poets alike." Bushman Letters "examines not only the |Xam archive, but also the critical tradition that has grown up around it .... The book addresses a curiously neglected area in the burgeoning literature on the Bleek and Lloyd collection: the texts themselves." The author will be joined by Pippa Skotnes at the Centre for the Book, 62 Queen Victoria Street
Wednesday, 9 17h30 for 18h00
MISSA LUBA AND MISA CRIOLLA
On Thursday there's another clash, between two music concerts that are so distinct from each other that it seems absurd to choose between them. The one is the kick-off concert, and I imagine that most of us, no matter what reservations etc, will want to be there, watching on tv. At the same minute is scheduled the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town performing the Missa Luba and the Misa Criolla, music which I have loved for a long long time.
The Missa Luba was created when Father Haazen, a Belgian priest working in the Congo in the 1950s, formed a large choir of boys from 9 to 14 years old plus some of their teachers. The choir, with percussion section, improvised this Mass which uses the Latin text but is musically straight out of the pure Congolese tradition, and the result is completely jubilant and powerful.
Less close to my own heart, but also magnificent, the Misa Criolla was composed by Argentinian Ariel Ramirez and combined Spanish text with traditional Argentinian instruments and musical forms. I read in a Washington Post article that this work "for all its verve" had its origins in a visit by the composer to post-Holocaust Germany, which made him feel, he said, "that I had to compose something deep and religious that would revere life and involve people beyond their creeds, race, color or origin."
Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town
Bishops Memorial Chapel, Bishops Diocesan College, Campground Rd, Rondebosch Time: 8pm Cost: R 100
Thursday 10 20h00
Tel: 083 915 8000
ONE-OFF JAZZ CONCERT: PARIS/JOBOURG – ALLER/RETOUR
The Alliance Francaise is hosting just one concert in Cape Town of Paris Joburg Aller/Retour, the result of a collaboration between French percussionist and composer Braka and South African bass player Carlo Mombelli. They have brought together an avant-garde quartet from France and a jazz quartet from South Africa to see what happens when they "fuse their musical styles (representative of Valse Musette from Paris and fifties/sixties African Jazz from Johannesburg.)" The featured musicians are
Lucia Recio - Voice,
Siya Makuzeni - Voice, Trombone.
Marcus Wyatt - Trumpet through Digitech EFX
Nicolas Stephan - Tenor and Alto Saxophones
Daniel Malavergne - Tuba
Carlo Mombelli - Bass
Braka – Drums, Trombone, Turntables and Electronics
Justin Badenhorst - Drums
Alliance Française 155 Loop Street
Wednesday 9 19h30 R70
Alliance Française 155 Loop Street
Wednesday 9 19h30 R70
SOCCER KULTCHA: STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
At the Michaelis Galleries on Hiddingh Campus there's an exhibiton of street photography called Soccer Kultcha curated by Paul Weinberg , Warren Nelson and Leanne Barling. They're opening on Friday at 18h00, and showing the opening game earlier that afternoon. "In South Africa, with its strong migrant and urban historical links, street photography has evolved into a distinct genre .... This exhibition is a window on a world... as seen through the lens of football." It looks like a moving dimension of the theme, from the image on the invitation. And an unscary place to watch the opening game in company perhaps?
SUPPER CLUB: FOOD AND PERFORMANCE AT THE ANNEXE IN KALK BAY
The Annex Restaurant at Kalk Bay Bookshop, with the Dowling Sisters Productions company, are presenting a series of supper club evenings which feature a meal followed by "a performance with a literary flavour." This Sunday there is a repeat performance by John Maytham of readings on the subject of solitude and loneliness. "Nuns Fret Not" explores the intriguing question "Why are we so driven to get away from it all when in our dark moments we are haunted by loneliness?" The Dowling Sisters Production Co made its name with a season of witty and discerning entertainments at the Olive Station when it was in Muizenberg.
The Annex Restaurant 124 Main Road Kalk Bay
Sunday 13 Supper will be served between 6 and 7.15pm
The show starts at 7.30 and will run for about one hour
R160 per person for supper and the show, payable in advance, including service.
021 788 2453
