VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL LAUNCHES ITS 2019 PROGRAMME - Vrystaat kunstefees

MEDIA RELEASE 9 May 2019
 VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL LAUNCHES ITS 2019 PROGRAMME

The Vrystaat Arts Festival has an enormous artistic offering in 2019. From flagship Afrikaans, English
and Sesotho theatre and music productions to experimental dance, craft, sound art, visual art and live
art, there is something for everyone.

International Engagement
The Festival is now one of the key arts festivals on the African continent and offers a significant range
of national and international work in an astounding range of genres. In addition to a large contingent
of South African artists, the festival this year hosts creatives from afar away as Australia, Belgium,
Canada, the Caribbean, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal,
Singapore, the UK, the US and Zambia (to name but a few).

First Nation Protocol
The Vrystaat Arts Festival is the first South African cultural entity to follow Khoi-San protocol,
recognizing the First Peoples and traditional owners of the land in public platforms and the festival
program. The First Nations Welcoming ceremony of the festival is fast becoming an event unique in
South-Africa. To that extent we are also honoured to have South African First Nations poet Diana
Ferris as the Vrystaat Literature Festival’s Sol Plaatje keynote this year.

Performance and Music
The flagship theatre production is Kamphoer, the story of Susan Nell. Played by Sandra Prinsloo, and
directed by Lara Foot, the play is based on a true story set in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).
Prinsloo skilfully embodies the enigmatic figure of Nell, who was brutally raped and left for dead in
the concentration camp in Windburg.

The Island, directed by Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha also debuts at the festival. Written by Athol
Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, this apartheid-era drama, inspired by a true story, is set in an
unnamed prison based on South Africa's notorious Robben Island. This production has an all-female
cast with Jane Mamotse Mpholo and Michelle Joubert in the lead roles.

The National Afrikaans Theatre initiative (NATi) also presents two of their flagship productions
Katvoet with Marius Weyers, Marion Holm, Tinarie van Wyk Loots, Albert Pretorius, Martelize Kolver
and Geon Nel, and My Seuns with Sandra Prinsloo, Louw Venter, Sandi Schultz, Edwin van der Walt,
Buhle Ngaba and Donovan Pietersen.

The Vrystaat Arts Festival is also extremely privileged to have one of Nigeria’s most celebrated
dancers/choreographers Qudus Onikeku with his renowned work Spirit Child. Spirit Child is a solo
piece with three musicians, inspired by Azaro, the main character in Ben Okri’s novel, The Famished
Road.

Other dance productions include the NATi funded experimental dance work Tehuis by Mark Anthony
Dobson and the ever-popular flamenco dances Spanish Fire – Flaming Feet and La Femme! Also keep
an eye out for the popular Reza de Wet youth theatre festival with performances from all over the
country.

Music lovers will find a number of offerings including a short opera, Menotti’s The Maid and the Thief,
40 Fingers with Charl du Plessis, Klassica (US), a crossover quartet that blends the musical genres of

pop and classical, Flying Fingers from Bloemfontein and Most Magical Musical Moments with Niël
Rademan and the soprano Lynelle Kenned.

Amanda Strydom entertains with Stadig oor die klippers and South African rock icon Karen Zoid is in
the mix with The Parlotones, Spoegwolf, Heuwels Fantasties, Andile Qongqo, Asanda Mqiki, Jak de
Priester, Anna Davel with a Shirley Bassey- tribute, Jannie du Toit and Drie van die Bestes (Mathys
Roets, Danie Niehaus, Kevin Leo). All the Way from Bloem, led by Jacobus Silver also provides
upcoming Free State artists a platform to shine.

Live Arts
The Programme for Innovation in Artfrom Development (PIAD) is an interdisciplinary and
experimental art programme in partnership with the University of the Free State and funded by the
Andrew W Mellon Foundation in New York. The two key PIAD festival artists for 2019 is South African
Marius Jansen van Vuuren and Australian Paul Gazzola. Their project We Can Be Heroes looks to the
sky as the site for innovative ephemeral art, and inspired by the Southern star patterns, imagined
worlds and local mythologies, will charge the untapped potential of the festival skyline.

Other live art projects include The Vertical Journey - a tribute to the still unknown by Marcus
Neustetter, which will launch a series of planetarium dome short films accompanied by live
improvisations at the Naval Hill Planetarium; the interdisciplinary performance/sound art work
miss/seen by Sonya Rademeyer, Kagiso Kekana and Nosipho Mtaban; and Lo-Def Film Factory by
Francois Knoetze, a pop-up experimental filmmaking and film screening booth.

Ukuzibuyisa: giving myself back to myself by Ukhona Ntsali Mland is a site-specific performance in
response to the societal expectations on womxn’s lives; LATROP : The People Who Were Too Much, by
Scott Eric Williams & Dr Julia Drouhin involves kids workshops, Zine making and radio antenna
drawings; and Tok Tokkie by Lorin Sookool, Jarrett Erasmus, Ella Ziegler & Andrei van Wyk activates
audiences in public and private spaces through surveillance games.

Visual Arts
The visual arts programme this year includes Footprints by Andrew Tshabangu curated by
Thembinkosi Goniwe at the Stegmann Gallery and dwell in possibility at the UFS Centenary Gallery,
curated by Johann du Plessis, with well-known national artists such as Michael Taylor, Andile
Dyalvane, Lien Botha, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Alta Botha, Iaan Weldeck, Bongi Bengu, Katherine Glenday
and many others.

Betwixt & Between in the Scaena foyer curated by Karen Brusch is an exhibition by artists from the
Free State Art Collective in response to their liminal experiences of living in the Free State. At
Oliewenhuis Art Museum Reservoir, the project titled #i by Jodi Bieber combines portrait
photography, visual research, interviews, text, digital photographic collage and design, and Blood
Relatives, also at Oliewenhuis, is a body of work created in 2005, by renowned photographer, Cedric
Nunn.

Film
Many different stories from all over the world may be experienced in the films at this year's festival.
Following requests after last year's film programme two films with a gay subtext are included this
year – the controversial South African film The Wound and the moving Heartstone from Iceland. And
don't forget the transgender heroine of A fantastic woman from Chile. The romantic at heart,
especially if they love music as well, should not miss Cold War from Poland. And with regard to First
Nations, Australia's Sweet Country is a riveting experience. An opera is included again – Donizetti's
comical Don Pasquale with soprano Eva Mei and conductor Gérard Korsten who performed in
Bloemfontein last year.

Vrynge
As a platform for emerging artists and professionals interested in testing new work, this year Vrynge
hosts many talented local, national and international creatives. From Brighton (neXus) to New York
and Italy (Before you fall asleep), the Caribbean (Caribbean Cool), and the Netherlands with Lot
Vekemans working on her new play Blind, the Vrynge is a small world in one. There’s entertainment
for the whole family with Francie en haar foon and Die groot avonture van Vernon en sy maats: Die
heks fiasco. The Vrystaat Arts Festival is also partnering with the Baxter Theatre and Lagos Fringe to
bring even more engaging experiences. Vrynge 2019 is one to look out for and one that continues to
build bridges between artists and communities. Your opportunity to witness world class art is here.

Vrystaat Literature Festival
With over 70 events involving a wide variety of topics and themes, there is something for every taste.
Local, national, and international writers and poets participate in talks, panel discussions, lectures,
and workshops. Some of the topics of focus this year include faith and spirituality, sexuality, humour,
thrillers, short stories, and memoirs. Highlights to look forward to include Amore Bekker, Carina
Diedericks-Hugo, Erns Grundling, Daniel Hugo, Herman Lategan, Maretha Maartens, Jean Oosthuizen,
Alexander Strachan, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Rudie van Rensburg, Jan van Tonder, Ingrid Winterbach, en
Bettina Wyngaard.

International guests attending this year include Upile Chisala (Malawi), Samuel Osaze (Nigeria), Amory
Kapufi and Jesse Nsofu (Zambia), Tinashe Tafirenyika and Philani Nyoni (Zimbabwe), Marco Calvani
(Italy), Wytske Versteeg, Benno Barnard, Lot Vekemans, Mira Feticu, and Dorine Holman (the
Netherlands), Annelies Verbeke, Saskia de Coster and Yves T’Sjoen (Belgium), and Kim Fu, Paige
Cooper, Kayla Czaga and Klara du Plessis (Canada).

Pan-African Creative Exchange
The biannual Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), with founding sponsor NATi, and support from
the Embassy of the Netherlands this year hosts PACE+, an interim programme and dramaturgical
laboratory led by Executive Director Nike Jonah (UK/NIg), Funmi Adewole (Co-ordinating facilitator –
UK/Nigeria), Dutch facilitator Mike van Alfen, and guest provocateurs Saartjie Botha (SA) and Jacob
Boehme (Aus).

Participants from PACE 2018 include Ese Brume (France/Nig), Nada Sabet (Egypt), Leanetse Seekoe
(SA), Wole Oguntokun (Nig), Johann Smith (SA), Shihaam Domingo (SA), Sizakele Mdi (SA), Segun
Adefila (Nig), Omobolanle Stephen-Atitebi (Nig), Abdoulaye Diallo (Senegal), Wezile Mgibe (SA),
Kenneth Uphopho (Nigeria) and Omar Sène (Senegal).

The festival is also presenting as full shows some of last year’s PACE showcases includig Brandbaar
with Rehane Abrahams (SA), Kenneth Uphopho’s Esther’s Revenge (Nig), Segun Adefila’s Adìe Bà
Lókùn (Nig) and Abdoyley Diallo’s Pollution (Senegal). See http://bravo.launchzone.co.za/en/home/

PAP and Vrywees
This year the festival will again have free art in public spaces with Public Art Platform and Vrywees.
From the festival’s first ‘nose’, aromatherapist Annaline Viljoen, who is developing a festival scent for
2019, to shows by Durban’s Twist Theatre on Hoffman Square, eSwathini youth theatre in public
space to dancers, fashion parades to poets creating work for site-specific performances. If you are out
in the public you will experience art.

So take a breath and dive into the rich programme of the 2019 Vrystaat Arts Festival. Enjoy all it has
to offer and make sure to make new friends from both here and abroad.

Programme: http://bit.ly/VSKProgram2019

For further inquiries contact:
Georgina Thomson
Marketing and Development Manager
Tel: +27 (0)82 570 3083
georgina.thomson@volksblad.com

Image: Major (Uncle Moogy) Sumner (AM) (Australia), a respected Ngarrindjeri Elder, cultural performer and visual artist and
  the cultural director of the Tal-Kin-Jeri Dance Group, and Danab Hui!Gaeb di !Huni!nâ !Gûkhoeb (Bradley van Sitters), South
                               Africa, performing a First Nations Ceremony at UFS, November 2018.

Khoekhoegowab: Vrystaati di Dī//khasib !Gâi!gâisens ge #an!gâs tsī !gôasiba Khoe-San Khoena ra mâ. Nē khoen ge //în aboxan !na /gaisa #goms tsī
!hû//arede! kho/gara hâ,nâu khoen !hūb din /khas khami
Afrikaans: Die Vrystaat Kunstefees erken en respekteer die Khoe-San van die Vrystaat en die diep geestelike verhoudings wat hulle met hul
voorouers, hierdie land en sy mense het.
English: The Vrystaat Arts Festival acknowledges and respects the Khoe-San of the Free State and the deep spiritual attachment to their ancestors and
relationships they have to this country and its people.

Sesotho: Mokete wa tsa Bonono Freistata o ananela le ho hlompha morabe wa Khoe-San wa Freistata, le kamano e tebileng ya semoya eo ba nang le yona le
badimo ba bona hammoho le dikamano tseo ba nang le tsona le naha ena le baahi ba yona

 Image: Sig/Sight Vrystaat Kunstefees PIAD project, Marcus Neustetter. Photo Francois Van Vuuren. Prototype for The Vertical
                                            Journey - a tribute to the still unknown

 Image: Sig/Sight Vrystaat Kunstefees PIAD project, Marcus Neustetter. Photo Francois Van Vuuren. Prototype for The Vertical
                                            Journey - a tribute to the still unknown

Image: Andrew Tshabangu, Shembe Holy Sacrament (2008), Archival print, 84 x 60 cm. Image courtesy of Gallery MOMO.

    Image: Andrew Tshabangu, Umbrella Lady (2004), Archival print, 84 x 60 cm. Image courtesy of Gallery MOMO.

Image: Sandra Prinsloo in Kamphoer - die verhaal van Susan Nell. Directed by Lara Foot.

Image: The Island, Michelle Joubert and Jane Mamotse Mpholo. Directed by Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha, Charl Henning
                     (assistent / assistant) and written by Athol Fugard, John Kani, Winston Ntshona

Image: Spirit Child, Qudus Onikeku, Nigeria.

Image: Tehuis, Goergina Thomson, Gerben Kamper, Teddy Mhlambi. Directed by Mark Antony Dobson

Image: Krotoa, Eva van die Kaap, Volksoperahuis – Amsterdam. With Bianca Flanders, Kees Scholten, Jef Hofmeister and Frazer
                             Barry. Directed by Basil Appollis and written by Sylvia Vollenhoven

Image: Archipelago with Andrea Lim and Schoemé Grobler. Directed by Roberto Frabetti with ACT 3 International, Singapore.