Afropunk fest and engaging exhibitions coming to Joburg
The Afropunk Festival, annually hosted in New York, Atlanta, London and Paris is now coming to Joburg for the first time welcoming renowned artists such as Solange Knowles, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Laura Mvula, King Tha and more.
Image credit: IamJoburg website.
The Constitution Hill backdrop will make for the most iconic Afropunk festival yet. Both Afropunk and Constitution Hill have been celebrated for providing a platform for activism and self-expression in their own rights and the partnership of these pioneering organisations will make for a unique and memorable new year’s eve celebration.
The partnership which also includes a collaboration with the Amacreatives to host: A New Black - a multimedia group exhibition and dialogue focusing on the individual voices of 7 upcoming contemporary artists and how they employ their artistic agency to engage with and interpret the colonial narrative that forms part of their history. It’s a call for an artistic protest – a creative riot – to reimagine new definition(s) of blackness. It’s a disruption of the status quo; a defiance of stereotypes that continue to shape and frame ideas around blackness.
Raw Johannesburg experience
A New Black is thus, the emergence of a unique calibre of black creatives aiming to shift perspectives on what it means to be a black artist in a constantly changing 21st Century Africa. Selected artists include Loyiso Mkize, Leeroy Jason, Zandi Tisani, Zac Modirapula, Sindiso Nyoni, Yolanda Mazwana and Zanele Mashinini.
The Constitution Hill partnership with the Afropunk festival has given rise to a legacy project, IamJoburg, an online tourism portal, project-managed by Travel Massive Africa. To give Afropunk guests a raw Johannesburg experience, tour operators in Alexandra, Soweto and the city centre are being assisted with developing experiential products and making better use of digital marketing.
If Afropunk is the microphone of thought then Constitution Hill is the stage for action. Designed to restore power to the disempowered, to revive hope in the hopeless, Constitution Hill is the proud host of such a progressive festival of music, art and consciousness.
Constitution Hill December exhibitions programme
During the festive season, ConHill will present art exhibitions that are intended to spark lively and engaging experiences related to Constitutionalism, Human Rights, and Democracy.
Looking backward, moving forward is an exhibition curated by the Ifa Lethu Foundation, showing the incredible talent and fortitude of the artists who struggled against the odds, during the apartheid era, to make their art tell the stories which were so often hidden due to the marginalisation of South Africa’s majority black population. The exhibition will run until end of January 2018.
Umama onesibindi: Mother of courage is a tribute to all the children and women across Africa who have chosen life and stood firm in the face of adversity. For the past ten years, photographer Karin Schermbrucker has travelled the continent on assignment for Unicef, hearing and sharing the stories of women and children who have faced the giant of HIV. In every home, and over every shared moment, one thing was the same regardless of the road name, country, or place: courage. The exhibition opens to the public on World Aids Day and will close on 12 January 2018.
Memories of the Struggle: Australians against Apartheid is an exhibition launched by the Australasian South African Alliance (ASAA), in partnership with the Australian High Commission in South Africa, Brand South Africa and Constitution Hill. This multimedia exhibition is a photographic timeline of events that weave together a narrative of Australia’s involvement in the fight against apartheid.
Palladium exhibition: Palladium, a well-renowned fashion boot brand is celebrating 70 years of the existence of their trendy urban cultural boot. The exhibition is a showcase of the historical timeline and background on the existence of the Palladium boot and will show, in pictures, the transformative journey that the boot has walked. The exhibition closes in mid-January 2018.
Other festive attractions on the site
ConHill’s tours will continue to keep tourists spellbound in a walk down SA’s historical memory lane of the three unique museums dating from 1883; to the present day iconic Constitutional Court that continues to author South Africa’s advance into a dawning democratic era (see attached tour programme).
For more information please contact Phetsile Nxumalo at az.gro.llihnoitutitsnoc@olamuxn.p or phone 011 381 3128.
