HEAT
July 11 to 21
Heat is a winter arts festival set in Cape Town's City Centre, featuring 14 curated art exhibitions complimented by jazz, opera, theatre and Kizomba-dance programming.
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Our Mission
Art galleries and arts practitioners experience a lull during Cape Town's winter months. This is due to the inclement weather and fewer tourists.
HEAT festival was created to boost visitors to galleries in the city centre and to create another platform for live performances.
Through our themed programme and map HEAT has provided the context to unite art galleries that are walking distance from each other and different art forms.
Our winter programme is intended to inject energy and interest during a quiet time of the year in Cape Town.
With a focus on small art businesses, emerging artists and live performers, musicians and singers, we aim to support young cultural producers and those that create visibility for them.
The organisers hope to establish an annual event that will grow in terms of participants, programming and audiences serving as a yearly cultural highlight that will draw local and international audiences who will feel encouraged to visit its art node in the Cape Town's city
centre in winter.
Festival Theme:
Common Ground
Songezo Zantsi, Silapha, 2024, oil on canvas, 128 x 155 cm. Artworks © Songezo Zantsi. Available through Vela Projects.
In times of economic, ecological and political turmoil most societies are experiencing some form of social trauma. Given this context, "what conditions are necessary (and possible) to encourage ‘a coming together’?” asks HEAT curator, Nkgopoleng Moloi, pointing to the central curatorial question informing the programming for the inaugural HEAT festival in Cape Town’s CBD.
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This is a fitting direction for the HEAT festival as it has been conceived to connect galleries, artists, collectors and practitioners during Cape Town’s cold and quiet month of July. We anticipate artworks, exhibitions, conversations, walkabouts and cuisine that enacts, encourages, and investigates concepts of community and collaboration.
Social or political coherence is often advanced as a ballast against turmoil and uncertainty. It is viewed as essential for effective mobilisation. Our country's transition to democracy relied on this.
“Revolutionary or libertarian acts most likely fall flat without the central moment of cohesion; a sticking together, a merger, a union under a common cause,” observes HEAT curator Voni Baloyi.
“However, for a unit to form, individuals' identity markers and personal aspirations must fall to the wayside for the greater good. Similarly, a coherent and logical narrative must be sustained for the cohesive unit to exist harmoniously. This relies on logical narratives to be constructed. What silences and violations might occur to the individual in this process?” asks Baloyi.
For some, the validation of nationhood comes only through the invalidation of another which we have seen in the the atrocities that have occurred in places like Israel, Gaza, Rwanda and Sudan.
THERE are numerous opportunities to meet the artists, engage with them or to explore the 15 exhibitions via guided tours.
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THEATRE
PROGRAMME
The theatre programme for HEAT has been curated by the curatorial team following an open call for one-handers. It is headlined by Rob Van Vuuren, a celebrated local theatre-maker and actor who will present two works to the festival. Sophie Jones of Spark in the Dark, Sibuyiselo Dywili and Siphenathi Siqwayi of Double Impact of Double Impact, Dara Beth of Furies & Co, Andi Colombo, Aldo Brincat, Sue Pam Grant, Ayanda ka Nobakabowna and Mfundo Zono of Okwamanzi Arts Junction and Pichi Keane will stage works that connect to some of the pronounced themes that define the visual arts programme. A night of stand-up-comedy curated by S’Qhamo Mangcu and Nishen Pather headlined by Yaaseen Barnes will also feature.
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Participating Galleries
AVA
37A Church Street
Christopher Moller
7 Kloof Nek Road
Ebony/Curated
67 Loop Street
Eclectica Contemporary
56 Church Street
Kalashnikovv
61 Loop Street
99 Loop Gallery
99 Loop Street
Michaelis
University of Cape Town, Hiddingh Campus
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Nel
117 Long Street
Reservoir Projects
68 Bree Street
7th Floor
Sisonke
Cape Heritage Hotel
90 Bree Street
Under the Aegis
17 Jamieson Street
Union House
(Spier Arts Trust)
25 Commercial Street
JAZZ
PROGRAMME
Slowlife, a peripatetic jazz and classical music platform created by Paul Kahanovitz will present 2 jazz ensembles at the HEAT festival. In 2017, Kahanovitz began a long-term partnership with Olympia Bakery in Kalk Bay, which is now his primary venue for showcasing live music, film and theatre. Slowlife has also hosted jazz events at venues such as The Labia and the Fugard Theatre and has collaborated with many talented South African artists.
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Operation Khataza and The Johnny Wxlf Experience will feature during the festival.
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OPERA
PROGRAMME
Opera UCT have partnered with HEAT and will present 3 Opera performances by some of their most promising students. The programme has been curated by Jeremy Silver, a celebrated conductor, pianist and director at Opera UCT. As a pioneer in opera transformation, Opera UCT provides comprehensive training in the operatic arts, holding multiple professional performances at the Baxter and Artscape Theatres with the aim to promote their performers to an international stage.
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KIZOMBA
CLASSES
Kizomba is a captivating dance style originating from 1970s Angola, involving smooth, slow, partnered dancing. ‘Kizomba’ is a Kimbundu word meaning party or celebration. Eduardo Paím, a popular Angolan singer, is recognised as the founder of Kizomba.
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Klinsmann Ferreira an Angolan-born Kizomba Dance Choreographer will present three classes during the festival. Ferreira is a prominent figure in the Cape Town Kizomba dance scene,
Curators
Mary Corrigall is an award-winning arts journalist and has curated numerous mulit-disciplinary art events (such as The 55 Minute Hour) and themed art tours in Cape Town and Joburg focussed on connecting the dots between spaces and ideas in art. She has also published reports analysing the South African and African art ecosystems such as The South African Art Market: Patterns & Pricing (2019). Her art consultancy Corrigall & Co offers research on different arts ecosystems and assists collectors, artists and non-profit organisations.
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Nkgopoleng Moloi is a writer and curator based in Cape Town. She recently curated "Practices of Self-Fashioning", an exhibition exploring queer mobility, at the Goethe-Institut in Joburg and was part of the curatorial team of Infecting the City (2023). She is the editor of Art Throb.
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Voni Baloyi worked in a commercial gallery in Cape Town after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art History and Law from the University of Cape Town in 2020. She has also recently completed Honours in Curatorship with the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town. She recently co-curated An Ode to Wild Cliffs: Moments In Time in the Elgin Valley.
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Andrew Lamprecht is the Curator of Historical Paintings and Sculpture at the Iziko South African National Gallery. Prior to that he was a senior lecturer in History and Discourse of Art as well as Curatorship at UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. He has curated over 40 exhibitions.
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PARTNERS
