Eastern Cape exhibition set to destabilise the notion of 'home'

Athi-Patra Ruga's performance piece, Ilulwane, was enacted at Performa 11 in New York and at the Long Street Baths in Cape Town to sold-out crowds

An exhibition curated by APC Honorary Research Scholar Uthando Baduza will be opening later this month at the Athenaeum in Port Elizabeth. The exhibition forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey 2012, which has now been officially linked to the Fringe Programme of the 2012 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

'The idea for the show germinated from my interest in how the hectic space of the "home" is made and remade - often a site of tragedy, but also our compass,' says Baduza.

Entitled HOME//an Experiment and featuring talents including Bantu Mtshiselwa, Phybia Dlamini, Mazwi Vezi, Bongani Njalo, Banele Njandayi, Mkhonto  Gwazela, Jamakazi Thelejane and Kanya Sizani, this multi-media exhibition will bring together a fresh mix of voices to create new conversations around the concept of 'home'.

It will open with a solo performance by provocateur, Athi-Patra Ruga, who will debut a new work, The Future White Women Azania: A prequel - a reimagining of his most recent work, Ilulwane, performed at Performa 11 in New York and at the Long Street Baths in Cape Town to sold-out to crowds. Ruga will also be collaborating with the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art (2012) Mikhael Subotzky in Grahamstown during the Festival.  

There will be further performances by the 'I am Every Woman' ensemble (featuring Lelethu 'PoeticSoul' Mahambehlala Asanda Mqiki, Donna McLaggan and Olwethu Mdala), the band, Shoelace, and a panel discussion on public art in public spaces.

'The exhibition is organised under three broad themes of "Inside", "Outside" and "In-between" the home and the works will aim to activate these concepts in order to unlock and unravel what constitutes the foundations of home,' says Baduza, adding that the birthplace of the majority of the exhibiting artists is the Eastern Cape - a place they regard as home.

'Through visual, video, sculptural, fashion and digital forms, the desire of the experiment is to destabilise the finite construct of "home" and propel us to imagine a fluid, unstable notion inhabited by the people and things both within and outside its domain. Through the interplay and juxtaposition of the works - using visual forms as catalyst - a kinetic energy will agitate/activate the works,' he says.

The exhibition will also serve as a platform to speak about the role of public art in communities within Nelson Mandela Bay, with a focus on Motherwell. An accompanying programme of discussions, performances and screenings will further activate the exhibition, which runs until 13 July 2012.

For more information, visit www.home.wozaonline.co.za and for media queries, please contact Uthando Baduza on 082 6401 61 or Khanya on 072 482 6212.