Episode 6
Listen to Season 2, Episode 6 of The ICA Podcast! Featuring an in-depth profile of performance artist Athi-Patra Ruga and his retrospective performance, Things We Lost in the Rainbow.
Ruga takes us on an immersive journey through the sights, sounds and movement of this epic work, performed at the 2018 ICA Live Art Festival curated by Jay Pather, where it unfolded as a 2-hour long multi-sited, multi-media procession in which a cast of over 30 avatars led the audience through Cape Town’s city centre, from the digital dome of the Planetarium to the walls of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God on Buitenkant Street.
Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, on our website; or wherever you find podcasts.
Athi-Patra Ruga, Things We Lost in the Rainbow, 2018 ICA Live Art Festival. Photos by Xolani Tulumani.
Born in Umtata in 1984, Athi-Patra Ruga uses performance, video, textiles, and printmaking to explore notions of utopia and dystopia, material and memory. Moving between the disciplines of fashion, performance and visual art, his work explores the body in relation to sensuality, culture, and ideology. Ruga’s work has been purchased by numerous public and private collections.
Athi-Patra Ruga. Photo by Tim Bowditch.
About The ICA Podcast
The Podcast – launched in July 2020 – emerged out of the ICA's 2019 publication Acts of Transgression: Contemporary Live Art in South Africa and extends the work begun by the book through conversations with the creators and curators of Live Art. The role of the Podcast has been particularly important in this time of the pandemic, when live performance has been difficult and sometimes impossible, but the intimacy and expansiveness of listening remains critical.
Season 1 looked at the body of work of 8 diverse artists. In Season 2, we're doing things a bit differently by offering each episode as a deep dive into a single performance:
We the Not-Not People! -Things done, not told. Inscribed, not written by Donna Kukama
Things We Lost in the Rainbow by Athi-Patra Ruga
Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations by Kopano Maroga
Qash-Qash by Nomcebisi Moyikwa
Yet to be Determined by Gavin Krastin
Fragments of Encounters by nomi blum
Body of Evidence by Jay Pather
Looking ahead
In Episode 7, we’ll be speaking to interdisciplinary artist nomi blum about her 2019 work, Fragments of Encounters.
Join us then!
Athi-Patra Ruga, Things We Lost in the Rainbow, 2018 ICA Live Art Festival. Photo by Xolani Tulumani.