This collaborative project entails a travelling live art performance parade mimicking a route taken in the Pretoria CBD from Church Square to the Union Buildings. It metaphorically and visually narrates what was left in the cracks of the pavements along the journey over the years; whether personal, public, or political. The project is framed within the theory of hauntology of everyday life with the main objective to remember, acknowledge and heal.
Live art refers to performances or events undertaken or staged by an artist or a group of artists as a work of art, usually innovative and exploratory in nature.
Hauntology (a combination of haunting and ontology) is a range of ideas referring to the return or persistence of elements from the social or cultural past, as in the manner of a ghost. The term is a neologism first introduced by Derrida (1993). It is the idea that the present is haunted by the metaphorical ‘ghosts’ of lost futures. Hauntology of everyday life develops its central argument that all human experience is fundamentally haunted and is described as a recall of experience not to exorcise the past, but simply to recognise and address the endless ghosts that are created by the very act of human perception and experience through time.
The production runs from 1 to 10 September 2022 (19:00) at the Rostrum Theatre, FAD Campus.
Tickets are R50 per person through WebTickets. Block bookings at a discounted price can be made through Theatre Manager, Kgosi Khiba at khibak1@tut.ac.za.
The audience meet at the Rostrum Theatre on the FAD Campus and is then invited to journey with the performers across campus. Original text and imagery have been created by the cast members using the symbol of sticks in a variety of its forms and functions. This non-linear storytelling promises to be a sensory experience!
THE BEAUTY OF STICKS (poem by TAD performer student, Msindisi Nxumalo)
Once upon the world, there was absolutely nothing.
Then grew from the deep soil the world, a seed that soon became roots of human souls.
From generation to generation, the connection between the two has been fascinating. I have lived decades and centuries but yet I still remain strong and beautiful. I have smiled and cried the tears of the sun. Even when cut down in a savagely violent way I am still useful. I am the conqueror of hate, jealousy and anger because I breathe and drink moisture of the atmosphere falling visibly in separate drops. I am the light and heat, I cook a delicious meal through my fire with joy and pride, I bring shade to the sunlight, I lead the way for the blind and I am the balance for those who cannot walk.
I am indomitable, unique and special. I am represented in many tongues and names and not just a STICK.
Read more about this unique collaboration at https://www.tut.ac.za/news-and-press/article?NID=593