My Body My Space festival ready to unleash artistic energy
My Body My Space festival to shift physical and mental conventions around women and children with human rights, rural inclusion and the environment in focus. The programme includes The Arteries Programme (11th to 15th March).The Central Nervous System Programme (15 to 16 March)and A Workshop Training/Development & Residency Programme(Jan/Feb/March)
By CityLife Arts Writer
My Body My Space: Public Arts Festival (MBMS) continues its incredible mission to shift conventions around bodies, environments, and the human, taking place from 11 to 15 March in the broader Emakhazeni municipality in rural Mpumalanga.
From its initial inception in 2015, the festival has continued to grow from year to year by developing a unique rural identity deeply entrenched in beautiful Emakhazeni Communities and bringing people to the art and communities rather than following urban conventions. This, along with a socially relevant programme of cutting-edge work, will attracts the interest of international and local artists, visitors and promoters among the beautiful villages and communities in the areas. The festival primarily engages children, youth and people with disabilities.
Intentionally focussed on being a large-scale international festival of public performances, exhibitions and cultural events, itis curated by The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative (FATC). The resilience and transformation of the festival (which, in 2021 took place as a global-first WhatsApp festival not to be deterred by the COVID-19 pandemic) will this year immerse public spaces throughout Emakhazeni in its unique programme of commissioned performances, workshops and training.
The MBMS festival focuses on social cohesion in an area that is still palpably lacking in socio-political and socio-economic integration bringing the diverse rural citizenry of Emakhazeni together by perforating and disrupting the familiar ways in which people traverse shared social spaces.
By integrating existing organisational programming, the festival primarily engages children, youth and people with disabilities inMachadodorp/Emthonjeni, Belfast/Siyathuthuka, Dullstroom/Sakhelwe and Waterval-Boven/Emgwenya communities. It boosts the local economy and tourism, and arts and culture by developing local audiences, and attracting wider national and international visitors.
Running during Human Rights month the festival is curated to emphasise Human Rights in an election year as well as The Climate and The Environment.
The MBMS festival’s strong commitment to the local Emakhazeni economy, growing job creation opportunities and developing a vibrant arts and culture tourism sector in the region, sees a unique rural Public Arts Festival experience, showcasing the highest standard of work to create a vibrant arts experience destination.
The festival therefore demonstrates the power of art and the creative industries as strong drivers for social and economic development.
The festival’s programme includes:
The Arteries Programme (11th to 15th March)
The Central Nervous System Programme (15 to 16 March)and
A Workshop Training/Development & Residency Programme(Jan/Feb/March)
Festival co-curator PJ Sabbagha says “We are profoundly excited to see this incredible festival and its unique voice continue into its 9th year as we work to inspire and engageaudiences bringing a diverse range of rural artists and South African artists at large to work across disciplines; re-stitching communities and spaces that have been geographically, politically, economically and socially separated. Where we celebratevulnerable members of communities and bring them into the mainstream, our programme – which is this year curated to focus on human rights and the environment during a critical election year – delivers on art’s purpose in constantly questioning the status quo and demanding a higher standard of accountability and care for everyone.”
About the programme
The Arteries Programme is the Fringe programme shaped by community activations and performances in Machadodorp/Emthonjeni, Belfast/Siyathuthuka, Dullstroom/Sakhelwe and Waterval-Boven/Emgwenya. The Arteries Programme features performances aimed specifically at Children, Youth and People with Disabilities and also includes performances by FATC’s LEAP (Local Education in Arts Programme) participants. MBMS also partners with Wits: Drama for Life, who have been essential in reaching in excess of 2000 learners in schools and centres across the ELM over a 1 week period, preceding the CNS Programme.
The CNS Programme takes place in Machadodorp and its surrounds and is made up of a selection of commissioned performances. Each year and time-lines dependent, MBMS opens a public call for artists to propose works in line with the festival’s curatorial focus. Priority is given to NEW WORKS by young and emerging artists, while FATC mobilizes its national and international partner network to bring on board works from more established artists. Sitting side by side in a continued act of democratization, local and provincial community based artists present their mostly traditional and street performances. The meeting of artists from diverse backgrounds and locations during the CNS programme creates a generative community in which new collaborations and future projects are imagined and ideated.
During the CNS programme the audience, of largely rural children and youth (and pre-pandemic growing numbers of national and international visitors), are bussed into activated Emakhazeni festival sites, for participation in the festival activities. The audience is guided on foot and by COMBI through an array of happenings, performances, installations and exhibitions that are held in various public sites such as; school-playgrounds, community halls, street corners and abandoned buildings. Curated works are selected based on their resonance with the festival’s thematic drive of socio-political activism, as well as a focus on works that allow for the sites and places of the towns, rural communities and natural and cultural heritage sites of Emakhazeni to be re-imagined.
The workshop/training and residency programme includes skills-exchange workshops, arts processes and mini-training programs offered by Visiting Artists, Facilitators and Technicians. This development component of the festival is focused on young people, women and people with disabilities. The programme accesses FATC’s extensive and on-going ELM LEAP Partner network of local schools and centres; as well as bringing together local ELM artists and visiting artists in new short-term, small-scale collaborations. The outcomes of which, are then presented as part of the festival’s CNS Programme.
Participants include:
o DFL
o WELL WORN THEATRE COMPANY
o KAMAGELO MOLOBYE
o MARKET PLACE DANCE
o SIBIKWA
o MID
o ITROTR
o ISIFISO SAKA GOGO
o ACHIEVER SUPER BUDDIES
o SEITY
o UNREHEARSED PROJECTS
o KWANELE FINCH THUSI
o TWICE EUPHORIC
o THABISO PULE
o BRAIN MONTHSIWA
o BOKAMOSO DANCE THEATRE
o PERZANI DANCE THEATRE
o PHEKO CREATIONS
o QAP MPUMALANGA
o LOCAL GROUPS
The festival is presented by the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative with the support of The National Arts Council; The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, and The Presidential Employment Stimulus, Business Arts South Africa and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.