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Sunday 1 August 2010

Art - Keiskamma Guernica


From the 20th of June to the 4th of July, the Art Project presented a new installation at Grahamstown National Arts Festival in the main programme.

This exhibition was funded by the National Arts Festival. We thank them sincerely for their support.

The exhibition, which central piece is the new Art Project’s tapestry, was inspired by Picasso’s painting ‘Guernica’. While Picasso’s Guernica was a protest against the bombing on the small town of Guernica in Spain in 1937, ours is a protest about the slow disintegration and the death of a generation of people that seems unstoppable.

Alongside the tapestry, several elements were presented in memory of our community members who have passed away because of HIV/AIDS. Hundred of pots were made at the Keiskamma Ceramics studio, each of them in memory of a close friend or family member. Hand-made books containing the notes of who have worked in the Treatment Centre in Hamburg were a tribute to those who have worked with, healed, fed and comforted patients and were transformed into artworks. Around the room, sewed inside embroidered pillowcases were the medical files of all who have died in the Keiskamma project’s care in the past five years.

The exhibition was also an opportunity to launch two young ceramicists: Cebo Mvubu and Thobisa Nkani, who are working daily in the Keiskamma Ceramics Studio in Hamburg.The exhibition received rave reviews all over Grahamstown at the National Arts Festival. Major Article have appeared in Cue – the Arts Festival paper, the Port Elizabeth Herald and the National Arts Festival Blogspot. An interview was also aired on SA FM.

Links to press articles:

Week end Post

The Herald

Artsblog

Click here to watch a short movie about the Keiskamma Guernica exhibition, by Rhodes TV-Cue, the Art Festival’s TV.