ICA Calls For Proposals Of Productions To Be Presented At The 2023 Edition Of SA's Longest-running Public Art Festival, Infecting The City

Infecting the City (2019) | Photograph by Xolani Tulumani.

The Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) invites proposals for productions to be presented at the Infecting the City Public Art Festival 2023, taking place between 8-19 November 2023. The closing date for applications is 30 June 2023.

 
The longest-running public art festival in South Africa, Infecting the City (ITC) brings performance and visual art out of theatres and galleries, into the streets and public spaces of Cape Town. ITC reimagines public space as stages, showcasing an array of art forms, and creating a platform for artworks relevant to the people that populate these spaces. Going beyond light entertainment, the Festival challenges audiences and transgresses aesthetic and disciplinary boundaries while also shifting perspectives.

The theme for the 2023 ITC is political and social activism. Recognising the need for social, political and economic transformation as urgent, the festival will feature art that engages with the most pressing issues in South Africa at the moment.

You may apply for one or both of the following Categories:

CATEGORY 1: ACTIVISM
This is a call for practitioners whose work raises awareness or advocates for a specific cause and community-based organisations who are interested in collaborating with artists to create a public art work – a performance, an installation, or a happening.

Objectives are:

• To provide a platform to support activist work through artistic interventions.
• To promote dialogue and partnership between artist-activist, community-based groups, cultural groups and the general public.

The call is open to:

• Performance Artists, Visual Artists and Writers whose creative pursuits include such ideas. Preference will be given to artists who are already working with activism through collectives, cultural groups and non-profit organizations.
• Organisations involved in implementing political, economic and social change. These may include grassroots, non-profit and other organisations involved in poverty alleviation, housing, land, education, gender and sexuality, and youth engagement, among others.

The works may be performed both within and outside the city centre.

CATEGORY 2: NEW OR RESTAGED PUBLIC ART WORKS
This is a call for established and emerging artists to submit proposals to present innovative, new site-specific works or to restage an existing work. The proposal can be for a full ensemble piece, an intervention, a live performance, a visual art piece, an installation, a video, a happening, working with technology, via social media, an interactive work or some other form newly imagined.

All works should be situated in, or interact with, a public environment, and should actively engage intentional and incidental audiences in compelling ways. Focus on public participation and audience involvement is strongly recommended.

FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR BOTH CATEGORIES
Successful applications will receive:

• monetary support to augment their budgets
• acquisition of venue and permissions for public sites
• technical support including management and operation
• marketing
• administration

How to apply:Applicants should submit a single PDF file containing the following:

• Name, email address, and contact telephone numbers.
• A concept document of no more than 1 page outlining the proposed creative artwork (including images)
• If the work has been performed before, please include links to access the work.
• Full Curriculum Vitae of artist/s, company or organization.
• Budget, indicating clearly which part of the budget would need monetary support from the ICA.

Deadline: 30 June 2023.
  

Email to ica@uct.ac.za with the subject line: ITC 2023 Proposal.
For more information click here, or email: ica@uct.ac.za with the subject line ITC 2023 Query.