Fak’ugesi Pan-African Garden

Fak’ugesi Pan-African Garden is a collaboration of partners, notably Vrystaat Arts Festival, the Program for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) and Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival. It will bring new digital work and a series of Pan-African conversations. Aligning with aims to power up Africa’s digital creative resolution, ignite imaginations, bridge divides and hardwire local talent.

Pan African Creative Exchange Fak’ugesi Festival Open Mozilla Hub

Fak’ugesi Pan-African Garden

Lockdowns have forced communities to go online to both create and access art. This has led to new developments for African artists in a highly networked, global environment. However, the divide between those who have access to data and technology and those who don’t has hindered many and become a new barrier.

Fak’ugesi Pan-African Garden is a collaboration of partners, notably Vrystaat Arts Festival, the University of the Free State’s Program for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) and Fak’ugesi Festival. Aligning with aims to power up Africa’s digital creative resolution, ignite imaginations and hardwire local talent, it will include:

Virtual Black Out: Experiments in the Future of Form, developed for the National Arts Festival in collaboration with POPArt & Fak’ugesi Festival. Virtual Black Out takes a step into digital “space” making. It engages African scenographers and digital artists to rethink space, location and time for new digital theatre making. Five pieces developed in lockdown over two weeks.

Pan-African Telematic Art Project (PATAP) a new initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival through the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), in partnership with Fak’ugesi Festival and the University of the Free State’s Program for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD). It offers funding to artists on the African continent to make interactive media on issues of the continent.

Fak’ugesi Digital Africa Curator Focus, in 2020 Fak’ugesi Festival aims to develop curators, producers and advocates of African digital and technology arts. Following an African curator bootcamp, commissions focusing on digital work will take form. Join curators as they plan and develop.

Preview Video

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Fakugesi Online 2020, Fak’ugesi Pan-African Garden
Credit: Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, Johannesburg & Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), Bloemfontein (ZA)

Virtual Black Out, When This Is, Fak’ugesi Pan-African Garden

Virtual Black Out: Experiments in the Future of Form, Natalie Paneng, Vaughn Sadie, Carla Fonseca, Gerard Bester and Katlego Chale
Credit: Natalie Paneng, Vaughn Sadie, Carla Fonseca, Gerard Bester and Katlego Chale

Refuture, Keith Armstrong, Vrystaat Arts Festival 2018

Refuture, Keith Armstrong, Vrystaat Arts Festival 2017

Timetable

Program

CONVERSATION WITH THE MAKERS OF VIRTUAL BLACK OUT: EXPERIMENTS IN THE FUTURE OF FORM Exhibition

Panel with the artists of the Virtual Black Out: Experiments in the Future of Form that took place at the National Arts Festival and includes discussion on the outcomes and collaborative procedures

Pan African Telematic Art Project

The Pan-African Telematic Art Project (PATAP) is a new initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival through the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), in partnership with the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, Ars Electronica, and the University of the Free State’s Program for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Pretoria and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Two projects were selected to receive funding to experiment with new, interactive media arts projects, dealing with issues relevant to the continent.

Fak’ugesi Digital Art Curators

Over the years of growing the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival we have experienced a huge hole in our African digital arts ecosystem, essentially the lack of curators, producers and general advocators of digital arts in Africa, and specifically those from the continent. The field itself is not necessarily new, but the hurdles to accessing resources and markets brings a number of challenges for the African digital art ecosystem.

We Come From Our Stories I and II

Platfontein is the residence of the !Xun and Khwe people, first-nation inhabits from Southern Africa. FSAH, under the direction of the former Programme Manager MC Roodt, initiated a youth print-project, in partnership with the William Humphreys Arts Gallery and the Isibindi Youth Centre. Fourteen young artists translated traditional narratives into linocut editions during April of 2017. The print portfolio was titled Ons Kom Vanaf Ons Stories (We Come From Our Stories). All proceeds from sales were funnelled back to the Platfontein artists to support their continued growth as voices from the next generation.

Virtual Black Out: Experiments in the Future of Form

Virtual Black Out takes a step into digital “space” making. Engaging African scenographers and digital artists to rethink space, location and time for new digital theatre making. Five pieces developed in lockdown over two weeks.

Project Credits / Acknowledgements

Vrystaat Arts Festival, Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, National Arts Festival (South Africa), Tshimologong Innovation Precinct, University of the Witwatersrand School of Arts, University of the Free State’s Program for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD), Embassy of the Netherlands, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Afrikaans Theatre Initiative.