Pre-Life 2 introduces themes for the Live Art Festival

The Live Art Festival comprises 40 productions of performance or live art that emerge from a range of disciplines. These productions are characterised by "interdisciplinarity" and innovation in their fields, and have been presented around six core themes.

Pre-Life 2 will focus on the themes Republic and Femininities. The evening will comprise the screening of a film, visual presentations and panel discussions. In the panel on Republic, chaired by writer Mike van Graan, artists engage with notions of the formation and dissolution of nation, state, nationalisms, the republic, authority and the individual. Performance artist Julia Raynham and photographer Noncedo Gxekwa discuss the creation of their fresh new work, Monsoon, which premieres at the Live Art Festival. The work explores trade mobility in southern East Africa and the transformation of nations from indigenous state culture, to colonial culture, to nationalist culture. Raynham examines the large-scale topography of nationhood through historical transformation. Award-winning choreographer Mamela Nyamza reflects on how her work has been a regular conversation with history, past and present. She will also analyse the historical importance of 1976, its remnants in relation to nation building, and its fractured and compelling representation in the work 19Born76rRebels, which will also be presented for the Live Art Festival.

The plural version of femininity

In the panel on Femininities, UK-based performance artist Rosa Postlethwaite and writer Palesa Motsumi will engage with the plural version of femininity, which signals a wide, discursive scope of approaches. This panel will begin with the screening of Indian performance artist Maya Rao's performance Walk - a response to the brutal attack of Jyothi Singh Pandey, which took place in a moving bus on the streets of New Delhi, India. Rao's performance contributed to the galvanising of a nationwide response in India that was unprecedented. Postlethwaite discusses the film and the production Walk: South Africa, which was inspired by Rao's work and will be presented at the Live Art Festival. In atmospheres of suspended definitions and reclamations of sexuality and identities, writer Palesa Motsumi explores how writers in the African literary canon deal with femininity in their process of storytelling.

Pre-Life 2 will take place on Thursday, 21 August at 5.30pm at Hiddingh Hall, University of Cape Town (UCT) Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street, Cape Town, and is free. Refreshments will be served from 5pm; no booking is necessary. For more information, contact the GIPCA office on +27 (0)21 480 7156 or az.ca.tcu@acpig-nif or go to www.gipca.uct.ac.za.