Infecting The City 2014 programme announced

This is a significant year for Cape Town as it celebrates both 20 Years of Democracy and Freedom and being World Design Capital 2014. In recognition of this, Infecting The City will be marking the year with its most ambitious festival to date.

Jay Pather, curator for the third year in a row, said: "Between 2008 and 2013 Infecting The City grew from just over 10 artworks to 54 artworks and performances. This year the programme comprises around 40 works with more large-scale, substantial works. Again, the productions range from the popular and entertaining to the conceptual and thought-provoking. This year there are also many works of authority to mark the political and social importance of 2014 for all South Africans."

A mix of works across all artistic disciplines

Audiences can expect a mix of works across all artistic disciplines, some of which include:

• An interactive dance and video collaboration by Mocke J van Vueren and Nelisiwe Xaba called Uncles & Angels;
  
• Neo Muyanga's Thorisole Morusu inspired by, and based on, Antjie Krog's poem Country of Grief and Grace;
  
• Using candles, Pedro Bustamante gives visibility to accumulation and the political subjectivity of maps. In The Accumulation is Primitive: he creates a raised relief map representing the Gross Domestic Product data of various countries;
  
• Swiss performance company Da Motus presents its very successful public art work Con Tatto, an interactive performance spread over Thibault Square;
  
• Interesting juxtapositions abound with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on Greenmarket Square followed by an intervention by conceptual artist Christian Nerf, a provocative video work about Surveillance by Berlin-based artist Alien Oosting, followed by intimate performances staged along Queen Victoria Road by several choreographers including Mamela Nyamza and Sean Oelf;
  
• Another such juxtaposition involves a 60-strong youth orchestra playing for 30 Pantsula dancers directed by Mandisi Sindo;
  
• A coup for the festival is Untitled 310, a music work by Spanish composer Francisco Lopez, performed by six blindfolded musicians at the historic Centre for the Book and the Forgotten Angle Dance Company's Back, which will be performed in the Whale Well at the Iziko South African Museum;
  
• Sensorial experiences of the city abound: Tam Frazers Smellscapes will have the fountains on St George's Mall imbued with haunting scents each day of the festival; a sound installation by Graeme Lees in the city centre and 50 000 red rose petals used to create a sacred pathway at the station by New York artist Kate Urban. Kira Kemper's Wall-Hug presents a series of interactive performances, where members of the public get offered kind words and are embraced by the architecture of the CBD;
  
• Brian Lobel from London brings two highly provocative works: Carpe and Purge. Purge questions the value of Facebook friends and will involve the audience in determining whether friends on the Facebook account of a performer are worth keeping or not depending on the performer's real-life rationale. The performer then deletes or keeps these friends depending on the audience vote; and
  
• A variety of dance companies and dance styles come together in a composite work performed to the stirring composition by Ravel, a feast of over 60 performers adoring the Foreshore.

The works will be spread throughout the public spaces of Cape Town and designed to encourage audiences to discover, define and experience the city's private and public environments.

Tanner Methvin, executive director of the Africa Centre, said: "Infecting The City allows us to create an alternative to daily life in Cape Town. It puts new ideas out in the open. Freely accessible to anyone who is interested, iIt makes beauty and wonderment as common as shop fronts and it gives proof to the idea that we all can decide for ourselves what is possible and what reality we want to create."

Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing, said: "The City of Cape Town is thrilled to host the seventh edition of Infecting The City. The festival will once again bring Cape Town's public spaces to life with a variety of acts, installations and imaginative artworks. This year's festival is expected to be bigger and bolder than before and comes at a time when Cape Town celebrates its status as the World Design Capital 2014. A unique component of this festival is the audience participation, which allows residents to get involved in, and even influence, performances and designs. The event is an opportunity for citizens to showcase their creative brilliance."

The programme will have day and evening components over the course of the festival week. The daytime programmes includes both designated routes that feature larger scale works that audiences can follow from one to the next and non-route-based work that is both scheduled or simply must be stumbled upon.

The evening programme will only be route-based. The full programme is available on www.infectingthecity.com

The Festival Hub is situated at 6 Spin Street, Cape Town where copies of the programme and other information will be available throughout the festival period.

As part of the Infecting The City youth-development programme, Arts Aweh! 400 high school scholars from across greater Cape Town will be transported to the city centre to engage and interact with the festival and its artists.

www.infectingthecity.com