2021 GPS Projects
Goethe-Institut Project Space (GPS)
Goethe-Institut South Africa announces selected GPS projects for 2021
Six projects have been chosen to be supported with grants of R60,000 each
The Goethe-Institut is proud to announce the six projects which have been selected for support as part of its 2021 Goethe Project Space (GPS) programme, a multi-disciplinary roving project space. The programme supports work realised all over South Africa ranging from workshops to exhibitions, events and performances; including visual art, literature, film, music, dance and theatre projects. An independent jury of arts professionals, consisting of Rusera Seethal, Vanessa Cooke, Nomusa Makhubu and Nadine Mckenzie, selected the following GPS projects for 2021:
Gaby Saranouffi
Face(s) of Basadi
Face(s) of Basadi” is a multidimensional project: The project components will include Dance and Photography workshops sessions that will focus on encouraging young women to have self confidence. It will also feature live performance art, and an interactive discussion with audiences for public awareness and art development in South Africa.
The project will be held in Johannesburg and in Eastern Cape through a partnership with the Imonti Dance Arts Leadership Academy, which willl host the project.
Theatre in the Backyard and Nyathela Arts Project
Mhlanguli George, founder and director of Theatre in the Backyard, which uses different backyards in townships as intimate sites of theatrical production, challenging the way theatre is usually presented and engaged with, teamed up with Emalahleni-based theatre collective Nyathela Works to produce a mini-festival of four theatre pieces that were presented from 26 to 29 February 2021 in Secunda and various sites in Emalahleni.
Kiera Crowe Pettersson
Material Topographies
Material Topographies is a data-driven, artistic mapping project which captures reclaimer’s relationship with the city and its materials through their work. Raw data will be transformed into a limited edition series of posters that communicate the flow of materials through the city – transported and brought back to life by reclaimers by way of their skills, knowledge, and care. Through this investigation we can see how the reclaimers' relationships to the material improves its value, and in contrast, how their labour and contributions are undervalued. Material Topographies, in a sense, is a provocation for the urgent need for reclaimer-informed decision-making as we work towards a regenerative, environmentally inclusive future.
Sbonakaliso Ndaba
Locked Doors, Behind Doors
In “Locked Doors, Behind Doors” Sbonakaliso Ndaba and dancers of the Indoni Dance, Arts and Leadership Academy, explore the stark reality of life during the many months of the Covid-19 pandemic when home no longer equalled a place of safety and comfort but induced feelings of powerlessness, frustration, anger, anxiety and despair. Generations of migrant labourers and slaves lived and worked under conditions even more appalling and restricted. We have not truly acknowledged their sacrifices in helping to forge the nation that is South Africa. This new work is the perfect vehicle to look back through history to remember and honor them. The little-known preserved Hostel 33 at the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum has been chosen as a fitting backdrop. On the National Public Holiday of Workers Day, 1st of May, 2021, the museum will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their opening as a museum. This is the perfect day to pay homage to and remember these millions of workers that built South Africa. A day of memory and healing.
Vuyolwethu Reoagile & Ilze Mari Wessels
ANormal 3.0 - {WO}M_B_nifesto: Wom_n's Creative Futures
Two creators from Johannesburg are interrogating women’s creative futures through a collaborative multimedia project called {W}om_B_nifesto. It will be an experience of emerging and established talent and reformat the traditional gallery into a technological typology in Protea North, Soweto. The project will bring together creative women through an exhibition, share skills through workshopping, and produce knowledge through artmaking, writing and dreaming.
Mongezi Ncwadi
Thina Sizwe Esimnyama
Community theatre producer and educator Mongezi Ncwadi engaged with actors from his neighbourhood of New Brighton township in the Eastern Cape to create the two performances that were presented on 22 and 26 February at two memorial sites in the area: the SS Mendi Memorial Site and Emlotheni Memorial Park. Ncwadi’s motivation for creating these works is to contribute to the preservation of the cultural heritage of New Brighton, the birthplace of legendary South African playwrights and actors such as John Kani, Winston Ntshona and Nomhle Nkonyeni, and a long list of others; activists, intellectuals, musicians and writers that made substantial contributions to the culture and politics of the South Africa of today.
The Goethe-Institut would like to congratulate the selected projects and looks forward to working with each of them in 2021!
We also like to thank everyone who submitted proposals for this call. The proposals were of a very high standard, and it was not simple to make a selection of the six projects we could support. We wish all applicants the very best with the important work they are doing.
The next open call for proposals will launch in June 2021 , with deadline in August 2021. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay tuned!
For further information, visit our website Goethe.de/GPS or contact Jonas Radunz, Public Relations Officer of the Goethe-Institut South Africa at Jonas.Radunz@goethe.de