Goethe-Institut South Africa is thrilled to announce the selection of GPS projects for 2024. The 4 chosen projects will each receive a grant of ZAR 105.000 to realise their ideas between February and November 2024. Read more on each project below.
This year’s jury, made up of three independent experts, wishes to express the following thoughts on the project selection:
Jury Statement
“This year’s GPS jury acknowledged that there is a notable interest from artists in creating and working in rural areas, and a growing engagement with localised art practices and indigenous knowledge systems.
It is one intention of the GPS programme to embrace the richness and complexities of rural spaces and to identify and celebrate the beauty and cultures that exist in these spaces, which this year’s project proposals addressed in variant imaginative ways. The jury also positively noted that project proposals moved away from strict categories and highly valued the diverse range of ideas that were not just catering to expectations.
more...
What particularly sparked the jury’s interest and convinced them to arrive at their selection were the nature, scope and distinct artistic approaches of the proposed collaborations and collaborators. The chosen projects, in different ways, engage members of the community as active collaborators, they value openness and at the same time appreciate their own craft and practice. Furthermore, the jury highlighted the experimental nature and depth as well as thoughtful nuances of the chosen proposals, and how they connect their project ideas to particular spaces and sites, promising high artistic merit, rooted in the culture of the place and community.
Much of the jury’s conversation circled around the question of how the project is embedded in the place, its relevance to the specific place, and how it offers meaningful connections. The four chosen projects do this in very diverse and sensitive ways, which invites a different kind of thinking about how artistic and collaborative work can engage with the locality and pertinent issues. Furthermore, the projects chosen demonstrated a humbleness and genuine interest in exchange by taking the approach of learning from and with a community, place and set of concerns.”
1. WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA IN BRANDFORT, FREE STATE
A BROADCASTING AND PUBLISHING PROJECT BY CHIMURENGA, 2023-24
Banished to Brandfort in 1977, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela noted that this act, carried out by the apartheid authorities, was intended 'to bury me forever.' Although this period is well documented it is under-examined in the formation of her political positionality and later subjectivity.
During April 2024 Chimurenga repositions Brandfort as a “liberation capital”, through a broadcasting event via the Pan African Space Station (PASS) at Majwemasweu Library in Brandfort (dates TBC), and, later, a special edition of The Chronic, Chimurenga’s periodic publication of arts and politics. Repositioning Brandfort as a “liberation capital”, this research takes a recursive, exploded view of Mam’ Winnie’s time in Brandfort (1977 to 1985) to engage connections and reverberations, to attend to physical and social life, and animated conversation with struggles in other places and times.
Curated and instigated by Chimurenga, this broadcast event brings together artists, writers and historians from outside of and within Brandfort, to weave theory-praxis with local histories and perspectives of struggle and instigate the conceptual and analytic dynamism of black ways of living and thinking, as well as the creative force of re-existence as resistance.
Collectively, we tell the story of Madikizela-Mandela’s time in Brandfort, a story about mothers and daughters, about women's pain and beauty, about performance and shame, but—further down, and beyond—a story about how everyday practices, sartorial elegance, and a feminist politics and poetics of care have been and can and must be harnessed in struggles for freedom.
PROJECT COLLABORATORS:
Nonkululeko Mabaso of Natal Collective, Dr Moorosi Leshoele from The Centre for Gender and African Studies (CGAS) at the University of Free State (UFS), Majwemasweu Library, adjacent to Mam’ Winnie's home, as a possible venue for the research platform.
A production that speaks to the narrative of the First Nation peoples of the Richtersveld
Regarded as the only arid biodiversity hotspot on earth, The Richtersveld is inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The Nama People of Richtersveld continue to live and graze their livestock in the area.
Over a period of a month three Garage Dance ensemble creatives will provide expertise in a range of crafts to fledgling performance company Nama Khoi Productions in Sanddrift in the Richtersveld. The skills will include physical movement for actors, dance instruction for potential dancers, performing on stilts, manipulating fire and the creation of a 45-minute outdoor site-specific performance.
Utilizing imagery that evokes depictions of rock art, hunter-gatherer and pastoral lifestyles that are at one with Nature, the production will strive to speak to a contemporary lifestyle that now is at odds with Nature resulting in global warming that is the consequence of colonisation and the exploitation of the land and fossil fuels. This is sparked by the stated vision of Nama Khoi Productions, “Promoting, preserving, and development of Nama Khoi culture through a dance between past and present.”
COLLABORATORS:
For Garage Dance Ensemble: John Linden, Alfred Hinkel & Al-Jerreau Richards, Byron Klassen, Faroll Coetzee, Georgia Julies
For Nama-Khoi Productions: Geralt Cloete, Annaline Joseph, Dianca Obies, Jody-Ann Cloete, Jayden Cloete , Liza-Marie De Wal, Laverne Slander, Janica Bezuidenhoudt, Sergio Fredericks
Imbali yakwa Tyefu is a project that interacts with the heritage of the rural land mass between the Great Fish River and Keiskamma River, eNgqushwa (Peddie), Eastern Cape.
This project is based on the memory of elders in the villages of Tyefu of which the elders participate in the project as interviewees and first-hand witnesses to some of the events that shaped the historical narrative of eNgqushwa. Their contribution to the project ranges from personal experiences and knowledge of the landscape which become the narratives we interact with.
These narratives will be actualized into a multi-disciplinary project made of site-specific performances, cultural conferencing, film and literature.
Practically, the project is articulated in three artistic performances, centring two landscape narratives: Mqwashini Tree and Ntsikana’s Stone. These include an exhibition at the Ngquma Shearing Hall, which opens only in September/October during shearing season (of sheep), to house an exhibition for locals to experience photography of their village. Secondly, a film screening of “The Intellectual Giants of the Eastern Cape”, which also portrays some of the landmarks and culture of Peddie. And thirdly, a music and theatre performance dramatized from our research and conversations with the elders in the area.
4. IN THE MANNER OF A COUNTRY STICK FIGHT: AN ARTISTS' BOOK
In the Manner of a Country Stick Fight: An Artists' Book is a collaborative book-making project by author/artist Lesiba Piet Tjale, writer/editor Daniel Browde and designer/artist Michelle Harris. The collaborators will bring together their complementary skills to create and distribute an artists’ book (the working title of which gives this project its name).
The boldly designed volume will combine texts, drawings and photographs created over the past ten years by Tjale, an artist who works freely across multiple visual mediums and writing styles. Drawing on his own experiences, Tjale conjures childhood on a farm as well as life in Makapanstad, in Northwest province, where he began living as a teenager, and still lives.
The book will be launched at Mmankala Technical and Commercial High School, Tjale’s former high school in Makanpanstad, where staff and learners will participate in a book-signing event and author Q&A. Copies will also be distributed, along with a series of promotional posters, to libraries, schools and community centres across Makapanstad and nearby Hammanskraal, as well as to libraries and cultural centres in Johannesburg and further afield.
COLLABORATORS:
Lesiba Piet Tjale,Daniel Browde, Michelle Harris, Mmankala Technical and Commercial High School
About the GPS Programm
The GPS programme grants seed funding of up to R 105.000 per project to artistic projects that are realised in rural parts of South Africa between February and November 2024. The Goethe-Institut set up this grant to support art professionals from across South Africa who collaborate with cultural or public spaces and engage with the people in the areas where these spaces are located.
For 2024, the emphasis is on artistic projects that are engaging with communities outside South Africa’s big urban centres and are focusing on the production and/or facilitation of artistic content. We are also welcoming projects that deliberately foster collaboration between the rural and the urban and include collaboration with a specific community or arts space.
More...
Please note: We are not looking for social cohesion or social development projects. This grant is specifically intended to support professional arts and cultural production in rural areas in South Africa. Project that solely take place in SA’s urban centres will also not be considered.
In 2024, up to 4 arts projects will be chosen for support by GPS.
If you consider applying, please check out the following information and documents, including eligibility criteria and FAQ.
If you consider applying, please check out the following information and documents, including eligibility criteria and FAQ. If the information provided doesn’t answer your queries, please send an email to: gpsapplications@goethe.de.
All necessary materials and information will be asked for in the Application Form.
The following information and materials should be prepared by you in order to fill in the application:
Mandatory:
A short synopsis of your project (max. of 200 words)
A detailed project description (max. 1000 words)
A short paragraph about the projects’ objectives and means how they will be met (max. 200 words)
A project timeline including realisation plan and promotion strategy (max. 500 words)
Short biographies/descriptions (max. 500 words) of all involved parties (artists, collaborators, space/venue etc.)
A Budgetplan outlining the estimated costs (expenditure) and planned income for your project
Optional:
Supporting material / references of previous work (e.g. press reviews, visual documentation) – NO reference letters needed. You will be able to upload up to 3 files and add up to 3 website links.
Only projects of a non-commercial nature will be considered.
The Goethe-Institut offers financial support for chosen projects to the maximum amount of R 105.000 per project. Should the project budget exceed this amount, the artist/project team should seek further support from other funding institutions, donors or sponsors - information of which should be included in the Budgetplan for this application form.
The proposed space has an established track record, operating for at least 1 year and professionalism evident. The profile of the space must be such that realisation of proposed project is viable.
A clear and viable realisation/project plan is mandatory.
The signed collaboration agreement outlining the form of commitment from the space is essential.
A clear idea on how the project engages with communities, preferably outside South Africa’s big urban centres, must be part of the project proposal. Projects taking place in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban will not be considered. Collaborations between practitioners, collectives or spaces that are based in the rural and urban areas are welcome. Projekte, die in Johannesburg, Kapstadt oder Durban stattfinden, werden nicht berücksichtigt. Kooperationen zwischen Praktikern, Kollektiven oder Räumen, die in ländlichen und städtischen Gebieten ansässig sind, sind willkommen.
Only one project proposal per artist will be considered by the jury.
The project demonstrates artistic quality and cultural relevance and demonstrates rootedness in the respective local community.
The project application has met the deadline and documentation is complete.
Realisation plan, budget outline and partners/infrastructure are coherent and realistic for achieving the aims of the project.
The project is feasible within the planned project period and takes place in 2024.
A complete and realistic budget plan that outlines additional support in the case that a project’s budget exceeds the GPS total budget per project of R 105.000. This is particularly important with large/ambitious projects, where eventual realisation may seem unlikely with inadequate funding.
The work is appropriate for the space and audience and reflects what the artist/project team is aiming to achieve.
The proposal illustrates that both artist(s) and the space where the project will take place are able and willing to support the project from start to finish. The project and the proposed space in which it will be presented need to operate in partnership with each other. The partners need to take into account all conceptual concerns and manage all logistical tasks.
Applications Closed
The applications for the GPS programme 2024 are now closed. Thank you to all who have submitted their project proposals.
The jury will convene in November and we will inform successful applicants by the end of November. If you have not received a response by then, please consider your applications as unsuccessful.
Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to send individual responses. Thanks for your understanding.
Supporting Documents
Please USE the FOLLOWING TEMPLATES TO UPLOAD In YOUR APPLICATION FORM:
The Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg calls for proposals for the 2024 edition of the Goethe-Institut Project Space (GPS), a multi-disciplinary support programme for artists and art initiatives living and working in South Africa. The programme supports artistic work realised in any part of South Africa.
GPS aims to foster collaborations between art professionals and community spaces that can take the form of workshops or exhibitions, performances or events of any artistic discipline including visual arts, performing arts, film, music, or interdisciplinary work.
GPS is envisioned as a non-commercial, artist-centred platform, designed to support not only the artists and their projects, but also the many structures, spaces and festivals that currently exist and need partnerships of this nature to continue their work.
GPS signals a move to decentralize; supporting smaller, less institutional, and non-commercial spaces, and privileging those situated outside of the large metropoles of South Africa.
An independent jury of arts professionals, selected by the Goethe-Institut for their expertise in the field of high-quality independent art projects, arts project management and community work, is responsible for the selection of projects that will be supported in 2024.
GPS forms part of the Goethe-Institut’s programme that promotes cultural dialogue through fostering exchange in the arts. GPS was conceived succeeding the GoetheOnMain space, which was based at Arts On Main in Johannesburg from May 2009 to November 2016.
