The
4th Cape Town Month of Photography 2008
EDUCATIONAL and NETWORKING EVENTS
Address at the Official Opening of MoP 4 - Andrew Lamprecht
A
triennial festival
Cape Town's ongoing photographic triennial celebrates the photographic
image as a unique space where the real and the metaphor engage and stimulate
exploration and self expression. It is a festival which provides a rare
platform for communication between local photographic communities, inviting
inter-regional exchange, circulation and dialogue. It also aims to compete
within the global photographic arena and to support the current positioning
of South Africa as a world cultural site and hub of photographic vision
and practice.
The festival is presented as a series of exhibitions, events, seminars, workshops and master classes in photography and related themes, the core program running in Cape Town with the possibility of satellite exhibitions and events taking place in other parts of the country. For, although a local event, the month-long festival encourages and welcomes the participation of photographers, galleries, museums and photographic centres elsewhere.
The opening of the principal event in Cape Town will take place at 6pm on Thursday October 2 at the Castle of Good Hope, which will host a number of solo and group exhibitions.Some exhibitions are already on show. Other events and exhibitions will open at a variety of venues on different occasions throughout the month. The festival catalogue will showcase not only the core exhibitions, but also the fringe and satellite items.
MoP4 promotes opportunities for South African photographers to gain both local and global exposure. It will play a pivotal role in giving prominence to photography as a valuable cultural resource promoting cultural tourism. This festival hopes to continue the tradition of presenting an evolving collective vision of our contemporary life, and creating a comprehensive network between diverse photographic communities, including documentary, commercial and fine art practitioners, amateur associations and learners, all of whom are given a forum for expression.
Emergence
and Emergency
This theme of MoP4 suggests the paradoxical character of societies
in transition: growth and destruction, calamity and opportunity. South
Africa is still extricating itself from the tenacious hold of apartheid
and its ramifications, emerging from its isolation to become part of a
globalised world. Both locally and internationally, we are faced with
unprecedented crises that demand new and extraordinary ways of being and
doing in order to meet the challenges we are confronted with. We are,
in many ways, 'on the brink' with both its positive and negative implications.
In this terrifying and exciting landscape, fresh, dynamic photographies
have been emerging. MoP4 sets out to give them exposure.
Important Dates
- Wednesday 24 September 2008 National Heritage Day
- Thursday 2 October 2008 Official Public Opening of Festival
2pm Opening of 13 Group Solo Shows at the Iziko South African Museum.
6pm Opening of American Master, Stephen Shore's retrospective, Stephen Shore: Coloring American Photography, brought out to South Africa by the Roger Ballen Foundation.
6pm - 6.30pm at the Iziko Castle of Good Hope
30 Photographers in 3 venues
Then and Now Group show showcasing 8 famous South African documentary photographers work from pre and post Apatheid periods in the Iziko Good Hope Gallery of the Castle.
Construct: Beyond the Documentary Group show in the Military Recruitment Centre of the Castle.
Emergence and Emergency Group solo exhibitions by 15 upcoming photographers with outstanding bodies of work in the Military Allamans Barracks of the Castle.
Official Festival Dates 2 October - 1 November 2008
Exhibition dates Some shows have already begun in August (see Festival Program) and some will end as late as November 31, however all will be open at some point during October.
Online Exhibitions
Tessa
Gordon: Days of the
Iguana
Nan Melville:
Frustration
Clifton Childree:
Locust Projects
The Submission Guidelines were:
- South African and African professional and amateur photographers working with digital or traditional photographic media or combinations of both.
- South African and African photographers who live in the Diaspora. We are also intending to have online shows as we have had before in our past festivals
- International photographers who have already created work or wish to create work around the festival theme.
- Entries were open to photographers working in any photographic or associated medium: analogue, digital, slide, video, print or 'photographic based' other.
- Galleries, curators and writers
- NO ONE HAS BEEN EXCLUDED DUE TO LACK OF FUNDS!
Queries: 021 4624911 at all hours
Jess: 082 681 5513 10 am - 3pm daily
Zandile: 072 786 3720 3pm - 8pm daily
Jenny: 082 935 5533 2pm - 8pm daily
Rima: 083 740 6543