Writer: Primrose Mrwebi
Art speakStage is a space where we can have conversation about things we like to talk about but seldom get a chance.
Last Friday I was privileged to have been invited to the
unique gathering of Rolex mentor and protégés at the Baxter Theatre.
It opened with a musical concert of two musicians Neo
Muyanga and Aurelio Martinez, it was
something like a church or a jukejoint,
Martinez sang like an ancestor, beat the drum and led us into a trans-like
state while Muyanaga’s songs penetrated the soul.
The music spoke to us in many different ways, there were dancing boys
and one guy in staunch red outfit braved the stage and did a dance and invited
a beautiful woman to do a slow dance with him, he tried to get back to his seat
and be part for the audience but alas it was too late he was already in a
different realm.
When the concert finished it was the usual fashion, wine and
art conversation at the bar, needless to say the Friday was something like a
scene in a series filmed in New York City, there was the art, the fashion, the
music, the wine and lots of very intellectual and arty conversation.
Then came the Saturday night, this was a conversation between
the big guns, William Kenridge, Peter Cellars and wile Soyinka. The
conversation was about inspiration / the impulse how we turn the impulse into a
work of art.
The lessons we drew from this conversation were that from an
impulse,
From an artistic point of view is to get yourself into the
studio start drawing line the repetition of the movements leads you to the idea
that will turn into a piece of art says William Kenrdge
Peter Sellars was incredible in that he reminded us that we
must not be afraid of telling the truth but we must strike a good balance
between the truth that we are wishing to tell and have the sensitivity not to
distort it.
Wole Soyinka spoke a lot about rituals in theatre making ,
that we should never let go of the truth
when we tell our stories but I must confess that the most profound line that resonated with many of us was “ we must never underestimate the power of anger and that we should
never cure our radicalism”
This was an inspirational experience but more than it
reminded me that we artist are privileged to have a space to tell stories,
stories that can shape thinking in our society, because we write our stories
from an authentic place. This also shed some more light on the power of what we
have as performers, writers and visual artist. This is why the Joule city
Incubator is such a good idea and it could have never happened to better artist
than, Chuma, Tebogo, Refilwe, Kabi, Chloe, Mazwi and Prim.
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