Friday, August 11, 2006

Voyage Ensemble a Journey Together
Flight from Fear, Voyage into Hope

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all."
-- John Lennon

An art exhibition initiated by Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town (SCCT) aimed at fostering relationships between refugee and local artists and by so doing break down xenophobia and introduce the displaced artists into the South African art network.

The Voyage Ensemble exhibition acts as a reflection on the movement of African people and their cultures. The exhibition, which hopes to be the first of many, will examine the theme of a journey, movement and change on the African continent and showcase the individual works of 12 visual artists : 6 South African artists together with 6 artists from Congo, Burundi and Mozambique who live and work in Cape Town.
Ultimately the Voyage Ensemble Project seeks to celebrate a journeying together of both visual art and people that is not defined by borders and differences but by a broader understanding of a shared African visual imagery.


The Works in Common
A studio is offered by the Scalabrini Center for the completion of the Works in Common that start ourJourney Together. Our Logo and a Mobile are being created.








The Curator
SYLVIE GROSCHATAU-PHILLIPS
is an artist, born in France and resident in South Africa since 1998. Batik, Ceramic, Mosaïc and Digital film are medium she masters. Her works have been exhibited in Cape Town and Paris over the last 10 years and two of her film documentaries have been featured at the museum of Modern Art in Paris, 2002 and 2003.

She was a founding member of the art collective, Malpit!: “a group of energetic artivists who shared and gathered their skills to create art events.” They created and organized 9 art events between 1999 and 2004 at different venues around Cape Town and most notably participated in the Cape Town City Festival and the SoftServe Exhibition at the National Gallery in 2000/1.

She lives and works in Oude Molen eco Village where she created and curates with her partner AnZu the Gallery, Op Die Hoek Art show room. Here, periodic art events are organized which include a network of local artists.

Her Batik works and animated movies were selected for an exhibition at the Alliance Française in Cape Town in February 2006.

She has been teaching the techniques of Mosaïc and Ceramics to children in schools around the Cape peninsula, specific needs children and to the patients of Valkenberg psychiatric hospital since 1999 as an Art Therapist. She created an Art Therapy studio on her premises - garden studios in the court yard of the historical Oude Molen manor house.

Her expertise and creativity make Sylvie Groschatau-Phillips a valuable partner for the conduct of this exhibition while her French makes her a link between the mostly francophone refugee artists who share her enthusiasm and are convinced about the opportunities such a project can create.

A group exists and is ready to show and combine works to create a multi cultural Journey!


If u wanna make contact please email us at
www.voyageensemble@gmail.com



Painter,photographer
JOY NIKELO
born (1976) in Cape Town studied through the Arts and Media Access Centre (AMAC). She works with multi-media with a focus on painting. Her works were chosen to participate in the Women Spaces in the Visual Arts (2005) exhibition, which was an arts project between AMAC and the Wiks People’s College in Uppsala, Sweden. Her works focus on issues of tradition, ritual practice and social rules regarding women in Xhosa culture and is a call for women to question these practices and their place within them. The same exhibition was showcased at the Iziko Gallery, Annexe.


Painter
JULIE FELICITE LOUBELO was born in Congo Brazzaville. After finishing her University studies (1998), she attended the Art School (Ecole de Peinture de Poto Poto) which she completed in 2001. There she worked in a studio managed by master artist, NDINGA where she explored realism, surrealism and the abstract. She has exhibited at the Meridien Hotel, French Cultural Center, UNIC and the Town Hall of Brazzaville.

Illustrator, Ceramicist, Fabric Art
JALIYAA (JANE) VERSFELD
was born and raised in the rural Eastern Cape, later graduating from UCT with a BA and HDE. She applies her experience as a language teacher / activist on the Cape Flats during the 1980s to her (self-taught) design and illustration of progressive educational materials on behalf of various NGOs and worker organisations, eg a poster tracing the land question in South Africa since 1652 for the Land Tribunal hosted by the Trust for Community Outreach and Education in 2003, and her work has been used in international debt cancellation and other campaigns. Pan-African culture/s; indigenous flora and fauna; gender issues; holistic health, and feminist spirituality are also important concerns reflected in her personal work, which ranges from cartoons to fabric art to ceramic sculpture. Exhibitions include: Black and White in INK (cartoons), in Durban (2002); Upfront and Personal: 3 decades of political graphics initiated by the British Council in association with Iziko Museums national tour (2003); The Memory Project (2005).






Photographer/Multi-Media Artist
Born (1978) and raised in Cape Town, Abdul Dube has always been drawn to picture making. Working first with techniques borrowed from print making and moving on to collage and mixed media, Dube sold his first works to his classmates at school. Dube does not have a formal art background and except for a short course in photography he is entirely self-taught. In 1998 Dube bought his first camera (Minolta Slr) with which he explored the idea of making pictures. Using himself as his first subject, Dube did a series of photographs exploring his own naked form using self-timer and shutter release cable. Dube now captures scenes from everyday life and explores the relationship between the body and environment while his works reflect different aspects of human nature. Actively involved in the community he volunteers two days of his week to the Phakamani project, and has for the past two year devoted time to create a Platform project called MOPP – Month of Peoples Photography, The exhibition has been featured at the Next wave festival in Melbourne 2006.

In a current interview art writer Jaroslav Kalac of Contempo Art magazine
Dube mentions ``With a country in transition, it is important to establish platforms to launch people young and old, taught and self taught, with opportunities in the arts. The more opportunities there are, the better; those who shine can further themselves. Social transformation, growth and opportunity are pillars of the collective. Success should not be measured by the amount of cash you make but by the difference you make to yourself and others. ``
<>Group showings: This is Cape Town (2002 & 2003) Street kid workshop exhibition (curator - 2003), MOPP with the Khamissa Kollektiv (2004/5), Next Wave festival Melbourne Australia 2006, AVA committee selection exhibition 2005. His work features on the web at these addresses> thedigitalartist.com / looklookmagazine / nativesoul.blogspot.com / tinyvices.com /Africancoffee.co.za >>>>>>







Painter, Sculpture, Blacksmith, Animation and Glass blower
ANZU PHILLIPS
lives and works in Oude Molen eco village as an artist and designer in a diversity of media, since his arrival from Paris with his partner Sylvie Groschatau in 1998. They have established an unusual relationship between artist and neighbourhood with an emphasis on the living art and its use in healing, therapy and the breaking down of barriers as a silent force that merges the unknown with the unperceived. Anzu often chooses to re-cycle materials – creating from near decay and using the beauty of old scars. As a founding member of the Molen Malpitte Art Movement, Anzu worked with the group to create several exhibitions, most memorably the People Powered Entertainment Consol at Softserve in 2001. In 2004 in collaboration with Art & Squart Palais Tokyo Museum of Modern Art Paris, the Op Die Hoek Art Show rooms at his home in Oude Molen were opened. Since 2001 he has showed in: Pod of potential: YDETAG, National Gallery (2002); Neptunes Circus: V&A Waterfront; Modern Lighting Exhibition, Bauhaus, Rosebank; Exhibition of Lycramos luminos: Gallery Frederic du Luka, Paris; Art Action: Woosh Festival, Worcester; South African Glass Association Festival: Irma Stern museum; WAX exhibition in association with Sylvie Groschatau at the Alliance Francaise, Cape Town


LIZETTE MARIA EDUARDO CHIRRIME
was born in Mozambique in 1973. In 2003 she felt the call, through her dreams, to an artistic life. The voice inside her specifically directed her to work with Cow Skin and Hessian.

She exhibited for the first time at the Ma Maf Festival at the Centro Cultural Franco Mozambicano on the 27 September 2003. Following this she entered the Envente Bolsa de Turismo competition for which her works won first place. Consequently she was offered her first solo exhibition, Metamorforse de saco at AMF, which in turn led to an invitation to participate in a collective exhibition, ARTE no Feminino (Women in Art) at the Museu Nacional de Arte in Maputo. This further exposure of her works resulted in an invitation to the Faira de Arte Contemporania in Portugal and to Nairobi as a representative of Mozambique for the British Council’s pan-African InterAction Networking Forum.

Her work speaks to everyone and carries the rich textures of Africa. Recently she completed a residency at the Greatmore Studios, which culminated in another solo exhibition and the Joao Ferreira Gallery in Cape Town presently has her works on display.

LUZAMBA MUSIRI ZEMBA
was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1973, where he discovered a passion for drawing. At an early age he managed to convince his strict father to allow him to attend the Beaux Art Academy in DRC. After Matriculating in 1993 he went to live with his Uncle David Chibwe, one of Zambia’s best-loved artists who mentored him.

He received his diploma in Fine Art at the Evelyn Hone College of Applying Art and Commerce in Lusaka and participated in many group workshops and exhibitions there. Most notably, he was awarded the prize in painting and mixed media at the P.E.L. group in Lusaka during 1998. Zemba has been living in Cape Town since 2000 where he exhibits his works. Specifically at Alliance Francaise, V & A Waterfront, The South Africa Iziko Museum, The Cape Gallery and The Mount Nelson.

At The Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Zemba had a solo mixed media exhibition. The works were inspired by the tragic happenings in Eastern and Central Africa. For him art has no boundaries and will always rise up, in this case even in the conflict of war.

Thursday, August 03, 2006



EVERTON MBUMBA NSUMBU
was born in 1958 in Kinshasa (DRC). He received a certificate from the Academy of Fine Arts and did his Honors in Philosophy and Theology at the Grand Seminaries Saint Kaggwa. Since living in Cape Town, Everton works in Oil, Acrylic and Sand mediums and exhibits at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. He participated in Sessions of Poets against violence and war – Peace in Africa in Windhoek, Namibia in 2000 and exhibited in New York at the Unifications Media in 2001/2.