A side dish of art

In 2008 artist Claudia Shneider co-founded the first official fringe show to the Joburg Art Fair with the Dead Revolutionaries Club. From 2009 as the Joburg Fringe – an independent annual satellite art fair concurrent to the Joburg Art Fair. The Fringe challenges the norm, according to Shneider, creating a space where she says “the art scene would no longer have the traditional ‘road signs’ about what is safe to buy: they would be challenged to rely on their own understanding and intuition and art dealers would have a whole bigger responsibility. It would probably connect us (the South-African art scene) more directly to the international contemporary art scene. It would be the art revolution!”

Cape Town can look forward to a curated selection of the works exhibited in Johannesburg in October last year with some notable additions. The Fringe offers an opportunity for established and discoverable artists to showcase their work to those who converge on Cape Town at this time (just ahead of the Cape Town Art Fair). The Fringe aims to encourage a diverse art audience by offering fresh, dynamic, original work displayed in accessible spaces. The show will feature 39 artists from 13 different countries with works in a range of media including painting, ceramics, video, photography, sculpture, text and performance.

Pop in for a fresh dose of art from local and international artists and make sure not to miss VideoART!, curated by Jackie Ruth Murray, a lens-based creative content producer. She works with expressive media to tell authentic stories with measurable impacts.
“The Joburg/CT Fringe invited me to conceive, implement and curate their 2018 VideoART! special feature, a compilation which presents local and international video artists, whose works deal with varied subject matter using a selection of media devices,” Murray explained.

Another exciting feature at The Fringe is Franco-British writer and photographer Mireille Ribière’s series of prints entitled Of Riches and Rags – a reading of the Financial Times. Ribière met Shneider in 2014 and found the concept of The Fringe intriguing.
“I am from a working-class background with no exposure to art, which I discovered in my late teens. Knowing first-hand about the transformative power of art, I found the whole project exciting, invigorating, and felt privileged to be invited to contribute.”

“Seeing diverse work exhibited in a single space helps you appreciate the unique qualities of each piece, and the dynamic tension that arises from the confrontation of different media inevitably leads you to wonder at the expressive potential of each. With many of the works being by emerging artists, you really find yourself at the heart of contemporary creativity.” says Ribière

The popular artist-run and artist-led initiative, The Joburg Fringe is coming to Cape Town in February.

Written by Mart-Marié du Toit

Photo’s: Supplied and credited