The festival programme embraces several performances that reference sentient beings. Most of these performances are set to take place in Cape Town’s iconic botanical garden, Kirstenbosch. The famed landscaped grounds are home to a many species of plants, insects, birds, reptiles and other animals.
But the irony of this setting is not lost on the festival’s curators and performers. In fact, they relish the opportunity to remind audiences that Kirstenbosch has a contested colonial past, and that our relationship with the fragile natural world remains complicated.The seven works will engage with plants, politics, and history, allowing audiences to see and experience Kirstenbosch – and plants – in a fresh way.
The Kirstenbosch programme explores different aspects of ecology and history. On Saturday, 2 April 2022, Cape Town artist Ayesha Price and Adderley Street flower seller Karin Bachmann will lead a public workshop for participants who want to learn how to make flower arrangements and plant sculptures that reflect on stories about the past, place and belonging, using plant material from Kirstenbosch.
On Sunday, 3 April 2022, Cape Town-based architect and artist Ilze Wolff will reflect on garden and land politics; American artist Chanelle Adams will take participants on a “ghost tour” of the camphor trees planted at Kirstenbosch by Cecil John Rhodes; and Swiss artist Daniela Müller will reflect on human-plant-animal relationships through the garden mole, often considered a problem animal.
Each performance will draw audiences into a deeper understanding of the nexus between nature and culture – an often-uncomfortable space, but one in which catharsis can take place. As any visitor to Kirstenbosch knows, the famous Camphor Avenue showcases camphor trees that were planted during Cecil John Rhodes’s ownership of the land. Legend has it that Rhodes planned to plant trees from all over the British empire at Kirstenbosch.