MEDIARELEASE:Tuesday20May2014

CohesionsandDisruptions:ArtasaKeytoTransformation
InHonourofMandelaDay

On 18 July 2014, the Vryfeesin partnership with theJohannesStegmannArtGallery and the Institute
for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS) will copresent a new
artistandacademicforumonexperimental,sociallyengagedandcrossculturalart.

Adri Herbert, Director of the Vryfees says the forum is part of the transformation strategy of the festival,
whichaimstosupportmorediversityandcrosscultural,contemporaryartprogrammingfortheevent.

Herbert comments 'Cohesions andDisruptionsis part of thenew Program for Innovation in Artfom
Development (PIKO/PIAD) which includes both the crossculturalOPENLab2014,a new
Australian/South African laboratory for early and midcareer South African artists, and a partnership
with the Australian based SituateArt in Festivals initiative, managed by Salamanca Arts Centre in
Hobart,Tasmania.'

Given the significance of the Australian/South African connection, it is imperative to commence the
inaugural PIKO/PIAD by linking the two countries through First Nation dialogue. The forums keynote
speaker, LeeAnn Tjunypa Buckskin, a Narungga, Wirangu, Wotjobaluk woman from South Australia
and Victoria respectively and who is well known throughout the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and
broader arts communities, will discuss issues around First Nation cultural development, language,
heritageandcontemporaryartspractice.

Professor Andre Keet, Director of the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice says 'Given the
histories and present experiences of human rights violations and racial discrimination that
indigenous people in Australia and South Africa are subjected to, we are particularly honoured to have
LeeAnn as a guest speaker. Together we will explore how social justice for Indigenous and other
marginalisedgroupscanbeadvancedviacontemporaryartspractice.'

LeeAnn will also be in conversation withDr Willy Nel,Lecturer at the School of Education Studies,
Educational Psychology (UFS) who completed hisPhD among the Khomani San in the Kalahari, and
whoisofIndigenousdescent.

Other forum speakers presenting their work in the context of crosscultural engagement and
experimental art, include Dr Mari Velonaki, Director of the Centre for Social Robotics at the National
Institute for Experimental Art at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Dr Nigel Helyer of Sonic
Objects Sonic Architecture, Sydney Bec Dean, curator at Performance Space, Sydney and manager
of Time_Place_Space: Nomad, a travelling laboratory program for interdisciplinary and experimental
art Jess Olivieri, cofounder Parachutes for Ladies in Sydney Australia and Cigdem Aydemir, Vryfees
visualartistfor2014.

Angela de Jesus, Director of the Stegmann Gallery at UFS, said that after the forum, in honour of
Mandela Day, there will be a community development art program in a local school in Mangaung, to
whicheveryoneisinvited.Detailsofthiseventwillbereleasedclosertothedateoftheforum.

CohesionsandDisruptions:ArtasaKeytoTransformationwilltakeplaceonFriday18JULY
from9:0013:00attheNavalHillPlanetarium,Bloemfontein.Admissionisfree.RSVPbyFriday4
Julybytodejesusav@ufs.ac.zaoronFacebookwww.facebook.com/events/582064155215208/
END

Presented by



Principal supporters



This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.







Additional support provided by



This project is supported by Arts NSW's NSW Artists' Grant Scheme, a devolved funding program
administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts on behalf of the NSW Government.


KeynoteBiographies
Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin (AU)
Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin is a Narungga, Wirangu, Wotjobaluk
woman from South Australia and Victoria respectively, who is
well known throughout the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
and broader arts communities. Lee-Anns current position is with
Carclew Youth Arts in Adelaide as Manager, of the Aboriginal
Arts Development Program. She has produced Blak Nite South
Australias leading Indigenous Youth Arts Festival as part of the
2005, 07, 09, and 11 Come Out Festival. CarclewYouth Arts has
a strong Indigenous-programming component, sees her working
with community in the metropolitan and regional areas with a
strong focus in remote South Australian communities. Lee-Ann is
Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Strategy
Panel at the Australia Council for the Arts and is the first woman
to be appointed to this position since its establishment in 1973. In July 2013 she was
appointed as a Director of the governing Council for the Australia Council for a 3 year term.
She is one of seven National Champions selected to support and promote the Barangaroo
development site, Sydney. She has also been appointed by the Premier of South Australia,
Jay Weatherill to Co-chair for the BHP National Indigenous Visual Arts Festival scheduled for
2015. Image: Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin, Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Strategy Panel, Australia Council for the Arts. Photo Hannah Tunstill

Dr. Willy Nel, Lecturer School of Education Studies; Educational Psychology (SA)

Dr Nel is a registered Educational Psychologist
who is committed to making an impact in
education research in South Africa. His PhD with
empirical work done among the Khomani San in
the Kalahari, helped him define his scholarly focus
on critical community psychology in education.
Despite being a late-entrant to academe he
produced significant peer-reviewed publications.
Among these is his co-authored article (Nel,
Lazarus & Daniels, 2010) wherein the influence of
community psychology values on the South African
education support services policy was uncovered, with Willy being responsible for the
analysis part. A recent article (Nel, 2012) uses critical community psychology as the lens
through which the experience of black staff in a historically Afrikaans South African university
is analyzed. Both articles serve as testimony to his interest in Basic and Higher Education.
Willy served as associate editor of the South African Journal of Psychology (included in the
Social Sciences Citation Index) until 2012. Currently he serves on the editorial board of the
peer-reviewed South African Journal of Education. As a participant in a symposium at the
International Congress of Psychology (held for the first time in Africa, 2012 July, Cape Town
International Convention Centre) he advocated on this international platform for the
relevance of critical community psychology in the training of Educational Psychologists. His
presentation was lauded by internationally recognized scholars, notably prof Sandy Lazarus
(Medical Research Council) and prof Elias Mpofu (University of Sydney) as very significant.

Other Biographies: Australian and South African PIAD 2014 Artists and
Facilitators

Professor Andre Keet (SA)

Prof. Andr Keet, Director of the Institute for
Reconciliation and Social Justice at the university, has
been appointed as member of the Oversight Committee
on the Transformation of South African Universities. He is
one of seven committee members that were appointed
by the Ministry of Higher Education and Training to
monitor progress on transformation in public
universities.

The committee will advise Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister
of Higher Education and Training, on policy to combat
racism, sexism and other forms of unfair discrimination in public higher education. The
committee will also advise on the role of universities in promoting the development of a
free, fair and non-discriminatory society beyond the world of the academia.

Honoured to be elected on the committee, Prof. Keet said he is ready to serve the national
interest in the transformation of South African universities. "The appointment is also a
compliment to the university and to its exceptional experience in the process of
transformation."

Angela de Jesus (SA)

Angela de Jesus is currently based in
Bloemfontein (South Africa) as the art curator
at the University of the Free State (UFS). She is
the director of the Johannes Stegmann and
Centenary art galleries and is responsible for
the UFS permanent art collection. From 2009
to 2012 she established the Lotto
Sculpture-on-Campus Project at the UFS. This
project has enabled the University to acquire a
collection of sixteen public artworks on the
main campus in Bloemfontein.

De Jesus obtained a masters degree in Fine Art from the UFS in 2009 and specializes in
printmaking and video installation. She has participated in several national exhibitions and
received a merit award at the Xpozure Awards in 2003, was a merit winner at the Sasol New
Signatures Awards in 2009 and was awarded the Thamgidi Residency Award at Spier
Contemporary 2010. In 2012 she attended the Thamgidi Residency in Arnhem in the
Netherlands and participated in the IFAA international artist residency and festival in
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.





Bec Dean (AU)

Bec Dean is a curator and writer who trained as a visual
artist, she is currently a PhD candidate at the College of
Fine Art, University of New South Wales and Curator at
large for Performance Space. She joined Performance
Space as Associate Director in 2007 and became
Co-Director with Jeff Khan in January 2012 until February
2014. Bec was previously curator at the Australian
Centre for Photography (2005-2007) and Exhibition
Manager at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
(2002-2005).

Becs curatorial interests revolve around interdisciplinary and participatory practices,
performance, site-specificity, photomedia and art/science collaborations. Notable recent
projects include Performance Spaces SEXES festival, co-curated with Deborah Kelly and Jeff
Khan, Local Positioning Systems at MCA, Australia with Jeff Khan (2012), Awfully Wonderful:
Science Fiction in Contemporary Art at Performance Space with Lizzie Muller (2011). Recent
contributions in publications include the books Deborah Kelly & (Artspace, 2013) and Unsitely
Aestheticsedited by Maria Miranda. She has written catalogue essays and texts for Art
Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of WA, Artspace (Sydney), the Institue of Modern Art (Brisbane),
Artlines for the Queensland Art Gallery, PICA (Perth), Artlink, Art & Australia, Broadsheet,
RealTime and many more. Bec has recently co-edited an issue of Artlink, Sexing the
Agenda with Johanna Mendelssohn.


Cigdem Aydemir (AU)

CigdemAydemir is a Sydney based artist of Turkish Muslim
heritage. Her interdisciplinary art practice incorporates
installation, performance and video. She explores the
convergence of gender, religious and cultural identities as
well as themes of body politics and consumption. Much of
her work interrogates the void between body and dress
as well as its social and political implications. Coming from
a fashion design background and being the daughter of a
tailor, her conspicuous use of fabric simultaneously holds,
falls, conceals and reveals, adorns and obfuscates.

Aydemir was recently awarded the Redlands Art Prize in the Emerging Artist category for
2013. She has exhibited in local, interstate and international exhibitions including most
recently Cementa13, Kandos NSW, 2013; SEXES, Performance Space, Sydney, 2012; and
RENEW: Real Illusions, Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, QLD, 2012. In 2012 she received the
Edna Ryan Award for Creative Feminism.









Jay Pather (SA)

Jay Pather is Associate Professor at the University of Cape
Town, Director of the Gordon Institute for Performing and
Creative Arts (GIPCA); Artistic Director of Siwela Sonke
Dance Theatre, Chair of the National Arts Festival Artistic
Committee and Curator for the Infecting the City Public Art
Festivals. Since his studies as a Fulbright Scholar at NewYork
University, Pathers work has traveled widely extending
across discipline, site and culture. He has collaborated with
visual artists, architects and urban planners, since 1984,
taking his inter-cultural performances into public spaces and
working with the architecture of Johannesburg, Durban,
London, Zanzibar, Amsterdam, New York, Barcelona,
Mumbai, Muscat, New Delhi, Copenhagen, Koln and Cape
Town.

Pather has presented papers at amongst others the African Knowledges Workshop in Cape
Town, the School for New Dance in Amsterdam, the International Leadership Forumat Aix en
Provence, the UNESCO Conference on Art Education in Africa, at the Territoires de la creation
Conference in Lille, the Metropolis Conference in Copenhagen, the World Cultural Forum in
Brazil, the African Urbanism Colloquium in Cairo, Performance Studies International 17 in
Utrecht and at the International Theatre Institute in London. Recent publications include
articles in Changing Metropolis ll edited by Marie Polli and Rogue Urbanismedited by Edgar
Pieterse and Abdul Malik Simone.

Pather has served on the executive of the National ACTAG; the Arts and Culture Trust of the
President; the Advisory and State Theatre Board; the delegation investigating cultural
exchange with Cuba; as Chairperson for the Performing Arts Network of South Africa and as
co-curator for the Spier Contemporary Exhibitions 2007 and 2010. Awards include a
Heritage Award, a Brett Kebble Award, the Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance and a
University of KwaZulu Natal Convocation Award for leadership in the Arts and Humanities.
Recent commissions include: Body of Evidence at the FNB Dance Umbrella, at Theatre Aan
Het Spui in Den Haag, for danse afrique danse and the National Arts Festival, Blind Spot for
the Metropolis Biennale and Qaphela Caesar at the old Stock Exchange in downtown
Johannesburg.












Jess Olivieri (AU)

Jess Olivieri creates work that spans
performance, sound, video, dance and
installation. Jess practice investigates the social
and cultural factors that influence how we
inhabit public space. Most recently Jesss work
made I am an Island for the 2012/13 Sydney
Festival and curated the performance program
Hi Friends for the MCAs ARTBAR project.
Earlier this month Jess created For you the bell tolls for the MCA and is the current
co-curator of ALASKA projects performance program Restaging, Restaging History.

In 2012 Jess showed at GOMA as part of Contemporary: Women as well as Campbeltown Art
Centres Transmission in a collaboration with the Sydney Chamber Choir. In 2011 Jesss work
with Hayley Forward and the Parachutes for Ladies was featured in MCAs Primavera 2011,
Action Stations curated by Natalie Cursio at Campbelltown Arts Centre, she presented the
participatory audio dance project Dance of Death, Perth Cultural Centre and was part of the
exhibition Bad Angle, Still Gallery, Sydney. In 2010 Jess and Hayley with the Parachutes for
Ladies presented I thought a musical was being made, at the 2010 Next Wave Festival and
The view from here, West space.

Dr Mari Velonaki (AU)

Associate Professor Mari Velonaki, Director,
Creative Robotics Laboratory, National Institute
for Experimental Arts (NIEA) has worked as an
artist and researcher in the field of interactive
installation art since 1995. Mari has created
interactive installations that incorporate
movement, speech, touch, breath, electrostatic
charge, artificial vision and robotics. In 2003,
Mari's practice expanded to robotics, when she
initiated and led a major Australian Research Council art/science research project 'Fish-Bird:
Autonomous Interactions in a Contemporary Arts Setting' in collaboration with robotics
scientists at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

In 2006 Velonaki co-founded, with Dr David Rye, the Centre for Social Robotics, a centre
dedicated to interdisciplinary research into human-robot interaction in spaces that
incorporate the general public. In 2007, Mari was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts
Visual Arts Fellowship and in 2009 she was awarded an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship.

Associate Professor Velonaki is the director of the recently established Creative Robotics
Lab at NIEA. The Creative Robotics Lab will provide a cross-disciplinary research environment
dedicated to understanding how humans can interact with mechanical and robotic devices
within the context of experimental arts and social robotics.





Dr Nigel Helyer (AU)

Dr. Nigel Helyer (a.k.a. DrSonique) is an independent
sound-artist who has forged an international reputation
for large scale sound-sculpture installations, environmental
public artworks, museum inter-actives and new media
projects. Nigel trained in the UK graduating with a BA
Honours in Sculpture at the Liverpool College of Art (1974)
followed by an intensive three year research Masters in
Environmental Media at the The Royal College of Art,
London (1979). Formal studies were concluded with a
Doctorate at the University of Technology Sydney (1997) which focussed on the relationship
of Soundscape, the Body and Architecture.

As a direct consequence of this wide spectrum of formal study Nigels practice is strongly
interdisciplinary, linking a broad platform of creative practice with scientific Research and
Development in both Academic and Industrial contexts, as a practitioner he maintains an
active interest in critical and theoretical debates and is active in the critical writing and
conference arena. Nigel has been a longstanding collaborator at the SymbioticA and CIBER
Bee Research labs at UWA, realising such projects as GeneMusiK a biological music remixing
system, the insect installation, Host and as the Artistic Director of the infamous LifeBoat
project shown in Oslo Fjord 2004, on a Baltic cruise ship during ISEA 2004 and in Zagreb
2006. More recent work include the AudioNomad interactive Sonic-Cartogaphy works
EcoLocated, Run Silent Run Deep, Siren for Port Jackson and the Under the IceCap concert
series.


Paul Gazzola (AU)

Paul Gazzola is an interdisciplinary artist working over 20
years across art, architecture, choreography, installation,
performance, set design, video and theory. He has
created and curated works for galleries, museums, stages,
site-specific settings, print and projection, that have seen
presentations and commissions in Australia, Canada, Japan,
South Africa, South America, the UK and throughout
Europe. Originally trained as a carpenter, he has a B.A. in
Performance, is a qualified Feldenkrais practitioner and in
2004 commenced studies in architecture. The culmination
of these varied inquiries - each distinctly exploring the spatial and performative relationships
between the body, site, place and the built form - provide a unique platformof knowledge
in his working life. His working collaborations, designs and performances at the forefront of
innovative performance and design practice include such companies as Fieldworks
Performance Group, Les Ballets C de le B and MachineNoisy and artists Xavier Le Roy, Nadia
Cusimano, Meg Stuart, Tino Sehgal and Joey Ruigrok van den Werven. He is also a founding
member and ongoing collaborator of Lone Twin Theatre (UK). His current projects include
the Gold Coin Series @ the Festival of Live Art, Melbourne; Curator of Temporary
Democracies, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW; Co-ordinating Provocateur for SITUATE- Art
in Festivals, Salamanca Arts Centre, Tasmania and the large scale installation, ENTRANCE, for
Mons - European City of Culture, 2015.


Philippa Tumubweinee (SA)

Philippa Tumubweinee is a senior Lecturer at the
Department of Architecture at the University of the Free
State [UFS] South Africa, a co-Founder and Director of IZUBA
INafrica and a Doctoral student at the University of the Free
State, South Africa. After completing her M.Arch. Prof
degree in 2006 with a notable distinction in Construction,
Philippa was introduced to Academia while Teaching at the
dept. of Architecture, University of Pretoria as an assistant
Studio Master in the First Year Studio from where she
progressed on to join the dept. of Architecture, University of
Johannesburg [UJ] South Africa.

She taught at this dept. of Architecture from the beginning
of 2007 to the middle of 2012 working as the First Year
coordinator, Design Studio master and was involved in the
recurriculation process and programme development of the department, while co-founding
the design and architectural firm IZUBA INafrica alongside Architect Denver Hendricks in
2010. In same year she served on the board for the Gauteng Institute for Architects GIfA and
contributed to the re-branding and rejuvenation of the Institute as an active vehicle through
which Architects and Architecture are disseminated into the broader society. As a member of
this Board, Philippa was privileged to be part of the project team that brought that first
international Architectural Festival AZA 2010 to the shores of South Africa. In 2012 she
moved to Bloemfontein to join the dept. of Architecture UFS. In the same year Philippa
served on the National Judging Panel for the SAIA Awards of Merit and Excellence and
presented a paper on one of her projects the Esquared House at the ARCH THEO12
conference in Istanbul. She was also the co-Master of Programme and Ceremonies at the
second AZA 2012 Architectural Conference in Cape Town.