Sometimes a little push from the outside helps to see what’s inside. At least, that seems to be Pro Helvetia’s point. In 1999 Pro Helvetia inaugurated The Encounters Swiss South African Documentary Film Festival which went on to become Encounters we know and love and need to help grow. When democracy was still a toddler, the liaison office of the Swiss Arts Council was established in Cape Town to extend the Council’s promotion of cultural works of nationwide and international interest. That was 1998, and since then, it has been directly involved in funding and supporting many credible creative projects, and recognised widely for its contribution to a contemporary African creativity. It has also brought Swiss talent to Africa, hosting unique and cutting edge productions from a variety of disciplines and encouraged individual artistic growth through hosting residencies here and abroad in Switzerland. Here are some highlights over the years.
An excerpt from the concept of a new orchestral piece by Michael Pelzel - an organist and composer in residence in South Africa, March - May 2010.
In 1999 Pro Helvetia inaugurated The Encounters Swiss South African Documentary Film Festival which went on to become Encounters we know and love and need to help grow.
2005 saw worldwide recognition of South African design expertise through Pro Helvetia’s focus on thinking global, acting local. Their South African designed and produced direct mail campaign won a One Show award, “the world’s foremost non-profit organisation devoted to elevating creative work in the advertising industry” It was the work of local creative collective, Daddy buy me a pony [a 9November Union Company] (now called The President)under creative director Peet Pienaar.
In this instance, as in many others, Pro Helvetia’s creative and strategic vision helped promote South African design to the world, as pointed out by Creative Circle awards spokesman Graham Warsopat the time. ”For a country the size of South Africa to outperform all but two European countries, the whole of Australia and New Zealand and all of South America – including the creative powerhouse Brazil, is a fine achievement. At a time when multi-national companies are increasingly looking to run adverts produced overseas in this market, it is highly desirable that South African agencies continue to prove they are capable of producing work to a world class standard.”
2008 saw the theatre piece Dreamland showcase at inaugural Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa). Pro-Helvetia sponsored two South Africans to help create ‘Dreamland’: choreographer Sbonakaliso Ndaba and drama therapist Paula Kingwell. Kingwell collected Zimbabwean dreams through dream workshops with Aids orphans, evicted farmers, torture victims, members of the gay and lesbian society and market vendors. Snippets of these were projected on stage during ‘Dreamland’.
2009 saw Magnet theatre’s “Ingcwaba Lendoda Lise Cankwe Ndlela” (the grave of the man is next to the road) at Artscape. Pro Helvetia supported this production from what is perhaps South Africa’s most far reaching and dynamic physical theatre, Magnet Theatre.
In Johannesburg, Pro Helvetia supported the 2009 “Us” an exhibition held at Goodman Gallery featuring fresh material from young and established artists both local and further afield. In response to the xenophobic violence the previous year, themes included group identity: national, cultural, class, gender, sexual or racial, exploring how “the substance of any Us is often not fixed, but constantly shifting, fluid and unstable.” It included differing perspectives through new performance work, sculptural installation, painting and photography.
2010 saw the 12th edition of the international contemporary dance festival, Jomba! In Durban, Pro-Helvetia supported the once-off collaborative dance theatre work, “The Making of Spectacles,” by Swiss choreographer Foofwad’Imobilité, reported to be “a wry comment on the art form of choreography.” Hosted by Pro Helvetia, Imperial Tiger Orchestra played at Pan African Space Station in September 2010 as part of Creative Week Cape Town. Pro Helvetia hosted an unusual jazz collaboration spanning Ethiopia and Switzerland that was well received by jazz lovers in the city. On The Edge Of Wrong Festival in the same year featured Swiss musician Petra Ronner to much applause.
Oy in action
Early 2011 saw a stunning tour from Oy (aka Joy Frempong), a Swiss-Ghanaian singer-songwriter, whose surprising melange of words, rhythms, and melody wowed Cape Town audiences from February to March. Thereafter, local audiences enjoyed the Mozambican-Swiss band WatsambaM’Diou, a name that means “good food” in the Chopi vernacular. During their Southern African tour in April and May 2011, the trio delivered sizzling grooves through Maputo, Harare, Joburg and Cape Town. In the same month, Swiss dance company Cie 7273 came to Southern Africa on a national tour that gave audiences from KKNK to Maputo a glimpse of global contemporary dance.
Cie 7273 on stage
2011 and beyond: NEW MOVES – ZA and ZIM go PRO
A new agreement has replaced Pro Helvetia’s previous mandate from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which oversaw its Arts and Culture Programme for Southern Africa from 1999 until 2010 focusing on individual arts projects in a number of countries in the region.
“Under the 2011-13 agreement, Pro Helvetia will continue to support the regional arts sector as a funder and facilitator. However, its focus will shift to medium-term projects that involve collaboration betweenarts organisations* within the region.”
Projects could apply to the fields of music, the performance arts, and visual arts and come in two forms:
- Projects that relate to advocacy; promoting the nurturing of networks that have a strong function in voicing the perspectives of an arts sector.
- Projects that facilitate capacity building through exchange in practical professional mentoring.
“The projects should involve cross-border collaboration between South Africa and Zimbabwe, with the possibility of including interested parties in Mozambique. Proposals would need to be submitted by at least two partners at the same time – one in South Africa and one in Zimbabwe. Ultimately, the outcome of these collaborative projects would be to spread benefits to a number of local, less capacitated partners in the two countries, rather than to benefit a single project.”
Professional art organisations can contact communications@prohelvetia.org.za or +27 21 465 9033 for more info.
*A small amount of funding will remain available for supporting the distribution of individual arts projects to other areas in the Southern African region, preferably with a connection to the larger programmes.
