BIANCA BALDI

As part of VANSA’S 2010 reasons to live in a small town, Bianca Baldi will give a talk on March 14 on a site specific project which she has been researching, called Natal Patria. She will be joined by an esteemed panel including Themba Shibase and chaired by DUT Art Gallery Curator Nathi Gumede.

In the 1920s, there were reports of a sea monster washed up on the beach in the Margate area of KwaZulu-Natal The monster, named Trunko, is well-documented in the annals of crypto-zoology and is listed alongside others such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti. However, few town residents know of the strange anomaly. Baldi’s presentation proposes to use the historical documented accounts and the town’s archive to re-imagine the mythological creature, in collaboration with the local community. Such findings will form part of her presentation.

Using the project as an example, Baldi hopes to raise more general questions around a site-specific practice in the South African context. Panelist Themba Shibase will give input to the subject, relating his experiences of contemporary artistic practice and issues of site-specific work.

Bianca Baldi lives and works between Frankfurt, Cape Town and KZN. She completed a BA(FA) in Studio Practice and Theory at UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2007 and is currently studying at The Staatliche Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste Städelschule in Frankfurt. Themba Shibase works as a lecturer at the Durban University of Technology.

This project is produced in association with VANSA through generous funding by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.

The one day Natal Patria workshop will take place on March 14 at 16h30 at the DUT Art Gallery which is situated above the library on the Steve Biko Campus in Mansfield Road. For more information contact the Curator, Nathi Gumede, on 031 373 2207 or 082 2200 368 or email: nkosinathig@dut.ac.za