The Centre for the Less Good Idea is an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg

 SITE, LIGHT, ACTION | FOX STREET ACTIVATIONS

Alongside a multifaceted offering of staged theatre, experimental visual art, dance, and public conversations, Season 11 featured a programme of public activations in and around Arts on Main.

Titled Site, Light, Action | Fox Street Activations, this was a series of free short-form experiments along Fox Street and inside Arts on Main, curated by Vienna-based South African artist Marcus Neustetter. 

Designed to be experienced as a programme of experimental engagements with the city, Site, Light, Action encourages audiences to explore the Arts on Main building and the surrounding streets in a free-spirited and incidental way. Those commuting along Fox Street, for example, can stop and witness a short theatrical intervention, musical performance, or experimental light show. 

A few of the key activations for Site, Light, Action include pop-up Coffee Shop Concerts, shop-front shadow dances, a car-boot dance activation in the Arts on Main parking garage, and Sello Pesa and Phala Ookeditse Phala’s Ngoana oa Noka ea Kubetu, a new iteration of their Nokeng ya Kubetu series, performed in the Arts on Main Atrium.  

Central to Season 11’s opening and closing evenings is the courtyard activation PAUSE. Using the edifice of the Arts on Main building – the zig-zagging metal staircase, the second-floor walkway, and industrial architecture – Neustetter merges installation, live drawing, music, and performance to create a site-specific activation. 

Neustetter, having lived in Maboneng for more than a decade, has a long history of working in the city, with a strong focus on light projection and social engagement. Additionally, through the Trinity Session, a contemporary art production company he co-founded in 2000, Neustetter has worked on various public installations and site-specific projects, all of which are defined by their relationships and exchanges with the city of Johannesburg. 

“These small experimental moments embrace the unknown or hidden, seeking connections and stories that might reveal themselves through artistic languages. Framed by temporary sets and focused by responsive mobile light, these moments function as small public studios of attempted sense-making,” says Neustetter.   

Neustetter, in collaboration with photographer Zivanai Matangi also developed a new series of light drawings for Season 11, on exhibition in the Arts on Main Atrium. Additionally, a short, looped process film by Noah Cohen featuring the public light drawings, and a series of stereoscopic light drawings conceptualised by William Kentridge is exhibited in the Atrium.   

COFFEE SHOP CONCERTS

As part of the Site, Light, Action programme, curated by Marcus Neustetter, three pop-up Coffee Shop Concerts at Home of the Bean opened three evenings of Season 11. 

Merging live music, and live, responsive drawing and projection by Neustetter, each evening is unique. On night one, pianist Jill Richards performs Dallapiccola - Quaderno musicale di Annalibera in response to a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes, recited by Pertunia Msani with percussion by Micca Manganye. 

Evening two sees musicians Phelelani Mthembu and Khotso Mothoa in concert, performing musical narratives of the city, while the final evening sees Chants of Chance (Candice Moleshe, Reggie Teys & Shane Cooper) leading an exercise in collective composition with the audience. 

All the while, Neustetter draws in response to what he sees and hears, both inside and outside of the gently lit coffee shop. 

Outside, the city continues. There is traffic, weekend revelry, a weekend night in Maboneng, but joyous like morning coffee, and wild like the warbling sirens, the voices of people making their way up and down Fox Street.  

CREDITS

COFFEE SHOP CONCERT I

MUSICIANS | Jill Richards, Micca Manganye & Pertunia Msani
RESPONSIVE DRAWING by Marcus Neustetter

COFFEE SHOP CONCERT II

MUSICIANS | Phelelani Mthembu & Khotso Mothoa
RESPONSIVE DRAWING | Marcus Neustetter

COFFEE SHOP CONCERT III

MUSICIANS | Chants of Chance (Candice Moleshe, Reggie Teys & Shane Cooper)
RESPONSIVE DRAWING by Marcus Neustetter

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: PAUSE

CONCEPTUALISER & RESPONSIVE DRAWING | Marcus Neustetter 
PERFORMERS | Micca Manganye, Angelo Moustapha, Neo Muyanga, Daniel Stompie Selibe, Aalliyah Matintela, Ayanda Seoka, Thulisile Binda & Smangaliso Ngwenya
DESIGNERS | Tshireletso Adams, Tzung Hui Lauren Lee, Mbalentle Mnotoza & Amy Pitt

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: UNEXPECTED CITIES

CONCEPTUALISER | Marcus Neustetter
PERFORMER | Bash Hops
DESIGNERS | Nthabiseng Malaka, Tshireletso Adams, Tzung Hui Lauren Lee, Philani Masedi, Mbalentle Mnotoza, Bongani Mpofu & Amy Pitt

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: PUBLIC PRIVATE

CONCEPTUALISER | Marcus Neustetter
PERFORMERS | Thulisile Binda, Smangaliso Ngwenya, Anathi Ithana Conjwa, Micca Manganye, Ngwedi Ramphele & Daniel Stompie Selibe
DESIGNERS | Nthabiseng Malaka, Tzung Hui Lauren Lee, Tshireletso Adams, Mbalentle Mnotoza & Amy Pitt

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: VUL'IBOOT

CONCEPTUALISER | Marcus Neustetter
PERFORMERS | Thulisile Binda, Smangaliso Ngwenya, Micca Manganye, Pertunia Msani, Ayanda Seoka, Daniel Stompie Selibe & Reggie Teys
DESIGNERS Tzung Hui Lauren Lee, Tshireletso Adams, Mbalentle Mnotoza & Amy Pitt
SOUND DESIGNER | Zain Vally

Thanks to Bukhosibakhe Khoza, David Mann, Daniel Stompie Selibe & Micca Manganye for the use of their cars.

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: CALL & RESPONSE

CONCEPTUALISER | Marcus Neustetter
PERFORMERS | Thulisile Binda, Shane Cooper, Billy Langa & Smangaliso Ngwenya
DESIGNERS | Tshireletso Adams, Tzung Hui Lauren Lee & Mbalentle Mnotoza

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: PROJECTIONS

CONCEPTUALISER & RESPONSIVE DRAWING | Marcus Neustetter

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: STEREOSCOPIC LIGHT DRAWINGS

CONCEPTUALISERS | William Kentridge & Marcus Neustetter
PERFORMERS & PARTICIPANTS | Thulisile Binda, Shane Cooper, Smangaliso Ngwenya, Shanell Winlock-Pailman, Billy Langa, Tshireletso Adams, Tzung Hui Lauren Lee, Sibongile Mathe, Mbalentle Mnotoza, Layla Lace, Amy Pitt
VIDEO EDITOR | Josh Trappler
FABRICATION | Diego Sillands, Jacques van Staden & Chris-Waldo de Wet
CAMERA OPERATOR | Jacques van Staden 

SITE, LIGHT, ACTION: LIGHT DRAWINGS

CONCEPTUALISER | Marcus Neustetter
PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi
CINEMATOGRAPHERS & EDITORS | Noah Cohen & Bukhosibakhe Khoza
PERFORMERS & PARTICIPANTS | Tshireletso Adams, Thulisile Binda, Noah Cohen, Jaques De Silva, Ruby Friedman, Bash Hops, Billy Langa, Katlego Letsholonyane, Nthabiseng Makoni, Nthabiseng Malaka, Tafara Matangi, Jessica Sibongile Mathe, Dimakatso Motholo-Miya, Mbalentle Mnotoza, Bongani Mpofu, Neo Muyanga & Smangaliso Ngwenya

All text by David Mann
All photographs by Zivanai Matangi & Bash Hops