The Durban University of Technology (DUT) Digital Arts and Design Festival (DigiFest) will on Tuesday, 7 November 2017 (day two) kick off from the popular Kwa-Zulu Natal Society of the Arts (KZNSA) Gallery in Glenwood. 

The extended programme will bring to the fore a host of series of events across venues in Durban.  The gallery will be the official host for DUT’s Fine Art third-year and BTech student exhibitions as well as an installation by Fine Art junior lecturer Bongumenzi Ngobese. Ngobese’s installation will check elements of sounds, which addresses issues of context through video.

Third-year and BTech students will be exhibiting a variety of artworks chosen from their final year exhibition. Third-year Fine Art student, Sinenhlanhla Ngcobo’s work reflects back to history and the memories of early childhood.

“My work intends to juxtapose the past and the present, looking at the shifts in between caused by the influence from the world or society that we are part of,” said Ngcobo. Various themes will also be exhibited on the day. The evening will light up with a special live performance from Zimbabwean multidisciplinary artist, Robert Machiri, who is famously known as Chi.

Chi’s work exists at the juncture of two streams of practice; his curatorial concepts and a multi-disciplinary production of artworks. His works draw on discourses of de-colonisation by connecting sound, music and image making through social-politics. Chi’s performance draws on this ideology to question the narrative framing of African music in the contemporary that was inherited through colonial ideas.

Robert Machiri’s performance will begin at 6pm and the exhibitions will be on display from 5pm to 9pm on 7 November 2017.

DigiFest 4, is a public event that looks to celebrate the creative spirit through multimedia projects from disciplines such as visual and performing arts and promotes a collaboration across art, science and technology.

Carly van der Westhuizen