Another year has rolled round, and here we are again, with a fantastic theme for you to sink your head, heart and hands into. Ladies and gents, we give you THE GIFT!
The gifts in Tankwa Town are alchemical glue, multi-layered; at once moral, playful, aesthetic, mythological, whimsical.
This year’s theme asks to us to contemplate the gift. As Marx would have it, to look beyond the object to the myriad of elements that make the object happen… What is art? What is happening in the making of the gift? What is the gift? What is the gift economy? What is the work of the gift after it has left the makers hands?
“…when gifts circulate within a group their commerce leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake and a kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges.” – Lewis Hyde
The inner gift is the object of our labour and the outer gift becomes a generator of relationships, of culture. A commerce of spirit and creativity; a connective environment.
The receiving of the gift is as important as the making of the gift and the giving of the gift.
“A true gift never really belongs to the person who gives it. Think about a perfect gift you’ve given. When you thought of giving it to someone didn’t you first feel that’s her or that’s him? Didn’t it feel as if it was already part of the person you were giving it to, that it was just passing through you? Likewise, think about your own gifts, your talents. Any creative person knows that they don’t really own their gifts. We say that these kinds of gifts are God-given, inherent in what we are. We really didn’t do anything to deserve them. There isn’t any deal involved. The true value of gifts is unconditional. They just flow out of us.”– Larry Harvey
A gift revives the soul.
(2015’s theme was developed by AfrikaBurn co-founder and current Creative Art portfolio lead, Monique Schiess)
