Social Muscle Club to get SA chapter
Arts manager Christoph Schon and curator Benedikt Wyss will participate in the development of the South African chapter of the Social Muscle Club, which was originally established in Germany.
Social Muscle Club is made up of a group of international artists and performers who have been working together since 2012 producing performative events for public participation groups that challenge habits of thinking and doing. It takes place in many different contexts including theatre, school, a circus festival, a nursing home, a villa, a living room.
The proposed South African chapter will be kick-started by events this November, facilitated the Cape Town based collective, Alma Martha. Public moments will be staged at the Scalabrini Refugee Centre in Cape Town on the 23rd of November, and at the Troyeville Hotel in Johanneburg on the 26th of November.
Originally initiated in reaction to a time of personal crisis and stagnation, and inspired by Menschen von Sheffield, a documentary about a steelworkers club providing “entertainment and social support” to its members, artists Jill Emerson, Jared Gradinger, Till Rothmund, and Rahel Savoldelli began practicing together every month in a Berlin living room, developing performative methodologies to challenge their personal fears and ask themselves the all-important question: Can changing ourselves initiate change in our neighbourhoods, our cities, the world?
From this initial phase of training with one another, an underlying principle emerged: Through art, we can foster our capacity and potential.
