As part of this year’s 16 Days of Activism, the #BreakFree movement recently selected 15 creatives from seven regions to showcase their talents in an art show to raise awareness on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
The second edition of the Art for Activism against GBV show is scheduled for tonight at the NTN under the theme, ‘Namibia Unite against SGBV’.
Three cash prizes of N$10 000 each as well as the grand prize of N$20 000 are up for grabs. The creatives are:
Visual Art:
Ryan de Wee (Khomas)
Pinehas Shikulo (Khomas)
Pierre Engelbrecht (Hardap)
Nand e e kwa Tj i u r ut u e (Otjozondjupa)
Frans Uunona (Khomas)
Performing Art:
Lize Ehlers (Khomas)
Simmo Ndafelai (Kunene)
Rachida Koch (Kavango East)
Le-Cleo Job (Khomas)
Leonard Zithu (Kavango East)
Fashion Design:
Salman Shipanga (Oshana)
Ngatendwe Gowera (Khomas)
Lydia Kandovazu (Omaheke)
Helena Shimbuli (Khomas)
Mostert Simasiku (Khomas)
First Lady Monica Geingos, under whose office the event is organised, said they had a successful show last year and decided to scale it up and involve more people from across the country.
She told VIBEZ! in an exclusive interview Wednesday the show is part of a series of GBV events her One Economy Foundation is running, which saw some SGBV survivors and perpetrators talk about their traumatic experiences.
“In addition to listening to people’s individual stories, we want to use a different medium to get the message across. We do believe that art is an important medium through which you can process trauma, particularly untreated trauma. We feel art is absolutely a form of therapy, and that’s what we want to do on Friday night to deploy art,” said Geingos.
She noted the art industry in Namibia is not as properly supported as it should be, adding there are a lot of young people from across the country who are struggling with unemployment yet possess certain skills.
“And that’s artistic skills and creative skills. If we want to deploy these creative skills they have, we must make the art sector a viable economic sector for young people to participate. We want to support the art industry with that message,” she stated.
Geingos added: “As the private sector, government and parastatals, we must find a way to spend more money in the creative industry because that will give our young people opportunities to articulate themselves within the talents”.
– psiririka@nepc.com.na