I attended the 12th edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair last weekend. It was an incredible but overwhelming experience. With 124 exhibitors and more than 500 artists from 58 countries, its impossible to narrow down the work to a series of highlights. But I decided to give it a try anyway.
The exhibitions that stood out for me the most were the ones that creatively challenged the traditional white-cube structure of the typical art gallery and offered something new and different.
This years fair theme was Play, which challenged artists and gallerists to explore the role of playfulness in the curatorial and artistic process.
The three collections below struck me as great examples of how approaching creative work with a sense of playfulness can lead to original concepts, either in how the work is created or how its presented to the public. I especially like the idea of artistic concepts that encourage viewers to interact with the art in some tangible form.
As the fairs director Laura Vincenti says: Play has so many layers. Its an act of creation, curiosity and engagement. Its how children explore the world, how artists experiment and how new ideas emerge. We wanted to invite curators and artists to embrace the joy of discovery and informal experimentation.