The Cape ’07 Arrows

We are collecting the CAPE 07 signs at the moment. We have turned it into a little campaign: "Save the CAPE arrow".

It has proved quite difficult to get the signs back. They have been quite popular. Most were stolen or given away as keepsakes.

The Project

Afrikan Tähti: Digging for Gold is a public visual arts project based on the Finnish board game “Afrikan Tähti” (translated: “African Star”).

"African Star" is a 516 ½ karat diamond found in the then Transvaal province of South Africa a century ago. Ironically, this gem is in the British crown jewels.

The AIM of the game

The players have to find precious gems in different countries on the African continent. Whoever finds the “African Star” first, wins the game.

• In the original game, Cape Town is the halfway-stop. In our version, we (as Capetonians) propose a real-life board game with Cape Town as both the starting and finishing point. In this case, the game will be played on Finnish territory.

Urban Intervention
The project links urban development in South-Africa to art incentives in Finland and is a tongue-in-cheek attempt by two South Africans to build a visual and interactive game that might provide a contemporary glimpse into that dark continent of minerals and savages…

The work consists of a public “explorer” route through the town of Rauma. An aerial perspective of the route would reveal it to be in the shape of the African continent (as is the case in the original board game –see image above). The route begins and ends at a space within the Lönnstrom Art Museum.

New routes to old tricks
The route through Rauma will be clearly marked by yellow-and-black Cape ‘07 arrows (re-cycled and re-produced) - Cape Town’s first (and possibly last) “grand-scale art event for Africa”. Various gems will be pointed out on route - ranging from art museums to remotely interesting porcelain figurines in private homes - as these could easily be missed.

Cape ’07 was a brave attempt to develop a large-scale visual arts event for Africa that would be “not another biennale”. Due to lack of resources and sponsors not delivering to their promises, the event turned out to be more of a grand-scale Capetonian affair, with only those in the know able to recognise and “find” the exhibitions and projects scattered throughout the city. Nonetheless, over 300 artists participated, providing a hub of activity and proving that Southern Africa’s boisterous creative energy will flourish even though we are still “digging for gold” to fund the ideas.