The National Theatre of Namibia (NTN) in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Namibia, announced the launch of the Otjomuise Live Arts Festival (OLAF) on Monday.
OLAF is an annual live arts festival that aims to bridge everyday life and the arts in Windhoek by providing opportunities for live artistic forms to be showcased within the city’s public spaces.
The festival, which takes place from 06 to 13 November at the UN Plaza Park in Katutura’s Soweto residential area, is also being supported by the European Union Delegation to Namibia, Equipped Dance Academy, College of the Arts, Eldorado Secondary School, and Tobias Hainyeko Primary School.
Other partners are the Windhoek City Council and Namibian Broadcasting Corporation.
OLAF will take place under the theme ‘Bringing life and arts to the city’.
In a media statement, NTN Public Relations Officer Desiree Mentor said OLAF is largely brought about by the inaccessibility of the majority of Windhoek’s inhabitants to various artistic expressions; often limited to indoor, and at times, inaccessible areas of the city.
“As a result, OLAF provides opportunities for immersive, experimental, and refreshing artistic forms to be showcased or installed in public places where life and the arts can collide. This is to reflect not only the city’s environmental character, but also its rich heritage and artistic expressions, which must have an impact on its inhabitants,” she stated.
She said the week-long programme includes free small-scale happenings, installations, performances, and public engagements all over the city. Leisure and scenery are among the topics covered, as is access to collective pleasure, identity and collective-public memory, and navigations of everyday socioeconomic issues.
“The festival aims to contribute to a city that enables dynamic and accessible live artistic forms for cohesion, collective reflections, and enlightenment. The name Otjomuise stems from the Otjiherero name for the city, which means ‘place of steam’,” Mentor said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
