Unique tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu unveiled at Stellenbosch festival's 20th anniversary
A portrait artwork honouring Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, created by artist Gavin Rain and composed of 1,098 engraved circles with messages from the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival community, will be unveiled at Stellenbosch University on March 25.
Image: Supplied
A unique artwork honouring the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will be unveiled at Stellenbosch University later this month as part of celebrations marking 20 years of the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF).
The tribute, created by artist Gavin Rain, will be unveiled on March 25 outside the Stellenbosch University Konservatorium Building. The event will coincide with a special performance of The Selfish Giant, the work Tutu narrated when he first collaborated with the festival in 2013.
Rain, whose exhibitions have been shown in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Venice and Chicago, is known for his distinctive technique of creating images from hundreds of small circles. For the Tutu tribute, however, he developed a new approach.
The commissioned artwork consists of 1,098 individual circles, each engraved with a message from members of the SICMF community, including past participants, performing artists, audience members and supporters from the past two decades.
Instead of relying on colour, the circles are mounted at mathematically calculated angles so that light and shadow combine to form an image of Tutu when viewed from a distance.
SICMF artistic director Nina Schumann said the idea for the piece grew out of a desire to reflect the festival’s sense of community.
“I was thinking about the sense of community that the SICMF has created, how it resonates with so many people in such different ways, and I wanted to come up with something that reflected that togetherness, and that could be lasting,” she said.
Schumann said the idea was inspired by the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where messages are placed between the stones.
“Then I thought of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and the idea of an artwork made of messages popped up in my head. I met Gavin when I was at school and have been a huge admirer of his work. When I contacted him in January last year, he told me the concept was impossible to realise, but that he is all in.
“The artwork takes on special significance because it is the effort of every individual in the SICMF that contributes to the beauty of the whole.”
Tutu first collaborated with the festival in 2013 when he narrated a performance of Peter Louis van Dijk’s The Selfish Giant with the Festival Concert Orchestra. Following the performance, he became a patron of the SICMF.
At the time, Tutu praised the festival’s impact on young musicians, saying: “It gives so much hope for our children… It says wow, we have such fantastic potential. What an amazing country we have it in us to become…”
The unveiling of the legacy artwork will be celebrated with a performance of The Selfish Giant at the site of the newly installed artwork.
The concert will feature a full symphony orchestra of SICMF affiliates conducted by Xandi van Dijk, the son of the composer, who will travel from Munich for the event. The performance will also include the Cape Town Opera Children’s Chorus, bass-baritone soloist Conroy Scott and narrator John Woodland.
The free concert forms part of the opening night of the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium and is presented with the support of the Endler Concert Series.