Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/Stubs/Peter van Heerden

Peter van Heerden (b. 1973) is a South African performance artist living and working in Cape Town. His performances often address the idea of saamtrekking or pulling together, a method of practice that can be experienced and shared by all races, colours, and creeds of South Africans. Van Heerdens work is an investigation into masculinity and identity through cathartic performance. Van Heerden’s performance interventions question how the privileged perform themselves once their privilege is deflated.

Education
van Heerden completed his Masters Degree (Cum Laude) in Drama at the University of Cape Town in 2004.

Career

 * Artist in Residence at Towson University, Baltimore, USA
 * So is ën os gemaak, Grahamstown Festival
 * Bok, KZNSA Gallery for YAP 2005-2006
 * 6 minutes, FNB Dance Umbrella 2007, Johannesburg
 * Flowers for my flesh, Spier Contemporary 2007
 * An Histrionic, with Bettina Malcomess, Infecting the City 2009
 * out of the eater came forth meat out of the strong came forth sweet, FNB Dance Umbrella 2009
 * Lecturer in live performance, City Varsity, Cape Town
 * erf[81] collective

Ubuntu
Ubuntu explores white masculinity, especially in the context of contemporary Africa. van Heerden describes the subject: "Ubuntu can be seen as a recipe for living together; a classical concept of 'I am complete in you and you are completed in me.' Ubuntu is not a word; it is a form of practice, an active way of being."

Die Uitlander, the African and the Vrouw
Performed at the Spier Contemporary, 2007. A site-specific live art installation dedicated to the women of Africa, this piece explores the dedication and resolve that South African women have shown in support of their men at war.

Bok
Bok challenges notions of Afrikaner masculinity in contemporary South Africa, as the place of the Afrikaner male in society has shifted since the end of apartheid. Re-enactments of assassinations and executions during the Anglo Boer War provide an historical framework for this exploration, with the use of video and sound installations as well.