Here are some great must-see events this week!

We’re coming to the end of another week, and the décor and design industry is still humming with must-see events in South Africa and throughout the world.

Plan for the next events in the industry:

Wow!house 2024
4 June–4 July 2024
London, UK
WOW!house, the interior design expo, returned to London’s Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, for its third edition, with 19 specially designed rooms and outdoor settings.

This is where the work of interior designers, many of whom have collaborated with global design brands to create the spaces, is highlighted.

The Liminalist Solo Exhibition.

July 5, 2024
Cape Town

The Liminalist Solo Exhibition by Peter van Straten will be at the Cape Gallery on July 5, 2024.

Aspen Art Fair.
29 July–2 August
Aspen

Southern Guild will participate in the inaugural edition of the Aspen Art Fair, held at the historic Hotel Jerome from July 29 to August 2, 2024, as the kick-off to Aspen Art Week. The gallery will present two- and three-dimensional work by nine artists from across Africa and its diaspora. Combining the traditional art fair model with a bespoke programme of home tours, a salon-style speaker series, artist prizes and residencies, performances, screenings, cocktail receptions, and dinners, the fair will feature various projects and events in which the gallery will be involved.

Visual activist Zanele Muholi, who will be in Aspen for the fair, will donate a photographic work from their acclaimed Somnyama Ngonyama series to the annual ArtCrush auction in support of the Aspen Art Museum’s artistic and educational programmes. Coinciding this year with the museum’s 45th anniversary, the auction takes place at the ArtCrush summer gala on August 2, one of Aspen’s most anticipated events of the summer.

Southern Guild’s booth at the fair will present bronze sculpture by Zizipho Poswa, photographic works by Zanele Muholi, mixed-media abstract paintings by Kamyar Bineshtarigh and Alexandra Karakashian, figurative paintings by Manyaku Mashilo, Terence Maluleke, and Ayotunde Ojo, and collectible design by Cheick Diallo and Charles Haupt. The works on display highlight themes of language, loss, and healing, opening space to recognise and transcend individual and cultural trauma, particularly as a result of racial and gender-based bias, geographic dislocation, and human migration.

Food Indaba 2024.
Monday, 22 July, to Sunday, 4 August
Cape Town

For the past ten years, Food Dialogues has been exploring this in our complex food system in unconventional, educational, and fun ways. This year, with a new name reflective of its roots and group dynamics, Food Indaba 2024 is taking place from Monday, July 22, to Sunday, August 4, with various events at venues across Cape Town, including the V&A Waterfront precinct, Mowbray, Langa, Philippi, Lynedoch, and Stellenbosch.

Food Indaba features a range of events, both ticketed and free. Many are open to the public, while others, which are geared more towards academic and industry audiences, are by invitation only. One of the informative free events for all to attend is the Pan African Webinar hosted by Afrifoodlinks. The online webinar titled Power and Hunger is a significant discussion about the weaponising of hunger. The annual in person conference with the same title, for the first time this year, will be a full day affair and will see the D-School (UCT’s design school) create a Design-Dash, which is a design thinking problem solving toolkit around solutions to food issues.

The theme of this year’s Food Indaba is Oikonomos, the Greek root of the word economics, literally meaning ‘home management’. “This year’s edition places food at the heart of the economy and brings the economy back into the home, reconnecting us with the traditional way we relate to food,” says Kurt Ackermann, chief executive and a trustee of the SA Urban Food & Farming Trust.

The power to make change will be highlighted in a number of compelling events, like a foraging experience with Cape Wild Foods’ expert Loubie Rusch, whose knowledge of indigenous plants is astounding, and a V&A Waterfront-wide focus on sustainable seafood.  This year’s programme also includes dynamic public conversations around two new significant food reports in a two-part series of live-streamed webinars from CTV’s studio, which anyone can join online free of charge.

The #cocreate Circular Design Challenge 2024 is open.
Deadline: 30 June

Are you a Cape Town-based innovator, entrepreneur, SMME, or non-profit organisation passionate about driving positive change in South Africa that builds a future that protects our environment and livelihoods? Do you have innovative ideas to address key challenges in Circular Design? If so, we invite you to apply for the #cocreate Circular Design Challenge 2024!

The Mission Network of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa is pleased to announce the launch of our #cocreate Circular Design Challenge 2024, organised in collaboration with the Craft and Design Institute (CDI).

Apply now and you could benefit from an incredible programme underpinned by Design Thinking principles thanks to our partners at the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrikaand experts in your Circular Design area of focus, with the chance to win funding to the value of R15 000 to kickstart or develop your idea!

The Netherlands’ #cocreateSANL platform has for over ten years brought diverse people to the table to exchange ideas and develop innovations for a sustainable future. The annual #cocreateSANL programme examines the power of design to tackle current socio-economic and environmental challenges within an African context.

Since 2018, through the Netherlands Consulate General in Cape Town, an annual series of events have culminated in a #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL, organised in collaboration with the CDI.