Social Muscle Club in South Africa

ALMA MARTHA (South Africa) and Social Muscle Club (Germany)  

Social Muscle Club, founded in 2012 in Berlin, is an interactive game of interaction and sharing with gifts of performance as well as an open invitation to an evolving training program designed to develop our “social muscles”. SMC is a constantly evolving examination of our practice with urban communities in response to the enquiry: How can we face our fears? The working methodology begins with personal fears, from facing up to the challenge of asking for help to confronting stage fright, and “jumping over our own shadows”. Faced with the undeniable knowledge that we are not only individuals but also form part of a greater whole, this personal questioning quickly evolves into experimental and reciprocal interactions with the urban communities surrounding us.
 
Bringing Social Muscle Club to South Africa was initiated and curated by Juliana Irene Smith of ALMA MARTHA, a non-profit artists’ action team based in Cape Town. ALMA MARTHA asked members of the SOCIAL MUSCLE CLUB team from Berlin and Basel to come to South Africa as mentors and performance artists for the first SMC in South Africa. ALMA MARTHA invited local artists to perform and create the space.

Cape Town Artists: Matthew King, Slug Nation, Fanie Buys, Liza Grobler, Raees Saiet, DJ ST(E)AK | Johannesburg Artists:  Anthea Moys, Roberto Pombo, Khujto Green, Koeks Confection, Ed Young, DJ ST(E)AK | International Artists: Benedikt Wyss, Valerie Renay, Tayfun Schulzke, Christoph Schön | Co-produced by the International Coproduction Fund of the Goethe-Institut