Pretoria - August is significant for South Africans in that it is time to celebrate the women of the country and acknowledge the sacrifices they made for democracy.
In this regard, Blunt Moya, Phethego Kgomo, Xitha Makgeta and Aya Zungu have turned to art to raise awareness of gender-based violence and promoting women’s rights.
Coined Art Against GBV, their digital exhibition will have a three-day programme, with each day showcasing various issues within the gender-based violence spectrum.
There will be a panel of fellow creatives, ordinary citizens, perpetrators, psychologist, survivors of gender-based violence and organisations that help women, children and families who have been affected.
The public will also be able to take part in the discussions by commenting on the live-stream on their Facebook Group (Art Against GBV).
The artwork will also be exhibited at Botaki ba Afrika in Hatfield until the end of the month.
Zungu said they had reached out to other creatives from various branches of the art world to be part of this digital exhibition to highlight, fight and find a solution regarding gender-based violence.
The artwork will be sold online, with the “pricing” various forms of parcels consisting of food or toiletries to be donated to an organisation that deals with gender-based violence.
“We encourage our supporters to contact the featured artists to buy any artworks that they put up for sale; their profiles will be shared on our Facebook group,” said Moya.
He said they wanted to create a platform where people - mostly men - could be taught in a creative platform about gender-based violence.
“We want to be part of a generation that generates solutions and have tried and succeeded in making our women feel safe to walk the streets of South Africa without feeling they need to protect themselves from us.
“We might not be able to change things now, but we do hope that our movement will be part of a vehicle that starts moving to change the narrative completely. We start now and will definitely keep this moving until actual change is seen and felt.”
Pretoria News