Afrikan Tahti: digging for gold

Playing the game

2007-10-12T06:53:00.001+03:00

Along the route through Rauma there are 2 stops:

First stop TANGIERS: horse shoe throwing for luck.

At Tangiers 2 girls with bonnets - an adaptation of the "Voortrekker kappie" - helped patricipants play the 16th century horse shoe game. For each hit a participant won liquirice sweets in the shape of pirate coins, salmiakki in Finnish.

The road to CAIRO

Second stop CAIRO

At CAIRO 2 friendly robbers barbeque pork sausages, fusing the South African national passtime with traditional Finnish cuisine.

Rules of the game

2007-10-05T00:46:00.000+03:00

Opening of the exhibition at Lonnstrom Art Museum: Friday night 6pm

The game starts at "Cape Town", Saturday 12h00

- Follow the yellow arrows through Old Rauma
- There are 2 stops along the way: Tangiers and Cairo
- The route takes about 45 minutes and is in the shape of the African continent

***Be sure to wear something YELLOW!

You might meet some characters on the way...

A little luck can go a long way...

2007-10-03T19:15:00.000+03:00

Today we collected horse shoes as these are needed for the game at the Tangiers stop. At Tangiers, participants can play a 17th Century game, trying their luck by aiming horse shoes at wooden pegs. Winners receive pirate coins which they can chew on, whilst following our arrows through Old Rauma.
We also attempted to complete the museum component of the show, but since many of the other artists have arrived by now, the museum staff was running around to welcome everyone and meet new demands. So instead, we claimed our territory outside the building by putting up a swarm of Cape '07 signs around the museum.

Tomorrow and on Friday there will be MORE press conferences, and we are also meeting with some school groups to introduce the rules of our version of the game, so that they can play on Saturday.

The opening of the COMMON GROUND exhibition is this Friday and Saturday at noon the route through town oficially starts.

To accommodate the tranquil Finns, we have adapted our hardened criminals,to braai sausages at Cairo, so that participants may not go hungry...very unlike the REAL African robbers, we know. (See the front page of any SA newspaper for more information).

We also hope to participate in the international championships of the Afrikan Tahti board game which happens at the Theatre for the whole of Sunday.

What are we doing today?

2007-10-03T09:11:00.000+03:00

The same as every day... Try to take over the world.

Hang on to those diamonds!

2007-09-30T23:04:00.000+03:00

Hallucinogenic mushrooms and bronze age burial sites

2007-09-28T19:10:00.000+03:00

Closer inspection and a sharp eye will reveal traces of the opening event on Saturday 6 October.

En route

2007-09-26T23:01:00.000+03:00

Details along the Star of Africa route through Rauma:

Fame at last!

2007-09-26T17:19:00.000+03:00

Call for participation

2007-09-26T03:43:00.000+03:00

Play Afrikan Tahti: digging for gold in Rauma.

Meeting point: Saturday 6 October at Lonnstromm Art Museum. Wear something yellow and play the game to discover the gems of Rauma.
Official opening: 12hoo (play any time until 6pm)
Duration of the circle route: 45 minutes

All information and maps will be available at the museum.

**Official Martinex Afrikan Tahti World Championships semi-final at Rauma theatre on Sunday 7 October 2007

The game begins

2007-09-25T23:54:00.000+03:00

The Cape arrows will mark the route of the game though Rauma's old town. The start and finnish is the Lonnstrom Art Museum which is located at Cape Town on the map.

Arrival in Helsinki

2007-09-25T23:19:00.001+03:00

Some things just move better than your jumbo sofa. Collecting the components of our exhibition from customs at Vantaa airport.

Cape Town: Start/Fin(n)ish

2007-08-07T09:22:00.000+03:00

Site specific projects in Cape Town

1) The Castle of Good Hope - the Dutch fortress with Table Mountain in the background - sets the scene. The cement mixers form a legion that gyrates seductively. Music Concrete is an alternative soundtrack to the urban sprawl.

2) C-units: Pirate ships off the coast of Blaauwbergstrand. These sea unit apartments are being built on protected dune area.....bad taste with a view.

3) Rest in Peace is a makeshift graveyard made out of estate agent signboards in Durbanville - another Afrikaans suburb of cluster housing, microwave dinners and nuclear families.

Save the Cape Arrow

2007-08-07T09:08:00.000+03:00

Albeit by suggestion, our aim is to SAVE THE CAPE ARROW by putting Cape ’07 on the international map and raising awareness of this endangered species.

Afrikan Tahti: Diggin for Gold is a treasure hunt through the city of Rauma. The route is marked by Cape 07 arrows recycled from the first (and possibly last) large-scale visual arts event for Southern Africa. Lack of resources and sponsorship turned the event into a largely Capetonian affair and left artists "digging for gold" to fund creative output.

The Cape ’07 Arrows

2007-05-22T01:56:00.000+03:00

We are collecting the CAPE 07 signs at the moment. We have turned it into a little campaign: "Save the CAPE arrow".

It has proved quite difficult to get the signs back. They have been quite popular. Most were stolen or given away as keepsakes.

The Project

2007-05-22T01:26:00.000+03:00

Afrikan Tähti: Digging for Gold is a public visual arts project based on the Finnish board game “Afrikan Tähti” (translated: “African Star”).

"African Star" is a 516 ½ karat diamond found in the then Transvaal province of South Africa a century ago. Ironically, this gem is in the British crown jewels.

The AIM of the game

The players have to find precious gems in different countries on the African continent. Whoever finds the “African Star” first, wins the game.

In the original game, Cape Town is the halfway-stop. In our version, we (as Capetonians) propose a real-life board game with Cape Town as both the starting and finishing point. In this case, the game will be played on Finnish territory.

Urban Intervention
The project links urban development in South-Africa to art incentives in Finland and is a tongue-in-cheek attempt by two South Africans to build a visual and interactive game that might provide a contemporary glimpse into that dark continent of minerals and savages…

The work consists of a public “explorer” route through the town of Rauma. An aerial perspective of the route would reveal it to be in the shape of the African continent (as is the case in the original board game –see image above). The route begins and ends at a space within the Lönnstrom Art Museum.

New routes to old tricks
The route through Rauma will be clearly marked by yellow-and-black Cape ‘07 arrows (re-cycled and re-produced) - Cape Town’s first (and possibly last) “grand-scale art event for Africa”. Various gems will be pointed out on route - ranging from art museums to remotely interesting porcelain figurines in private homes - as these could easily be missed.

Cape ’07 was a brave attempt to develop a large-scale visual arts event for Africa that would be “not another biennale”. Due to lack of resources and sponsors not delivering to their promises, the event turned out to be more of a grand-scale Capetonian affair, with only those in the know able to recognise and “find” the exhibitions and projects scattered throughout the city. Nonetheless, over 300 artists participated, providing a hub of activity and proving that Southern Africa’s boisterous creative energy will flourish even though we are still “digging for gold” to fund the ideas.