Minibus taxis are often in the news, but rarely for promoting the arts. Turning the tables on this perception, is respected local artist Thania Petersen, who has collaborated with taxi owners Ziyaad and Fatima Dyason to turn a public transport vehicle into a moving masterpiece that passengers can appreciate en-route. The "pimped-up" ride forms part of the UnInfecting the City public arts festival currently underway in Cape Town un 30 June 2021. The festival is presented by the University of Cape Town's Institute for Creative Arts.
"The Taxi Project is a public arts initiative to make art accessible to people who do not have the privilege to experience much, if any, art in their lives. By turning a taxi into an immersive art experience - from showcasing video work, visual art, recorded poetry readings and even theatre productions played on a screen inside the vehicle - commuters' lives can be enriched with the arts at any given moment of the day," explains Petersen.
To achieve this end, the interior of the Dyasons' taxi has been kitted out a 22-inch screen and sound system, on which Petersen's latest film will play. She has covered the entire outside of the vehicle in the art from the film. The taxi will be parked outside the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in the city's Silo District at the V&A Waterfront for a brief period, before heading out on its regular route towards Hanover Park on the Cape Flats. This mobile art gallery will be in circulation for several months and is a first for the city.