Cascoland Journal
Sunday 5 February
The presentation day started with the official opening of Cascoland.
In true African spirit the preparations of this presentation began a day
before with the slaughtering of two goats. Blood was poured on the soil
to make this endeavor a successful one. At the Eyethu CrËche the next
day everything was prepared by the different artists from UK, The Netherlands,
Lithuania and Germany to present their proposed projects to the people
of New Crossroads.
Amongst the public that attended the presentation there was a variety
of people. Representatives of New Crossroads, students of the Stellenbosch
University (who are going to take part in Cascoland) lots of children
and other interested people that had read the flyer which had been distributed
some days before.
Jan Korbes, Denis Oudendijk and Isis Hoos, the garbage architects, had
an example of their work with old car tyres outside at the entrance; a
futuristic looking couch.
Bert Kramer had a drawn out design on the wall of how he will make his
inflatable hotel room in a bed & breakfast place in New Crossroads.
Teun Castelein was already mobilizing the children to go and pick bottle
tops for him. A big sign read: 2 Rand for fifty golden bottle tops. The
same day he already got his first shipment in. In a combination with broken
glass he is planning to make a mosaic on an object in New Crossroads.
Indre Klimaite, graphic designer, had put up pictures of shops in New
Crossroads for whom she is going to make inviting shop signs. She is also
the one who has an idea about how all the different Cascoland objects
can be connected to one another during the presentation between 2 and
12 March 2006.
Fiona de Bell presented her idea of putting some television sets with
DVD players in a street in New Crossroads where African and other films
will be presented during the presentation. She based her idea on video
halls in Uganda, of which photos were exhibited at this presentation.
Alison Scott and John Charalambous showed drawings made by primary schoolchildren
in New Crossroads with whom they are going to make short animation films.
At the end of the official presentation Roel Schoenmakers, the coordinator
of Cascoland received an official letter from the residents with the request
to be a sort of ambassadors for New Crossroads when all of us are back
in our home countries. When the official presentation was finally over
the sound system was put on and everybody started dancing.
