Arts Collaboratory

Very Real Time is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and has been in existence since 2003. The main objective of Very Real Time is to set up the right conditions for meaningful exchange between artists working in a contemporary and global context. For exchange to be meaningful as well as ongoing, the intimate and interpersonal dimension becomes a central component to the project’s content. Part of Very Real Time’s success is located in the fact that it has nourished personal relationships and artistic exchanges between local and visiting artists, which remain active to this day.

1. Very Real Time aims to examine and expose through its activities (residencies, artists’ projects and discussions) the psychological and emotional dimensions of daily interactions in urban life and provide a catalyst for the traversing of boundaries and facilitating new connections.
2. The project aims to act on both a micro and an macro level, prioritising in the first place a value for personal and intimate exchanges (through the artists' projects), and in the second place an exchange of ideas on an international level, through various publications, forums and the Very Real Time website
3. It is an enquiry into and critique of the role of contemporary art in public space, enabling through artistic experimentation and theoretical reflection, an in depth examination of the position of the artist in a given social context.