Food lovers and connoisseurs are set for a serious dose of inspiration in the build-up to the much-anticipated Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards, as Eat Out launches its first-ever full day conference, to be held on Saturday 24 November at The Westin Cape Town. The Eat Out DStv Food Network conference aims to provide a platform for knowledge sharing in the South African food community and will be of value to chefs, restaurateurs, journalists, critics and anyone who is passionate about food. Eat Out editor, judge and speaker at the conference Abigail Donnelly says: “We hope that the conference will build relationships, encourage networking and, above all, inspire local chefs. With the line-up of chefs sharing their inspiration and work, the day’s talks can’t help but be thought-provoking.” Headlining the conference is Massimo Bottura, chef and owner of Osteria Francescana, the world’s 5th best restaurant according to the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list. The recipient of three Michelin stars, Bottura is probably the most influential of the new wave of Italian chefs, and his avant-garde approach to cooking is bound to captivate conference attendees. Says Bottura: “I jumped at the opportunity to come to South Africa. Not only have I heard so many interesting things about it culturally, but as of late, gastronomically too. I have also had the good fortune to meet two incredible chefs working there today – Margot Janse and Luke Dale-Roberts. They have very different kitchens and diverse approaches to gastronomy, which leads me to believe that South Africa has a lot to offer. “Moreover, I have recently read that South Africa is campaigning to get rid of excess sugar, salt and cholesterol; put emphasis on healthy and affordable food; register local products which are exclusive to South Africa; and create even more fairtrade and organic options for consumers and diners. This is just remarkable. Very similar to what we chefs in Italy . . .

Iziko South African National Gallery, 29 November 2012 until 09 January 2013 The Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art 2012 has been awarded to Mikhael Subotzky. Entitled Retinal Shift, the exhibition will centre on a four-channel film installation which has been produced specifically for the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown. Further photographic, video and installation works will complete the exhibition. The exhibition presenting an entirely new body of work will open at the Iziko South African National Gallery on 29 November 2012. Retinal Shift investigates the practice and mechanics of looking – in relation to the history of Grahamstown, the history of photographic devices and Subotzky’s own history as an artist. The works in the show draw on archival portraits from the last century, found surveillance footage, and Subotzky’s own photographs from various series’ that are re-contextualized here. The opening work on the show is a self-portrait that Subotzky made with the assistance of an optometrist. High-resolution images of his left and right retinas are placed side by side. “I was fascinated by this encounter. At the moment that my retinas, my essential organs of seeing, were photographed, I was blinded by the apparatus that made the images,” he said. Retinal Shift extends this motif of looking while not seeing - exploring it through Grahamstown’s history, our contemporary surveillance society, and the artist’s personal attempts to see. The exhibition began its year-long tour at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown in June 2012 and will travel to various major centres around South Africa before ending its run in August 2013. ENDS About the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards The Young Artist Awards were started in 1981 by the National Arts Festival to acknowledge emerging, relatively young South African artists who have displayed an outstanding talent in their artistic endeavours. These prestigious awards are presented annually . . .

GIPCA’s ground-breaking Live Art Festival will take place in various venues around Cape Town from 30 November to 4 December 2012, and promises a plethora of provocative and memorable experiences for audience members. The Live Art Festival, presented by the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts and subtitled ‘Make-up your Mind’, seeks to be a space for interrogation and exploration of contemporary art forms.  Embodying themes of presence, identity and gender, the inaugural Festival comprises 30 artists who emerge from a wide range of fields and often collapsing disciplinary boundaries. This sprawling series of events will take place in various venues, including the Cape Town City Hall, UCT’s Hiddingh Campus, roadside pavements, a farm and an empty swimming pool. ‘But is it art?’ must be the mantra of our time - both an earnest question and a cliché that inspires irritation and impatience. Conflicting ideas about how we perceive and not just what we perceive, the collapse of established systems based on prejudice, and postcolonial subjectivities; have all contributed to a healthy and robust bewilderment around contemporary art, particularly that emerging from South Africa.  Translate that into performance or live art, and the risks are greater, the innovation sharper, the boundaries barely discernible and the befuddlement bordering on vertigo. Now more than ever before, the point of view of the individual spectator is most important in their encounter with fresh work that sits on an edge. Uncles and Angels, a headline performance by live art diva Nelisiwe Xaba and experimental filmmaker Mocke J van Veuren, typifies the essential interdisciplinary nature of the Festival.  When featured at Dance Umbrella this year, the work was described on Artslink.co.za as “uncomfortable... but done with intelligent intent, wry humour, a superb partnership and brilliant technology”, heralding what will “surely become a signature work in years to come”. The . . .