Here’s where to see key performance art works, how they connect to the theme Listen, and how to experience the fair.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair returns for its 13th edition from 20 to 22 February 2026 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This year’s theme, Listen, shapes both the fair’s curated sections and a new, expanded focus on performance.
Performance takes on a more visible role in 2026, with a dedicated project that places live work alongside booths, exhibitions and talks. Rather than treating performance as a side programme, the fair positions it as a way of engaging with the theme through the body, time and attention. For visitors, it offers moments that unfold slowly and ask for presence rather than quick consumption.
Why performance matters at this year’s fair
Under the theme Listen, performance art becomes a practical way of engaging with what listening means beyond sound. These works rely on movement, repetition, proximity and endurance. They can’t be paused or revisited in the same way as objects on a wall. You have to be there.
At ICTAF 2026, performance art pieces introduces vulnerability and unpredictability into the art fair format. Here are some of the performance-led moments taking place during the fair, and where to see them.
Gabrielle Kruger
What: My Home is My Nest My Body is My Home
Where: Booth D2
When: Thursday, 19 February at 14:00
Gabrielle Kruger presents a live performance painting that brings together movement, mark-making and collaboration. The work includes dancers from Cape Ballet Africa, choreographed by Debbie Turner.
Performers’ bodies are painted and transformed into imagined creatures, moving through a constructed environment described as a fantasy garden. The performance explores the boundaries between human, animal and plant forms. It marks Kruger’s first performance painting since 2019 and her second collaboration with Turner.
Oupa Sibeko
What: And Those Keen Shafts of Memory that Stung Like Fire
Where: Booth TT4
When: Saturday, 21 February at 13:00
Oupa Sibeko draws on play and ritual to shift everyday actions into performance. His work looks at how people assume roles within shared narratives, using gesture and repetition to explore memory and meaning.
Themes of humanity, history, ecology and spirituality surface through the performance, which asks how stories are shaped through collective experience.
Steven Cohen
What: Taste
Where: Booth C8
When: Saturday, 21 February at 14:00
Steven Cohen presents a reworked version of Taste, using his body to challenge social structures that attempt to regulate and contain it. The performance draws on Cohen’s engagement with therapy and integration, addressing both light and darker aspects of human experience.
The work is presented alongside Long Life, a retrospective exhibition of Cohen’s work currently on view at the Iziko National Museum.
Hannalie Taute
What: I’m Fine
Where: Booth C14
When: Saturday, 21 February at 15:00
Hannalie Taute closes her exhibition Mother. Monster. Stitch with a live performance. The work responds to the phrase “I’m fine”, often used to deflect discomfort or concern.
Using restrained movement, sculptural props and dark humour, Taute looks at how unease is managed, concealed or softened in social settings, and how emotional labour is performed.
Lux & Khalil
What: Eavesdrop
Where: Various locations at the fair
When: Throughout the weekend
Artists Lux and Khalil present Eavesdrop, a project that responds directly to the fair’s theme. The duo listen in on conversations across the fair, recording and reflecting what they hear through writing and social media.
Hundreds of opinions are gathered over the course of the weekend. The work considers listening as an active practice and asks how attention can shift the way art is experienced.
Beyond performance: how to experience the fair
The 2026 edition brings together 126 exhibitors from 34 cities, presenting work by more than 490 artists from across Africa and around the world. International galleries are shown alongside South African and African spaces, with curated sections including Tomorrows/Today, SOLO, Generations and Cabinet/, as well as the Main, Lookout, Editions, Connect and Capsule sections.
Across the weekend, guided art walks offer curated routes through the fair. These are led by figures including Dr Mariella Franzoni, Céline Seror, Tandazani Dhlakama, Athi-Patra Ruga, Max Melvill, Beata America and Anna Weylandt. Each walk proposes a different way of reading the fair, encouraging visitors to return and experience it differently.
A series of ticketed workshops offers closer access to artistic process and interdisciplinary thinking. Sessions include Zanele Muholi: Self-Portraiture in collaboration with ORMS, Mary Sibande & Thebe Magugu: Colour and Materiality Across Disciplines, and Dan Corder: Contemporary Art Criticism and Practice. These workshops are limited in capacity and designed for hands-on engagement.
The Talks Programme, curated by Art School Africa, places conversation and audience participation at its centre. Topics range from cultural memory and activism to collecting and Pan-African collaboration. Prize-giving moments across the fair sit alongside these discussions, recognising both emerging and established practices.
For visitors navigating the scale of the fair, performance offers a way to pause and reorient. These moments reward staying with the work, listening closely and allowing meaning to unfold over time.
* Find out more about the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
