Space for conversations that talk up social change
Stellenbosch gallery aims to be venue where ‘outsiders’ are comfortable
Jazz first brought Valeria Geselev to Cape Town. Among its smoky spaces and low-lit jam sessions, the curator of Gallery University Stellenbosch (GUS) found kinship among the Mother City’s outsiders. She quit her job in Israel and decided to take a two-month trip to SA before deciding what to pursue next. "This was around 2012. I had no idea where to begin, but randomly ended up in Observatory," recalls Geselev in her Soviet-Israeli accent. "On my first day in Obs, I saw some interesting people on the street and I asked them where to hang out. They pointed me towards Tagore’s, a now defunct hotspot in the area for jazz aficionados and other cool cats. "I ended up going every night. It was such a socially cohesive space of inspiration, and I recall lots of interesting late-night interactions ranging from culture to philosophy and politics." An animated, galvanising and disarmingly cerebral character in real life, she took over in March 2017 from Greer Valley as curator of GUS, an off...
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