Hallo, Hallo: How Play Inspires Art in Cape Town, South Africa

Hallo, Hallo is a project inspired by friendship. Here's how you can be a part of it too...

Hallo, Hallo is a project about loving fearlessly. It's all about reaching out to each other, saying "hallo" and standing for love and the sacred within that exchange... It's all about unapologetically giving a fxck, in a world that conditions you to think it's cool to be unreachable, to play hard to get, and to distance yourself as a way to prevent feeling deeply.  

Love is never a relationship; love is relating. It is always a river,  flowing, unending. Love knows no full stop; the honeymoon begins but  never ends. It is not like a novel that starts at a certain point and  ends at a certain point. It is an ongoing phenomenon. Lovers end, love continues—it is a continuum. It is a verb, not a noun.
 -  Osho, 'Love Freedom and Aloneness: The Koan of Relationships'

It began with a friendship between myself and Hanjones. We met in Cape Town, at an ATOM party (there'll be more on what those are in another blog post). Things happened. Good things. Interesting things. Challenging things. And through it all, lots of laughter, play and art-making.

But now we are apart for a while: he is in Germany and I am in South Africa. Doing What Needs To Be Done. We started finding interesting ways to bridge the new distance, and Hallo, Hallo was born. So yes, it's a classic variation on the "girl meets boy" story... And in this story, the girl and the boy discover that unconditional love can flower, despite many cultural and linguistic differences (and misunderstandings), by simply having the courage to reach out to each other and keep saying "hallo". And now that we say "hallo" by making assemblages in public places, we also say hallo to the world that is watching. Because, as within, so without: the love between friends that has inspired the building of the word, extends into open space and reaches out to everyone who comes into contact with it. It says "hallo" to them too... And that is beautiful, because love is for sharing. And it is not only for lovers: there are many different shades of love, and it is important we honour that truth fearlessly.

We are all a little weird and life's a little  weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.     
- Dr Seuss 

All it takes to build your own assemblage is the courage to be somewhere. And to have the desire to reach out to someone you love: whether it is a particular friend, or the people who will pass by that Somewhere in two hours' time. That Somewhere can be Anywhere. It is exactly where you are at the moment your heart desires to reach out and say 'hallo'. Gather what the landscape offers, and write your love letter to the world. Share it with the hashtag #hallohallo if you like, or don't take a picture of it at all: it is up to you. Reach out in your own language: we write "hallo" because we speak German with each other. The choice is yours. The point is to play. And share. And love. And Reach Out to each other, with care. To fall in mutual weirdness with the world.

The world can be an unfriendly place sometimes, but I've always found that while I am running around playing and making art in public places, it inspires wonder. If you're in Cape Town, keep an eye out for some subtle assemblages made with found objects... Or even better, get involved wherever you are, and  make your own. Be a part of the evolution towards unconditional love: reach out and say "hallo" to the world. To connect takes courage, but it's worth it ; )

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Follow this project on Instagram @katara_sedai. All images by Katara Sedai, unless stated otherwise. Photo of Hanjones and Katara falling in mutual weirdness, by Jamie Lee.

Hanjones is a freelance lighting designer, videographer and photographer from Berlin, based in Germany and South Africa. If you'd like to work with him, drop him a line at [email protected].