MEDIATHEK

Solarize a one act opera on the subject of Leon Botha, the South African DJ, who had Progeria, ageing 8 times faster than the regular rate. BIO wirtten by his own: Leon Botha was born on the 4th of June, 1985. Brought up and still living in Cape Town, South Africa. He started drawing at the age of three. And was diagnosed with progeria around the age of 4 years.He did not receive any formal training, and did not study art any further. In 2005 he underwent heart bypass surgery having been at critical risk of heart attack, due to Progeria, which calcified his arteries. This was successful and he hosted his first solo exhibition in January, 2007 at the Rust-en-Vrede gallery in Durbanville. It was called: "Liquid Sword; I am HipHop", and revolved around HipHop culture, explained as a way of life. It received great responses, as well as media coverage. Television, radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews. Hinting at the artist's attitude and alchemical philosophy, and struggles under Progeria. It featured a large spectrum of more dark, personal as well as spiritual work. The responses and media coverage grew even more than before and sold a third of the entire collection of 33 paintings under the first week. Many of the articles, images of the paintings etc. are to be found on his flickr page. A video clip of a news insert about the opening of the second exhibition can be found on youtube. In the beginning of 2010, he hosted the first showing of: "Who Am I? ...Transgressions," a photographiccollaboration exhibition with friend and photographer Gordon Clark. In which they collectively conceptualized images and shots to reveal Leon Botha to the world, which was a bold step due to the nature of his condition, of which he is currently one of the world's oldest survivors. 'Who am I? ... Transgressions' aimed at stereotypes, ideas of time, life and death and immortality. This exhibition is planned to travel around the world. Again, it received a lot of attention, locally as well as internationally. Leon is well known for his spiritual outlook and philosophy in interviews. ?He also dj's under the name Solarize, and occasionally opened for Die Antwoord. Botha was featured alongside Ninja, in the music video 'Enter the Ninja', from Die Antwoord. As of March 2010 the video had received over 2 million views on Youtube.