Neil Fraser
March 8, 2004
"ART should not dwell only in rarefied halls but in the places where people live and work."
(Tim Hall, 'the Landscape of Urban Regeneration: Public Art')
"Art creates a sense of place, it reflects a social theory about the place and displays a style that is attributed to the space. Art is often used in public places to give it character to make a place interesting, or to simply beautify it. People remember a place because of the artwork that exists in the space - the art acts as a symbol of the place"
(Public Art in the Urban Landscape)
These are two of a number of quotations I used two years ago to introduce the concept that became known as JOBURG ART CITY a project aimed to turn the inner city into a giant outdoor art gallery.
The concept had been brought to us by Saul Symanowitz, then a 24 year old final year Wits University law student. The CJP brainstormed the proposal with a variety of parties and a plan was formulated to hold an art competition for South African artists; substantially enlarge the winning submissions and display them on bare walls of inner city buildings along a pre-determined 'art route'.
The objectives of the project were to:
- Promote South African arts and artists
- Showcase the city's urban renewal progress and
- Change perceptions by exposing people to what was happening in the city.
The Council was enthusiastic about the project, particularly as it fell within the World Summit hosting period, and they provided financial support as did a number of other sponsors including Business Arts South Africa (BASA), the National Arts Council (NAC), the manufacturing and erection companies, Omnigraphics and Logrig Signs, etc.
Largest private sector financial support however came from Cell C who, co-incidentally, were also embarking on an outdoor art programme 'C for the City' at about the same time.
Quite a number of the resultant artworks are still in place but we did suggest to the Council that 2004 would be a good year to repeat the project and link it to the City's 'Decade of Democracy' celebrations. The City's marketing department liked the idea but suggested that we expand the project to cover both 'The Struggle' and the subsequent 'Freedom and Democracy' periods.
Mandy Jean Woods, the City's Director of Tourism and Marketing, suggested that we should consider how to utilise resistance posters as part of the overall project. Our initial proposal was that we reproduce selected posters which could be used to define a 'struggle' route through the city. However there were some major constraints that led to an alternative proposal to 'wrap' a suitable building in the city and use the 'wrapping' as a backdrop for a montage of struggle posters. This is the likely approach and we are finalising details which I will share with you at an appropriate time. Wrapping buildings is quite extensively used in Europe particularly when the building is undergoing refurbishment. Often the wrapping is used to provide a full-sized illustration of what the building is going to look like.
The 'Freedom' aspect will be covered by taking the same approach as the 2002 JHB ART CITY project. A national art competition will be held with Freedom as the theme for submissions. Twenty works will be selected by a panel and will be digitally photographed, enlarged and mounted on city building walls replacing the existing pictures.
A pilot project is always difficult in that so many have to be convinced before implementation of the potential that the project offers. As a result we were not able to go as far as we would have liked with JHB ART CITY in 2002. But being able to now show people what the outcome was has enabled us to raise the enthusiasm level and to graft a number of other initiatives into the main project.
Steven Sack, the City's newly appointed Director of Arts and Culture, recognised the potential of the project and proposed some exciting variations and additions. Instead of posters demarcating a route through the city, he suggested that they rather be mounted as an exhibition. The montage display on the wrapped building would then provide an exciting stimulus for the exhibition. Dr Jillian Carman was asked to curate such an exhibition which will be mounted as 'Shatter the Silence' at MuseuMAfrica (and possibly at a number of smaller city venues).
Jillian explains the exhibition as follows: "Shatter the silence, an exhibition of some 400 posters, celebrates the way ordinary people voice their resistance during times of oppression. The exhibition focuses principally on the 1980s, a time of mass mobilisation against the apartheid regime. It also embraces earlier and later images of defiance and shows that, even after the advent of democracy, people continue to be vigilant about perceived injustices, and posters continue to be a principal means of protest. Other protest memorabilia, such as T-shirts, will also be included in the display. The exhibition is curated under the auspices of the Posterbook Collective of the South African History Archive (SAHA), University of the Witwatersrand. It will be accompanied by a reprinted version of Images of defiance (1991), the seminal publication on resistance posters which has long been out of print. There will also be a catalogue, written by Judy Seidman, which updates research on resistance posters, and various educational publications. In addition, there will be promotional items such as sets of reproduced posters, an exhibition brochure, postcards and button-badges."
It is hoped to introduce a further critical component into the overall project and this relates to education. A comprehensive education programme with far-reaching outcomes will be introduced as an essential component of the exhibition. The Curriculum Development Project, in association with the Posterbook Collective and the Artist Proof Studio, will coordinate a programme which will start before the exhibition opens, with a project for teachers during which 30 free-standing figures will be created for displaying T-shirts in the exhibition.
Workshop training for teachers will be conducted at the start of the exhibition in order to provide them with skills to conduct their own visits and workshops with groups of learners. Silkscreen workshops for teachers will also be offered, in association with the Artist Proof Studio. A teaching and learning pack will be developed which can be used in classroom situations long after the close of the exhibition.
Jillian comments further: "Resistance posters occupy an important place in the history of this country, in that they gave a voice to the silenced in the last years of apartheid and helped accelerate the end of an oppressive regime. Shatter the silence is an apt tribute to those who fought for the democracy whose tenth anniversary we are celebrating in 2004."
I'll give you adequate notice of the 'wheres' and 'whens' so stay close.
