June 3, 2002
By Lucille Davie
JOHANNESBURG'S inner city is about to become one large art gallery, its buildings posted with giant murals chosen from entries to a competition called the JHB Art City.
The competition, with a closing date of 7 June, aims to "showcase the inner city as the hub and cultural centre of Africa's world-class city" by tying up with regeneration projects around the city and displaying art works on the sides of a range of buildings.
Greatly enlarged versions of art works will be exhibited from August on various sites, including on the Nelson Mandela Bridge, in Mary Fitzgerald and Gandhi Squares, the new Metro Market, the Civic Theatre and Constitution Hill.
"Up to 30 works will go up on the 12 sites, 15 chosen from entries submitted to the competition, and 15 from corporate collections," say the competition organisers.
South African artists who have had at least one solo or group shows in the past three years, are invited to submit a maximum of two works on standard-sized canvasses. Recent and new works completed between January last year and May this year, will be accepted.
The judging panel consists of Bongi Dhlomo, Natash Fuller, Clive Kellner and Monna Mokoena. Works submitted from corporate collections will "afford a rare glimpse of South African art works seldom seen by the general public".
All the chosen works will be scanned and then enlarged without distortion, to be displayed as massive murals on the sides of buildings or in billboard-style mountings. Originals of the chosen art works will be displayed at venues around the city.
The competition is planned to coincide with the World Summit for Sustainable Development in August, when it is hoped delegates will be attracted into the inner city to view the murals. The murals will remain displayed until the Cricket World Cup in March 2003, but the works will be changed annually.
It is hoped that there will be broader benefits from the mural display, including "making visual art easily accessible to the public in their every day lives and staging complementary performing arts events in the public spaces at selected project locations".
The competition is organised by the City of Johannesburg, the Central Johannesburg Parnership, the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition, and the Johannesburg Development Agency, with support from Business and Arts South Africa and assistance from International Courier Brokers.
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