This essay considers public art practice in post-apartheid Cape Town within the notion of symbolic reparations-a concept deriving out of South Africa's Trust Reconciliation Commission. The paper situates developments in public arts practice in the context of developments in cultural politics in South Africa and globally. More especially, it discusses new genre arts projects, which focus on a range of issues related to identity, space and place. The projects-the District Six Museum, District Six Sculpture Project, PTO, Y30, BLAC, Returning the Gaze, and the In Touch Poetry Bus Tour-focus on issues such as rethinking monuments, the memorialising of 'hidden histories', engagements with racism and the abuse of power, and the reimagining of the city. The paper asks how these contemporary and often ephemeral projects, critically engage with issues of history, geography, memory and transformation and, in so doing, mark the landscape of Cape Town, making spaces for dialogue and/or standing as poetic symbols and challenges to the inequalities of the city.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bedford, E. and Murinik, T. (1998) Remembering that place: public projetcs in District Six, in: C. Soudien and R. Meyer (Ed.) The District Six Sculpture Project. The District Six Museum Foundation, Cape Town .
2.
Dean, T. and Millar, J. (2005) Place. london: Thames and Hudson .
3.
Lacy, S. (Ed.) (1995) Mapping the Terrain. Seattle, WA: Bay Press .
4.
Miles, M. (1997) Art, Space and the City: Public Art and Urban Futures . London: Routledge.
5.
Minty, Z. (2003) BLAC bows out (http://www.artthrob.co.za).
6.
Naidu, E. (2005) Memorialisation: a fractured opportunity. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Johannesburg (http://www.csvr.org.za/papers/papnaid2.htm ).
7.
Rassool. C. and Proselendis, S. (Ed.) (2001) Recalling community. The District Six Museum Foundation, Cape Town.
8.
Smith, C. (Ed.) (2001) Returning the Gaze: Public Arts project at the Cape Town One City Festival 2000. Cape Town: BLAC.
9.
Soudien, C. and Jeppe, S. (Ed.) (1989) The Struggle for District Six: Past and Present. Cape Town: Buchu Books.
10.
Soudien, C. and Meyer, R. (Ed.) (1998) The District Six Sculpture Project. The District Six Museum Foundation, Cape Town .
11.
Thiong'o, N. Wa (2003) The fourth Steve Biko annual lecture, September, Cape Town, The Sunday Times (Cape Town ), 14 September.
12.
Western, J. (1981) OutcastCape Town. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
13.
Williamson, S. (1989) Resistance Art in South Africa. Cape Town: David Phillip.
14.
Wyk, G. Van (2004) A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa . Boston, MA: Sondela.
15.
Younge, G. (1988) Art of the South African Townships. London: Thames and Hudson.
