Following up their participation in ‘the MEDIA_CITY’ workshop in Amsterdam (March 2010), ‘dala’ was  interested to connect the project and synergies developed in Amsterdam with the city of Durban in South Africa from July 01 to July 11, 2010. Thus, facilitating a creative platform between creative practitioners from a variety of backgrounds called City Walks.

>What is the architecture of the 21st century?

>What does architecture means for  a homeless?

>How is the African market of the 21st century?

Deconstructing the city, looking for the micro interventions that lead to macro development, questioning fear and control, looking beyond surface, finding eye contact, waiting for the beggarsproof bus stops, witnessing the disruption of  markets that develop along the people’s walk…

These are some of the resulting questions and investigations of  dala’s initiative  City Walks through the city of Durban, where they shared with us their views on urban space negotiation and their  believe in the transformative role of creativity in building safer and more liveable cities. This edition of City Walks also has an added component focused on experiencing the city of Durban in the context of the world cup 2010, where large international audiences are expected and analizes how this influx will negotiate and share public spaces with the main local  cultural groups, the Zulus, Afrikaners, Indians and English.

dala’s initiatives all revolve around re-imagining the use and expression in and of public space. Re- definition and re-creation, and transformation implies often conflict that is an essential measure of creative practices, that underpins the dynamics of contemporary cities dealing with the flux of dislocated cultural identities challenging the dominant meta narratives of Globalization.

After this intense walk through the city of Durban we  started an artistic dialogue with local artists that would help us to deconstruct the mediatic image of South African Society, introducing in our agenda some other forms of artistic participaion that listen to the voice of the local communities and that leaves behind not only traces but seeds of large shadows.

RE-Creating Spaces in Flux

Intersections are physical, conceptual, psychological and philosophical spaces where people, ideas and objects interact. Intersections mark meeting points in our cities and lives, some fleeting, others profound. The idea City Walk is to explore the concept of intersecting spaces in South Africa in the context of the 2010 World Cup. How does our socio-political and physical environment condition these relationships? Through this discussion, how can we develop meaningful dialogue towards a more humane and just society?

The South African creative collective ‘dala’ has invited TIME_FRAME_NIMk to take part in a laboratory to explore the impact of the 2010 World Cup on South African cities from a grounded and people-centred perspective. The popular media generally only documents large-scale international events from a particular perspective.

Although these events bring excitement and possibility to cities, they effect and impact on people and spaces in different ways. This laboratory aims to explore these complexities, focusing on how stories, people and spaces intersect in the context of this international event.

dala is hosting 10 creative practitioners for a 10 day new media experiment in Durban: Miguel Petchovsky (Angola / Netherlands), Elena Perez Hernandez (Spain / Netherlands), Mayura Subhedar (India / Netherlands), Walter Langelaar (Netherlands), Lilia Perez Romero (Mexico / Netherlands), Doung Jahangeer (South Africa), Rike Sitas (South Africa), Dean Henning (South Africa), Zen Marie (South Africa) and Peter McKenzi (South Africa).

These laboratory involves the following events:

> Seminar with Mayura Subhedar, Walter Langelaar, Lilia Perez Romero
Wednesday // 7 July // 9am – 12am // Vega, Westville (RSVP Joy 031 266 2595 / joy@vegaschool.com)
> Lecture with Heiner Holtappels, Director of NIMk // Screening of NIMk video art collection // Final presentation of artists work
Saturday // 10 July // 4pm – 7pm // KZNSA (RSVP Emme 031 277 1705 / gallery@kznsagallery.co.za)
> TIME_FRAME exhibition opening at the Durban Art Gallery
Tuesday // 13 July // 6pm // DAG (project space is open from Monday 5 – 19 July – 2 weeks only!)