In relation to the ‘City Walk’ initiative and in anticipation of doing

one of these walks ourselves with Doung and Rike, Walter decided to prepare

for some mobile exploration of Durban’s aether; meaning he was interested in seeing how

wireless fidelity (WIFI) would be spread around the city of Durban, and what conclusions could

be drawn from the data when moving from ‘white suburbia’ into the areas which are generally

understood to be ‘no-go zones’.

Over the course of collecting the data, via a mobile Android device with

WIFI and GPS enabled, differenty interesting topics came up when

discussing the layout, and access to technology in general in SA with

people in the project group. It turned out that because of the FIFA

World Cup event, Google had put it’s view on the country as well -

resulting in large scale mapping efforts for the Google Street View and

Maps application, and many added 3D renderings of buildings and sites in

the cities where the matches were to be played…

Having worked with similar Google tech and API’s (from a critical

perspective) before, he decided to dissect their recent practices around

Durban and turn this into a visual work – which to him made total sense

as opposed to all the fairly general ‘FIFA-bashing’ that went on, since

obviously a big multinational (or should that be ‘online’?) player like

Google also brings with it it’s own politics and dubious decisions.

The resulting work in the Durban Art Gallery shows a story of two people

in Durban’s newly built football stadium. It follows a young, white male

and female, both wearing Google t-shirts, moving around the stadium

taking pictures – all recorded via the Google Street View application.

Interestingly, the narrative is coloured by the fact that the Street

View technology, and it’s interface limitations, clearly depicts a

suspicious desire of the camera-person to stay focused on the Google

employees, instead of also engaging with the local, native SA workers

that can be seen viewing the spectacle all around the stadium.

As an installation this video-narrative was combined with two additional

screen which show online articles and websites, dealing with

controversies surrounding Google’s move into South Africa…

The idea was to intervene and understand the space; also the mental space we inhabit  that are more and more impervious to reality.

During this project Mayura decided to come in to contact with two nodes in the Durban city – the Early Morning Market and the Musgrave mall. The intention here was to interact among the people around in order to understand certain social norms  and ways of life which contribute to contemporary culture to be alive with expanded artistic equipments.

In this process and special context of world cup Mayura had to also rethink and question the possibilities of her common practice to produce a work of art.

[...] ‘When I interrupted Vinesh, What do onions that you sell mean to
you? Here he paused rattled by the absurd interruption – for once during the
course of his intended speech, he flattered but with a gleam in his voice he
slowly told me what they meant’.

Continue HERE with Mayura Subhedar’s impressions and artistic process during TIME_FRAME Durban Workshop.

The Early Morning Market, a fresh produce market in Durban, turned 100

years on the 19 May 2010. Despite a rich social, economic, cultural

and political heritage, the municipality wants to remove the market

and replace it with a mall. The municipality, who had wanted the

development to be ready by the 2010 world cup, has been temporary

stalled by the struggle to save the market. However, the future of the

market is yet undefined. dala has worked closely with the Early

Morning Market Traders Association for some time and has been involved

in documenting the struggle since the first eviction notices in April

2009. As part of this process, Rike has been documenting the history

of the market through the stories of the traders.

Interactive installation. 2010

“banothando” is the isZulu word for the shared loving feeling of a

community. The title for this work came from one of the project

participants when describing what links the people of the Early

Morning market with each other.

“banothando” is a follow up of the collaboration between Mexican

artist Lilia Pérez and dala that started with the interactive

installation, Sawubona, produced in Amsterdam. It constitutes a series

of interactive portraits that use physical contact between people and

images of people as an interface to the stories gathered by Rike and

Lilia during the world cup and immediately after it when the general

enthusiasm mixed with uncertainty about the future of the market

traders’ livelihoods.

When the spectator approaches “banothando”, she will be confronted

with one of the market traders, observing her from the projected image

of their market stand surrounded by the merchandise they sell. From

this pose and the framing of the shot, the character seems to be

waiting for a customer. The character will carry on like this,

breathing and blinking, sometimes smiling until the spectator touches

the screen. As soon as contact is made, the character starts moving,

responding with the same gesture, placing her hand and gaze on the

user’s hand, following any route it follows. While the virtual and the

present hand touch, the spectator will be able to listen to the

trader’s stories about the market, life in general and the effect of

the world cup in their life and surroundings. When the contact stops,

the character will become silent again. Trapped in this small sequence

of gestures the character and the viewer meet one another in an

instant of simulated communion. Physical contact, so natural for the

market traders amongst each other, but so rare between the

predominantly Indian and Zulu traders, and the very often white

visitors of the gallery, becomes a condition for communication as well

as an ingredient for emphatic listening.

Quadraphonic Audio, approx 15-20 minutes.

A real time audio exploration of field recordings from three locations in South Africa:

* The opening day of the World Cup in Long Street;

* Brazil versus Portugal at Moses Mabhida Stadium; and

* Ghana versus Uruguay at the South Beach Fan Fest (Durban).

The piece has been performed live at the gallery. Thereafter, a stereo version was meant to be available for listening in the gallery.

Series of flush mounted colour prints.

The images reflect on the Early Morning Market as a node of convergence and intersection of urban mass mobility. The frame simultaneously serves a device to describe demeanor, its relationship to disposition and the physical and psychological spaces that evidence in the narrative of this urban history.

HDV – H.264 transfer

Size 1.39GB

Duration: 3:24

Installation on LCD Screen or appropriate monitor, Audio on extra

large speakers with bass turned up.

“Big Boss” is a short film that arose from a two day process. The film

was made in coversation with Mark Chinsamy, the owner/driver of “Tha

Big Boss”, a high ace taxi dedicated to  the memory of his late

brothers Nolan and Craig. The film was presented at a Lani art space

in glenwood. Crucial to this presentation there was a conversation

with Mark, the artist and the audience at the presentation. “Tha Big

Boss” was also at the presentation and visitors were able to interact

with the vehicle as it was parked in the entrance to the Lani

artspace. The starting point for the project was to engage with

issues of public transportation and the world cup. this primary

concern was extended to an experiment in enthnography/visual

anthropology and real-time documentary forms. While “Big Boss” the film is

complete, “Big Boss” the project will continue.

We have uploaded a bunch of photos at NIMk’s flickr account, check them out HERE!

01. Artistic discussions

02. Citywalk

03. Market Immersion

04. Artists’ Lectures at Vega

05. Presentations at KZNSA gallery

06. Exhibition at Durban Art Gallery

The Durban Art Gallery showcases a rich collection of South african Art art. Works ranging from established artists such as Pierneef and Irma Stern are on show, alongside a younger generation of artists including Zwelethu Mthethwa, Walter Oltmann, Langa Magwa and Penny Siopis.

TIME_FRAME Durban’s exhibition included the following works:

- Big Boss by Zen Marie (ZA)

- “banothando” by Lilia Pérez Romero (MX / NL) and Rike Sitas (ZA)

- untitled streetview by Walter Langelaar (NL)

- djibril by Doung Anwar Jahangeer (Mauritius  / ZA)

- Streets / Peoplescapes by Peter McKenzie (ZA)

- “city within a city reveals thousands of cities inside” by Mayura Subhedar (IND/ NL)

- Long Street – Moses Mabhida – South Beach by Dean Henning (ZA)

This exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of Mondriaan Foundation and the Durban Art Gallery (Jenny Stretton).

Special thanks to Ryan Adams.

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.