/ 28 April 2011

Jo’burg art pick: April 29 2011

Norwegian artists’ collective KNUT started in 2009 when three art students named Knut (which, I am told, is the Norwegian equivalent of ‘John”) met on the lawns of a retirement village in Bergen, where they were volunteering as
gardeners one afternoon.

It was there that they came up with the concept
of ‘goodwill guerilla gardening”, the planting of illegitimate micro-gardens in urban public spaces with a view to promoting the well-being of the city’sinhabitants.

For one week from May 5, KNUT will be spreading their green goodwill on the streets of Braamfontein. Every day from 12 to 5pm they will be at a different traffic island or other neglected green patch prettifying it purely in the interest
of public prettiness. They haven’t released a precise schedule since, they maintain, ‘this would not be guerilla”. Keep your eyes open and you may just catch them.

From May 5 in Braamfontein.