Valentine Cascarino
It’s dawn on a weekday and Joubert Park, former playground of nocturnal romance, is already busy. Its occupants are homeless characters, lying flat on their stomachs a technique they claim relieves the incisive pains of hunger.
Outside the grounds schoolkids muscle their way through boisterous taxi drivers and passengers while within the park photographers, traders and a few craft sellers erect makeshift stalls. Nearby is the moribund Johannesburg Art Gallery, and of course there are also the unemployed chess players and church groups who pray beneath the trees.
It’s in this bubbling cauldron that a group of heavyweight South African photographers, sponsored by a cultural initiative from The Netherlands, have been workshopping the park’s freelance photographers whose work will be on show this weekend at a unique event being called Open Day. The photographs on show will reflect the lives of the people in and around the park.
Looking at the list of contributors it is impressive to see the likes of David Goldblatt, Mothlalefi Mahlabe, Greame Williams and Jurgen Schadeberg most of whom hail from the agency South Photographs working in such an environment.
The project, called the Joubert Park Project, is coordinated on an ongoing basis by artists Bie Venter, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Jo Ractliffe, Rory Bester and John Fleetwood. Sponsorship has come from a Dutch initiative known as So Where To, which focuses on the production of art in public spaces and motivates cooperation between Dutch and South African artists, educators and cultural practitioners. Additional funding has come from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the National Arts Council.
The first workshops for the park’s freelance photographers were held in September and they concerned the technical aspect of 35mm colour photography. In October, it was Graeme Williams, Mothlalefi Mahlabe and David Goldblatt who workshopped the notion of narrative photography. The final stage took place in November when Jurgen Schadeberg, Paul Valesco, Sarie Potter and Rita Potzena taught photographers the art of marketing their work.
Also included in the workshops were community projects that explored themes like waste, health, identity and fashion. Members of the communities were taught costume designing, mask making, theatre production and story telling.
The Open Day exhibition, which encompasses the outcome of all these workshops, is organised in collaboration with Ziyabuya Children and Family Festival. Ziyabuya provides monthly free arts and culture activities for all, including painting, games, clay and music workshop in the park. The organisers believe that the activities generated by the project will make a significant contribution to the social, civic, human and cultural facets of the inner-city and specifically Joubert Park. The project interfaces with a number of other inner-city initiatives aimed towards the regeneration of the inner-city.
The Open Day provides the starting point for a major multidisciplinary public art exhibition including a carnival procession, blessing ceremonies and lighting of lanterns, scheduled for May 2001. Other artists included will be Amanda Lane, Mark Dunlop, Robin Rhode and Stompie Selibi while speakers will include Bongi Dhlomo, Clive van den Berg and Leon Mdiya. Members of the public wishing to take part in the May exhibition are requested to submit a proposal by the beginning of February next year. The Open Day exhibition starts on December 3 at 8am at Joubert Park, cnr Wolmarans and St Georges streets. For further information contact Bie Venter on Tel: (011) 614?8274 or 083?728?5606