The view from the 18th floor of the Lister Medical Building in Johannesburg’s Bree Street is so overwhelming in its panoramic sweep that the Hillbrow Tower and Ponte cease to be the dependable man-made compasses they are that orient motorists and pedestrians on a daily basis.
Although it became a significant vantage point and an eventual exhibition space for the producers of Minutes, an installation that includes 30 time-lapse films, sound recordings and photographic prints about Johannesburg, the more eloquent moments of the project were captured much closer to the ground.
“Early on we were postcarding, getting wide shots, which were glamorous but also stereotypical,” says filmmaker Theresa Collins of Traplight Media. “But then it became more and more street oriented, which became quite tricky because as a cameraman, you don’t want to be a voyeur … or to objectify what appears before the lens.”
The footage captured by Collins and her partner Mocke van Veuren doesn’t so much objectify its subjects as much as it validates them, in ironic, sneaky but carefully considered ways.
From an experimental genesis that had more to do with exploring the possibilities of a Fifties model 16mm Bolex camera than with telling a particular story, the pair became increasingly interested in “what the medium was revealing … the hidden things about Johannesburg that are in front of you, but you don’t pick up” because we are usually moving through the city rather than immersed in it. The technique of time-lapsing easily lends itself to heightening this sense of oblivion.
One of the scenes, which flashes by almost unnoticed, captures an altercation between homeless people and the police, while another collection of scenes depicting an inner-city building façade, juxtaposes the activity inside a building before an eviction with images from the eviction’s aftermath. Another series of streetside shots shows the transformation of an optometrist’s practice into a franchised pie shop. Considered as a whole, the footage adds up to a microcosm of the grave issues that cities, especially those in the Third World, are grappling with. “After a long period of time, we’ll be able to critically see what is happening in the city,” says Van Veuren of the long-term nature of the project. “There is a lot of ambiguity about the gentrification that is happening. While I don’t feel qualified to talk about it, we want to capture those undercurrents.”
The films in Minutes, which span three years, are presented alongside each other on six screens, sometimes playing related or contrasting footage. This not only distorts time even further but also enhances its cyclical nature, giving the project a metaphysical air. “For some people it brought up feelings of mortality and also [highlighted] control mechanisms — the big rhythms of nature and the more controlled mechanical rhythms,” says Van Veuren, before conceding that the emotions it evokes are not quite adequately encapsulated in those broad terms. He likens it to a search for the soul of the city, an exploration of the often unappreciated relationship between the city and its residents, approached in a more “organic” and “chaotic” way than architects and city planners would.
When the initial version of Minutes was screened at the Horror Café late last year, there was a discernible sense of attachment to the city from certain segments of the audience. “Sometimes it’s hard to see that because the place can be quite ugly,” concurs Collins. “But people get quite emotional [from watching it].”
The show was subsequently screened at the the ninth Havana Biennale, where it fitted right in with this year’s theme of the Dynamics of Urban Culture.
After that, Minutes appeared at the 10th Venice Architectural Biennale as part of a South African exhibition entitled Between Ownership and Belonging: Transformation in the Post-Apartheid City.
A buffed up version of Minutes runs for a week from Saturday and includes additional film footage, sound recording, new photographs as well as an opening night set from Crippled and Unrehearsed.
Minutes is on show on the 18th floor of the Lister Medical Building from November 25 to December 2. Opening night starts at 6pm. The venue will be open for visits from 7pm to 10pm. Tel: 073 433 3330