STREETLIGHTS AT GOETHEONMAIN

Running until June 3 in Johannesburg, Vaughn Sadie's project Streetlights at GoetheonMain explores the city of Johannesburg through its lighting strategies.

The project examines the role artificial light plays in shaping and defining the way people either move through, or occupy, these public spaces. Focusing on the larger area around GoetheonMain, it is an attempt by artist Vaughn Sadie to understand the relationships people in the area (residents, security guards, store/ shop owners, pedestrians) might have formed with these various spaces. The Streetlights project consists of various components and was developed to bring about an alternative way of perceiving and engaging with the city of Johannesburg.

As part of a cross-platform approach that looks at providing a multiplicity of narratives and viewpoints, eleven writers have been approached to contribute text-based responses to the project. The departing point being to place themselves, for a chosen period of time, on site with their assigned streetlight, with no disruption to their experience other than a focus on the interplay between light and space.

The writers are Libby Allen (editor), Joseph Gaylard, Lester Adams, Neil Coppen, Zaki Mtshali, Lebohang, Nova Masango, Scott Smith, Percy Zvomuya, Liam Lynch and Phillipa Yaa De Villiers.

Another component of the project looks at the possibilities of performance in response to the research and the thematic approach of the project. Through a workshop process Sadie - together with frequent collaborator Sello Pesa - considers the area through the observation and study of the patterns and rhythms of movement by residents in relation to the varying quality and quantity of light in the spaces they negotiate.

The performers are Murray Kruger, Shayna De Kock, Mbali Khoza, Humphrey Maleka, Brian Mtembu and Kyla Davis. Admission is free. For more information contact Ben Bergner at the Goethe-Institut on 011 442 3232 or 082 769 3254 or email: pr@johannesburg.goethe.org or visit www.goethe.de/goetheonmain