(Image Credit: SAHA/Gille de Vlieg)
Approach: Cultural
Production in a Shifting Social Context opens at the KZNSA Gallery on April
19.
Considering the resurgence of social engaged creative practices
in the South African context, this exhibition presents work of three
organisations which use creative practice as a tool to exploring and
understanding the various and multiple social realities of contemporary South
Africa. It features a programme of projects that have developed methodologies
and approaches that reflect, interrogate and explore the social complexities
brought about by specific social, economic, political and historical
conditions.
The exhibition and programme explore some of the complexities
of participatory practice as invited organisations often work in an
interdisciplinary manner aimed at shifting more conventional understanding of
participatory and community engaged practice. Through a focus on the production
of knowledge each of the organisations explore, develop and reflect on
methodologies and approaches that take into careful consideration the
contextual constraints they are located in. By acknowledging that the outcomes
of such processes need to serve multiple agendas, and benefit the multiple
communities engaged in this process of producing knowledge, the notion of
accountability is central to the process of ethical collaboration.
Partnering organisations are The South African History
Archive (Johannesburg), SPARCK (Cape Town) and Urban Futures Network (Durban). For
more information on SAHA and SPARCK visit www.saha.org.za
(SAHA) and www.sparck.org (SPARCK).
The Urban Futures Centre (UFC) does not operate as a
traditional research centre but rather as a networked hub of projects and
partners. Its capacity lies in bringing together a network of scholars,
practitioners, civil society groupings and individuals who are interested in
the future of cities. The UFC is a deliberative and practice oriented ‘space’
for collaboratively designing (in the broadest sense) cities and urban
settlements that are aesthetically pleasing, equitable, socially just, humane,
resilient, and fit for purpose. In order to achieve this, the UFC recognises
the importance of taking stock of the needs, uncertainties and dreams of the
people that occupy city spaces across the problematic binaries of formal/informal
and legal/illegal. Central to the projects at the UFC is the use of an
imaginative lens to think about non-traditional processes and solutions to
urban challenges. Such an approach demands an inter-disciplinary networked
approach. The UFC currently works on combined research and engagement projects
addressing issues of social housing, homelessness, drug use, policing, racial
identities, racism, urban security and methodologies for urban planning. As far
as possible, city dwellers most affected by ‘urban dilemmas’ are actively
involved in problem identification, problem resolution and in project planning.
Underlying all the UFC’s activities is a concern with listening to, and
collectively making improving in, the everyday lives of urban dwellers. For
more information visit www.dut.ac.za/faculty/engineering/urban_futures/
Curated by Vaughn Sadie, the exhibition is accompanied by an
extensive programme of events. The exhibition and programme is generously
funded by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC)
Approach: Cultural
Production in a Shifting Social Context opens at 18h00 on April 19 and runs
until May 8 at the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts (KZNSA), 166 Bulwer Road,
Glenwood, Durban. More information on 031
277 1705, fax 031 201 8051 or cell 082 220 0368 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za
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