I’ve been given the honour by the Africa Centre of opening the Spier Contemporary 2010, the largest biennale art exhibition in South Africa, this coming Saturday (13 March) at the Cape Town City Hall. Hmmm, what to say to a daunting array of artists, art critics, journalists, politicians and business leaders?

Today, in order to prepare myself, I was given a preview of the exhibition by Farzanah Badsha, project manager and member of the curatorial team. It gave me a chance to see most of the 132 works by 101 South African artists, chosen from 2 700 submissions countrywide. It also gave me a chance to see the ways in which the City Hall is being transformed into a new cultural space, albeit for only two months.

It won’t be fair for me to give the game away - you have to see the exhibition for yourself. However, what I can say is that the Cape Town public is incredibly lucky to have an opportunity to see some of the best art in South Africa today, art which amongst others things reflects on the sombre mood of the national political psyche.

Farzanah Badsha of the Africa Centre outlines the finer points of contemporary South African art to my colleagues Bulelwa Ngewana, Petro Mostert and Terri Carter of the Cape Town Partnership

The Press Gallery in the old Council Chambers restored to some of its former glory after a lick of paint

Performance art in beautiful rooms like this one will be a centrepiece of the exhibition

Its not just the interior spaces of the City Hall that are being transformed through the Spier Contemporary; the views of the surrounding city, in this case, the Old Drill Hall against the backdrop of Devil's Peak, are significantly enhanced

Under construction. The one piece of work I can reveal, because it is outside the City Hall in Darling Street, consists of a large tower made from fences taken from Robben Island

The exhibition will be open to the public from Sunday 14 March. For more information, go to http://spiercontemporary2010.co.za/2010/

Like the man said, imagine...

I’ve never been a fan of the Cape Town City Hall from an architectural and aesthetic point of view. I always find it a bit gloomy – two buildings in one rather awkwardly joined together with a rabbit-warren of corridors and rooms. However, there is no denying its symbolic and historical significance, and its imposing edifice is instantly recognisable against the backdrop of Table Mountain.

With a bit of imagination, I believe that the City Hall can become one of Cape Town’s leading cultural centres. Already preparation for the forthcoming Spier Contemporary 2010, which is stripping out the detritus of the past few decades, is revealing the future potential of the building. This is why Creative Cape Town, together with the Africa Centre and Cape MIC, has recently launched an Imagine City Hall campaign – an opportunity for citizens to register support for the City Hall as a dedicated cultural venue, and to imagine ways in which the building can come alive again.

For more information, check out the Creative Cape Town webpage  and sign up at the City Hall Facebook Group.

The logo for the Imagine City Hall campaign

Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, I watched Nelson Mandela’s release on a small TV in our rented house in Isidingo Road in Yeoville, Johannesburg. I had moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg in 1989, with my wife Nike Romano to work for an NGO called Planact. I remember getting highly irritated with SATV reporter Clarence Kayter’s seemingly inane remarks (”The sun is not just for the growing of grapes but the sun is shining on South Africa.”) while he tried to fill the time before Mandela eventually emerged from Victor Verster Prison. I watched with pride as Cape Town became the first city to welcome a free Mandela as he spoke to the world from the small balcony of the City Hall in front of a massive crowd on the Grand Parade.

A few days later, it was our turn in Johannesburg, as we went to the Soccer City Stadium near Soweto with 100 000 others to welcome Mandela, Walter Sisulu and the other political leaders. Having endured, with so many other South Africans, a decade of detention, banning, living underground during the State of Emergency and friends and comrades dying in detention or going into exile, it was one of the most euphoric periods of my life.

The huge crowd at Soccer City waits expectantly for Mandela's arrival

A shaft from the West Reef gold mine provides a backdrop to the packed crowd

The moment we had all been waiting for - Mandela and his comrades do a lap of honour

Nike and I savour the moment

"An occasion to be remembered by everyone". My brother Jeremy gets into the swing of the celebrations

Twenty years on, as we reflect on the changes that have taken place in South Africa, and in our own lives, I would like to echo the words of Njabulo Ndebele in a recent Sunday Times article, Long Walk Remains: “So, as we recall Mandela walking out of prison, we must contemplate how he walked not only out of a physical prison, but also out of many emotional and conceptual prisons, and took us along with him… This thought allows us to attempt to identify prisons we must walk out of 20 years after Mandela left the prison of apartheid – those that we carry deep within ourselves and which hold us back.”

Njabulo concludes, and I agree with him: “South Africa desperately needs new politics in which the actors understand the full implications of abundant new opportunities for people to rediscover one another and to build the country. Today we know that diversity in thinking is a national asset.”

I toured the East City precinct in the Cape Town Central City yesterday – and saw two amazing projects, and one disaster.

I first went to the City Hall to see the installation of the Spier Contemporary biennial Arts Competition and Exhibition, set to open on 14 March. In my view – we’re in for a treat! The exhibition is organised by the Africa Centre and will showcase 132 pieces from 100 South African artists. The best news is that the City Hall is finally receiving a bit of a – albeit temporary – makeover, showing what the space could look like if it is properly restored.

Clutter and debris dating back to the 1970s being removed from the City Hall to create bright modern exhibition spaces

Majestic spaces - where the City Library (now next door in the restored Old Drill Hall) used to be

Next, I went around the corner to Caledon Street to the Sachs-Futeran building to look at the new Fugard Theatre. Its going to be the home of the award-winning Isango-Portobello Theatre Company. Situated in an old Congregational Church Hall and an adjacent warehouse, it is one of the best restorations of an historic building I have seen in a long time. The Fugard opens on 12 February with Mozart’s The Magic Flute-Impempe Yomlingo. Situated next door to the District Six Homecoming Centre, and the Old Granary Building (also due for an upgrade in 2010), the complex is set to become the heart of the Cape Town Partnership’s East City Design Initiative.

The entrance to The Fugard in Caledon Street, off Buitenkant Street

Rehearsal space on the second floor

Terri Carter of the Cape Town Partnership auditions on stage

The roof terrace boasts some of the best views in the Central City

See recent Sunday Times article on The Fugard by Marianne Thamm

And finally – the bad.

I walked around the newly-upgraded Grand Parade and was bitterly disappointed in what I saw. The Grand Parade is Cape Tow’s oldest public space. It is one of our most important heritage sites. It was where Nelson Mandela first spoke to the world as a free man 20 years ago. It is the venue for the official FIFA Fan Fest in June. The City of Cape Town has recently spent R22m on upgrading the Parade. It looks like this:

The brand new brickwork is covered in ugly oil stains due to the vans and bakkies that are allowed to park there

New paving turning to rubble due to lack of maintenance

The vandalised base of a monument

Lack of cleansing and refuse removal mars the environment

The main problem is that the City does not have a public space management policy and strategy in place. No one is responsible or accountable for maintenance and management, even though many of the spaces have been beautifully upgraded by the City in recent years. This issue, which has been kicking around the Civic Centre for the past four years, needs to be resolved once and for all. Watch this space!

A story on the state of the Grand Parade appeared in the Weekend Argus on 30 January 2010:

Vandals trash Grand Parade after upgrade

City’s main fan park ‘not managed’

By Helen Bamford

The Grand Parade, the site of Cape Town’s main fan park for the World Cup, was upgraded at a cost of R24 million but within weeks has been damaged and vandalised, apparently because of a lack of management.

In his blog, the chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, Andrew Boraine, described his disappointment after walking around the newly-upgraded site.

He posted photographs of what he saw: brickwork covered in oil stains from vehicles permitted to park on the parade, new paving turned into rubble due to lack of maintenance and the vandalised base of a monument.

He says the main problem was that the city did not have a public space management policy and strategy.

“No one is responsible or accountable for maintenance and management, even though many of the spaces have been beautifully upgraded by the city in recent years.”

The city’s 2010 co-ordinators are also concerned.

Shameel Ho-Kim, project co-ordinator for the city’s 2010 operations office, said the Grand Parade was a high priority for 2010 and they wanted it closely managed.

He said that they had raised their concerns with the city’s sports and recreation department, under which the Grand Parade fell.

“They have indicated it will be managed more closely with increased patrols.”

The Parade will be fenced off from May 1 for construction of the fan park which will create a stadium atmosphere accommodating an estimated 25 000 people, with an overflow along Darling Street which will take 15 000 people.

All 64 World Cup games will be screened live at the fan park which will be open from 10am until midnight on match days with hospitality areas and beer tents.

The city has appointed an operator called Grand World Visions, a consortium of World Sport, VWV and Grand Parade Investments, to plan, implement and manage the fan fest on its behalf.

Paul Williamson, city service co-ordinator for business areas management, said the city had identified two alternative sites for existing traders during the World Cup.

The city would ensure that the Grand Parade was in a suitable condition for the fan fest, and the damage identified would be repaired.

 Weekend Argus sent written questions to Gerhard Ras, the councillor in charge of sports and recreation under which the Grand Parade falls, on Thursday asking who was responsible for managing the site and why it was not being done.

He did not respond but Gert Bam, director of sport, recreation and amenities, said the areas requiring attention since the upgrade were not substantial.

In one area the electricity department had “disturbed the paving” during an installation.

“This caused a ripple effect on the surrounding paving. We have asked the electricity department to correct this.”

In other areas the paving seemed to have sagged.

“As we are still in the maintenance period of the contract a snag list has been drafted and the urban design department which managed this project will interact with the contractor to attend to all the snag items,” Bam said.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on January 29, 2010.

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