A tale of two publics - the Joubert Park Project concludes
by Kathryn Smith
"The Johannesburg Art Gallery is static, it lacks vitality, it is nothing but a richly embellished mausoleum," read a prescient if rather belligerent statement by a journalist for the Johannesburg daily paper The Star in 1965. Prior to that, in 1946, the then JAG director, Anton Hendricks, noted that "[a] modern art gallery ... has an active function to perform as an educational institution in the life of the city. In order to convert the Johannesburg Art Gallery from a static show place to an institution which will fulfil this function as part of the city life, the existing collections, which are merely the foundations of the more representative collections of the future, must be built up and completed according to a general plan, and new exhibits must be shown from time to time".
Wise words indeed that sound more likely to have been uttered in the last 10 years, not nearly 60 years ago, with reference to the JAG. Ultimately they go to show that the gallery's problems can't simply be put down to Johannesburg's rapid transition from white city to black city. Given a lot of other commentary and prognoses offered with regards to the museum that American art historian Pam Allara has described as being rather like "a dowager at a rock concert", they hit the spot, and amply articulate the challenges that the Joubert Park Public Art Project team rose to over the last three months.
Anticipated, appreciated and well-attended (relatively speaking), the JPP exhibition, public events and education programmes have come to an end for now and the organisers are looking to quantify the process after months - and, for some, a couple of years - of tricky logistics, negotiations and very little funding.
The project itself hasn't garnered much in the line of critical feedback, except for a review by Robyn Sassen in the Mail & Guardian and an as-yet-unpublished paper by Allara. Braving an autopsy-via-interview of the event, project member Dorothee Kreutzfeldt noted a typical response - positive but apathetic - of "It's fantastic", or even worse, "It's fantastic that you've all done this". A project of this nature is not so much about art as it is about social and civic awareness and, fundamentally, engendering a sense of value and pride about where one lives and works. But obviously this is a tall, if not insurmountable, order for a public art and education project alone.
The project itself had three primary aspects: the public events and performances; the education and workshop programmes; and the exhibition. While the gallery did look a bit the worse for wear after more flooding, the JPP team made sure the exhibition didn't go the way of the DaimlerChrysler show next door - audiovisual equipment was operational on every one of my numerous visits, and if not there was always someone on hand to assist. Granted, sound pollution did distract somewhat, but given the contingencies, logistical and staff-wise, of working at the venue, I'm surprised the crew haven't yet been committed.
The exhibition was big, and covered the range of artists' concerns and preoccupations about ambiguous and sometimes threatening urban and public spaces. As Allara has observed, a primary interest seemed to be around cleaning as a metaphor for transformation, making a connection with the People's Parks of the mid-Eighties. Icelandic performance artist Anna Richardsdottir's rather insane performance Cleaning Our Dirty World is a case in point, as was Mara Verna's poignant In The Service of Her Hands and Feet, which involved giving free pedicures and manicures to women (and sometimes willing men) passing through the park - a luxury not associated with inner-city working classes.
Identity and surveillance, especially with regards to how we negotiate public and private spaces, were present in a number of visual permutations, and urban crime and violence got the obligatory nod, notably in the form of Dias and Riedweg's Nightshift and Robin Rhode's The Matriks. Playtime, fantasy, desire and travel/migration were other recurring motifs in the work of the 30-odd artists, who all "worked really hard to find effective form" in their responses to the brief, as Kreutzfeldt notes, while acknowledging that, as in all shows where work is commissioned for a site, some things work better than others.
But given the plethora of other activities the project pulled off, I am left wondering whether the exhibition was really necessary. The show is difficult to "read" without having a fairly thorough knowledge of the politics of the park and project, and although those who attended weekly walkabouts were engaged and questioning, the immediate proof of success was only really visible on a large scale with the performative works, which found a captive audience in the park community and visitors.
It's perhaps too soon to tell, but one wonders whether the exposure the project gave to the park as a potential venue will result in more people feeling comfortable to attend future events there. Although some 2000 people reveled at the opening, the stream of visitors was not constant over the rest of the run.
Like the street politics that dictate the activities of subcultures, the overwhelming success of the project may remain invisible to those who don't investigate. The JPP has accumulated what is probably the most comprehensive contemporary picture and information archive of activities and people in the park and gallery, including artist-made short and documentary films. "In this context, there was a curiosity and an absolute desire to know more, and the way information was sought out is not as linear as in the more traditional documentary film style," notes Kreutzfeldt.
So, when it happens again, what would be done differently? The city is investing seriously in the regeneration of the city and the JPP is hoping to intercept some of that. Says Kreutzveldt: "I think we were far too ambitious in thinking we could draw masses of people into the space. The exchanges between park and gallery and the people that frequent each place haven't quite managed to crossover yet. I do think it can happen, but perhaps only in a few years. We realized how important it is for the structure to dictate itself. There's an 'activist mentality' in the park - it's a very politicised area, which was never a problem but it did take some time to negotiate the invisible terrains. Although there are these individual groups they were all incredibly supportive in their own rights. People got a lot out of it, even if it was simply about getting out and doing something. The collaborations between artists and youth groups in the area have made an impact in that the groups, which are not necessarily creatively orientated, are initiating things - and a matric class who had attended the education programme came back and wove plastic designs into the fence at the main gate completely spontaneously. The groups in the area feel very strongly about the entire precinct, and while their lives are driven by so many other things other than art, they saw a value in what we were trying to do.
"In future for the project, I think it is imperative that the gallery be used as a working space rather than an exhibition space. And we need to set up more formal relationships with educational organisations and institutions. But problems aside, I think this project laid the foundations for future events."
So is the idea of a Jo'burg art party like Softserve or Red Eye a possibility? "Yes, I think it is. I like the idea of combining a party with something a bit more anarchic and serious in its intent. It's really about creating an active centre of culture that's not just about visual art or performance. Those who have expressed the most interest about getting involved in future events don't come from the art world. Knowing that you can make this your place seems to have really made an impression."
The JPP has indeed made an impression on the Johannesburg cultural landscape. But the usual questions remain - will funding and support be forthcoming? Will the core group manage to maintain the energy to drive the project with meager returns? "I think it would be interesting to consider future projects as a series of satellite events," Kreutzveldt concludes, "but only once we've established Joubert Park as the primary focal point."
