Final artists’ presentations tonight

Tonight is the final set of artists’ talks ahead of the realisation of the Urban Scenographies Johannesburg public art projects, which will launch next week on Wednesday March 11 and will run until March 15. The development of the projects you will see at the festival, however, takes place in the context of the artists’ presentations. These are open discussion forums where artists present their ideas before their peers, curators, critics and members of the public, and it is out of this sort of exchange that the most interesting readings of the public spaces of Johannesburg’s inner city may emerge.

The ethos of Urban Scenographies suggests that dialogue, process and immersion in the environments of the inner city are the central to the production of of public art. Artworks should emerge out of artist’s perceptions of and experiences in specific locations, rather than being grafted onto sites arbitrarily and imperially. The artists’ talks contribute to building a spectrum of phenomenologies of the city, out of which, or rather as the articulation of which, work develops.

Members of the public are welcome to join in this process of making and doing by participating in tonight’s discussion, which will begin at 6pm (Joubert Park time).

These are some images from the artists’ presentations thus far. They’re from out partner Urban SCenographies site.