16th May – 29th August 2010
Opening on 16th May, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Opening speech by Sandile Ngidi
afterwards discussions with the artists and curator Indra Wussow
REMOTEWORDS (Achim Mohné/Uta Kopp) is a long-term art project to install messages on roofs. Virtual programs like Google Earth, give them a worldwide coverage. The messages are mounted in durable form as giant, bright letters. The site and the message are conceptually a semantic unit.
Three roofs in different spots of the city of Johannesburg – the posh suburb of Melville, the difficult and violent district of Doornfontein and at last the writer’s home in Soweto are the places to send out messages by Sowetan writer Niq Mhlongo into the world.
Jozi art:lab enabled this artwork as a collaboration of a visual artist group and a writer, both working together to explore the spirit of Johannesburg and its different districts and suburbs. What is the idea of a place, how can you express the idea of a place in a short message that will give passers by and connoisseurs both a clue about what makes this city a special one.
The exhibition project "REDEFINING AN URBAN LANDSCAPE" extends the concept of REMOTEWORDS into a virtual game for the people of Johannesburg to participate in. A huge satellite image to walk into invites the visitor to mark a roof of his choice and take part in reshaping the urban landscape around ARTS on MAIN. The focus is the transition of Doornfontein and the rapid change of the urban landscape, forced by evictions and relocations in former times, nowadays by transformations as a result of the abolition of apartheid structures. The blog www.remotewords.net contributes to the discussion.
On the 29th of August this new map will be presented in the context of an event.
The show is open for the public daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for Mondays, until the 29th of August.
photos
1 2
3 4 5 6 credit Achim Mohné
Words
for the birds
Mail Guardian online to
REMOTEWORDS - REDEFINING AN URBAN LANDSCAPE
Achim Mohné/Uta Kopp
21st
May, 2010
