The Soweto Project

THE Soweto Project The Soweto Project Marjetica Potrč urisdictions J endeavors, we followed the prin- ciples of participatory design. During the process, the community assumes ownership of the work and develops it further on its own. This is the crucially important point: we don’t do quick public space interventions that end with the local residents hav- ing to deal with something they don’t really understand as their own or care to continue. The design agenda proceeded Cleaning the park. Photograph by Marjetica Potrč. Marjetica by the park. Photograph Cleaning through the following four steps: 1. Listening to the local residents before making any definite plan. 2. Involving the community in the For the residents of Soweto, a individualism and affirming the decision-making and design town ship of the city of Johannes- traditional South African value of processes. burg, South Africa, public space togetherness. 3. Involving the community in the has long been a locus of trauma. Ubuntu Park was the result of construction process. During the time of apartheid, the one of the two participatory de- 4. Transferring responsibility for Black population was excluded sign experiments making up The the developed project to the from public spaces and the pub- Soweto Project, co-developed community in order to leave lic sphere more generally. The by myself, the students in the behind a sustainable work that effects of this exclusion are still Design for the Living World class, benefits the local population felt. This denial of entitlement and the communities we worked in the long term. has translated into the people’s with over the course of two understandable disregard for months in early 2014 at two lo- public space, exemplified in the cations in Soweto. In Orlando continued trashing, even 20 East, we and the local residents years after the end of apartheid, turned a former public space of the plot of land that was to be- that had been used as a dump- come Ubuntu Park. ing ground into a community- The residents explain the organized public space (Ubuntu meaning of the word ubuntu as: Park). In Noordgesig, we created “The people is the people be- two vegetable gardens at the cause of other people.” Ubuntu primary school, an important defines our existence in the step toward food security for the world as coexistence, rejecting neighborhood. In both 234 235 Marjetica Potrč THE Soweto Project non-space became a site of pos- band from Noordgesig—a local Brigade walked onto the stage sibilities, where the community initiative that keeps children and played their music. This was could imagine a new kind of away from the drug culture of followed by speeches, then mu- community-organized public the streets. Next in the parade sic, dance, and poetry perfor- urisdictions J space. came local residents, then a line mances—by a traditional singer of police cars, and even a car named David, the percussion en- The Soweto Street Festival from the fire brigade, all of which semble Mosueo, the Kopano seemed out of proportion on the Dance Theatre, rappers Griffin of On March 9, 2014, the communi- narrow Orlando streets. The po- Milk Farm and Laurence King ties of Orlando East and lice and firefighters were there Bee of Galaxy Records, a poet Photograph by Radoš Vujaklija. Radoš by Photograph Noordgesig hosted the Soweto in an official capacity—this was named Alfred, and DJ Bonko, Street Festival. The festival pa- required by the permissions pro- who rounded out the festival rade started at the Noordgesig cess—but in an interesting twist, with electronic music. Heavy rain Primary School and ended at because of the packed streets, in the early afternoon prevented Ubuntu Park, where we celebrat- they went from being observers several scheduled performers ed the local culture with music, to being performers alongside from being there, but in a way dance performances, and poetry the musicians and onlookers. this turned out for the best; in readings. The parade was led by When we arrived at the new their absence, people from the the Boys Brigade, a youth brass community park, the Boys community took the stage and claimed it as their own with their own performances. (Not every- one was included, however: young children unaccompanied by an adult were told they would have to go home at dusk.) That day, all of Ubuntu Park was alive with people socializing—braaing, dancing, talking with friends, or just being part of a special community event. Ubuntu Park the platform area. For communi- Ubuntu Park. The platform was The power of a performative ty events, a textile roof can be first used at the Soweto Street action is its mirroring capacity. In the Ubuntu Park project, local attached to the pillars to provide Festival, and there have been When the residents looked at the residents and the Design for the shade. other cultural programs since. festival, they saw an image of Living World students together The construction of the plat- Recently, we heard that a teach- themselves that was one of cleaned up the dumping site and form stage and the cultural er is using the stage regularly for openness, curiosity, happiness, made a number of improvements: programming connected with it dance practice, singing, and po- playfulness, and strength. The we built a platform stage, bench- represent an example of place- etry readings with children as af- mirror said: “This is who we are.” es and tables, and braai stands. making—a process through ter-school activities. The stage The image was the embodiment On March 9, 2014, the space was which a neighborhood recogniz- has become a symbol for a new of a possibility, of a positive given the name Ubuntu Park. es itself and gains recognition appreciation of the local culture transition from the status quo of The platform we built in Ubuntu from the broader community by and affirmation of the communi- neglect fueled by an understand- Park is a relational object. Made creating a physical space for ty’s identity. The platform was able disaffection. of concrete, it was constructed themselves. This is why the plat- built with no permit on a no- The Soweto Street Festival by the students and local resi- form captured the imagination man’s-land that existed beyond was also a kind of transition ritual. dents on the east side of the of the residents and, in a way, the enforcement of municipal This was a place with no name: a park. Four wooden pillars mark expresses the whole idea of regulations. In this vacuum, the plot of land that had been 236 237 Marjetica Potrč THE Soweto Project The Soweto Street Festival. Photograph by Terry Kurgan. Terry by Photograph Festival. Street The Soweto paradise.” That day the community understood that their posi- tion had changed, from one of inert dependence to one of urisdictions J self-organization. From that time on, the local residents began holding community meetings on their own, with a cordial invita- tion to us to attend, if we wished. Ubuntu Park does not belong to anyone really. It belongs to a social agreement reached by the community. If for some reason the agreement collapses, the park would become a no-man’s- land again. As Giorgio Agamben Potrč. Marjetica by Photograph writes in The Kingdom and the designed as a public space in the the festival, it turned out that the Glory, it is people who give 1950s but never made it that far; permits did not guarantee trou- meaning to an “empty throne.” an area people called “the space ble-free relations with the au- The transformation of a plot of between Letsatsi Street and thorities. Just before the festival land from a no-man’s-land into Herby Mdingi Street, next to began, a policeman showed up a community-organized public Donkey Church,” defined only by who told us that our permits space offers a demonstration of Festival. Street the Soweto the opening of at principal, speaks the kindergarten Paulina, the places around it, not by what were not valid: it turned out that, this idea. it was in itself. After the Soweto although we had followed all the Without negotiations, there Street Festival, it was a commu- rules and done everything on can be no agreement. The main nity-organized and operated time, the responsible authorities question raised by the residents public space. had not. This story indicates the was whether Ubuntu Park would at all. But through a slow process The Soweto Project Details But of course there was bu- degree to which government be a community space, which is of discussion and reflection, the Done in conjunction with Nine Urban Biotopes (9UB): Negotiating the Future of Urban Living reaucracy to deal with. We were agencies remain dysfunctional what they desired, or a public residents began to accept the (www.urban-biotopes.net). able to get the numerous per- and sclerotic, an unfortunate re- space. They had reservations fact that Ubuntu Park could nev- Date of project: January 15–March 31, 2014 mits we needed for the Soweto ality left over from the apartheid about the latter. How does the er be an exclusive community Locations: Orlando East and Noordgesig, Soweto, Johannesburg Street Festival with the help of regime, when a culture of depen- community protect itself against space, protected and closed to Students: Finn Brüggemann, Maria Christou, the arts and culture department dence was created between the the public? The residents’ condi- outsiders, for the simple reason Anja Gerin (Studio Experimental Design HFBK), of the City of Johannesburg.

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