21 Joburg – Memories of Growing Up - The Market Photo Workshop

21 Joburg – Memories of Growing Up

6 July 2017 – 9 August 2017
Gallery 1989 at the Market Photo Workshop

The Market Photo Workshop is pleased to host 21 Joburg – Memories of Growing Up, a listening project by Maia Marie, Nomonde Mbusi and Mats Staub.

About the Project:

When did you turn 21? What happened in that year? How did you become adult?

Since 2012 Swiss artist Mats Staub has discussed these questions with a large group of people of all ages. Maia Marie and Nomonde Mbusi have collaborated with him to give the project a home in South Africa.

They have recorded people’s stories and then had them listen to their own answers three months later, while filming their facial expressions. This has resulted in the video installation 21 Joburg – Memories of Growing Up, in which the visitors can view and listen to these video portraits and stories, thus engaging in an intimate moment in the lives of the narrators of different ages and various backgrounds, from Kotopi 1960 till Refilwe 2013.

21 Joburg includes 19 portraits of people who live in Joburg, in English, isiZulu, isiXhosa and seSotho, as well as a selection of portraits of people who live in different European cities

“This is the transcendent aspect of the project: it breaks the boundaries of race, class and culture and it allows people who have grown up in disparate parts of the world and sometimes in vastly different circumstances to feel a deep connection with another human being.“ (Bongani Kona, Passages)

EXHIBITION DETAILS

Gallery 1989 at the Market Photo Workshop : 138 Lilian Ngoyi St (Entrance at Margaret Mcingana Street) Newtown Johannesburg

The exhibition runs from 5 July – 9 August 2017; is open to public Monday to Saturday: 9am – 5pm, Sunday 10am – 4pm, admission is free.

CREDITS

With Financial Support of Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Migros-Kulturprozent, Stadt Zürich Kultur, Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Kultur