eThekwini Municipal Public Art Museum

Paper compiled for INTERCOM 2015 Conference

National Museum of the American Indian

Washington, D.C., USA

October 30, 2015

Mduduzi Xakaza

Director: Durban Art Gallery, South Africa

RECONFIGURATION OF PUBLIC SPACES: THE CASE OF eTHEKWINI ART PRIZE PROJECT UNDER THE AUSPICES

OF THE OUTDOOR PUBLIC ART INITIATIVE

Introduction:

Short video

http://www.roomsforafrica.com/attraction.do?id=20

The current South African cultural scene is still marked by elements of

inequality on the basis of race and class. Aspects of cultural inequality,

specifically within the visual art sector of Durban, include:

• lack of inclusive access to art education at elementary and secondary

school levels,

• lack of public art galleries in rural areas and black townships (the main collection and public services flowing from it are centralized, failing to reach out to communities in outlying areas of the Metro),

• lack of sustainable, government-driven art skills workshops in rural areas and black townships,

• lack of sustainable art marketing platforms and art marketing agents for the majority of black visual artists and

cont.

• lack of effective political alignment with pressing needs prevalent in the broader visual art sector.

Objective of this paper:

To reflect on the calibre of leadership provided by the Durban Art Gallery within the context of combating socio-cultural realities emanating from inequalities listed above. It will interrogate the merits of this calibre against the political backdrop of the city.

Politico-cultural context Political dominant parties include:- African National Congress (ANC) (ruling party);- Democratic Alliance (DA);- Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP);- National Freedom Party (NFP);

At this local level of Government, the Municipality is expected to deliver essential services such as: - electricity, - water, - housing,

cont.- roads and- public health clinics

This is the most crucial level where the government should prove its suitability to govern in order to ensure that constituencies or citizens in the voters’ roll are kept happy. This affects mainly the ruling party.

In this context, visual art often takes the back seat, remaining the poorer cousin of other art disciplines.

Other factors:- The level of visual art education is still very low at elementary and

secondary schools, especially among African communities,- The level of art appreciation and understanding is still very low

among the majority of the African population

This status quo seems to perpetuate indirect exclusion of the city’s majority from enjoying this important cultural democratic right.

The Durban Gallery is determined to address this particular inequality in terms of existing policies including the ANC Draft National Cultural Policy of July 1994 which presents the following as one of its objectives:

“to ensure that resources and facilities for both the production and the appreciation of arts and culture are made available and accessible to all. Priority must be given to those people and communities who have previously been denied access to these resources.”

Other precedents:- Murals produced by Terry-Anne Stevenson,

Thami Jali, Lalelani Mbhele and Joseph Manana in city’s streets – often not funded by the eThekwini Municipality

- Other sculptural projects have been sporadically commissioned, much recently, by the eThekwini Municipality. There still is no standing policy on local public art.

Gaps that should be addressed: - Most of what had been commissioned by the eThekwini Municipality has been dominated by statues commemorating some important historical figures. These statues do not seriously engage the public at an intellectual level. - No percentage of the city’s capital budget has ever been allocated to public art as an important component of its cultural character.The Durban Art Gallery views such gaps in a very serious light.

Consequences of such cultural gaps:

• Serious artists often relocate to other cities where there is meaningful cultural life in general and vibrant visual art sector in particular.

• The main reason for such a cultural brain drain is that Durban, like many other smaller cities and towns, cannot support artists in terms of sustainable market.

• There remains a wrong or distorted notion of art in many citizens’ minds due to scarcity of public forums that discuss issues regarding the essence and meaning of visual art.

• This situation perpetuates the image of the city as a concrete jungle where only commercial, recreational and criminal activities define everyday public life.

• Neglecting such a status quo has a negative impact on socio-economic life of eThekwini’s citizenry.

Outdoor Public Art Initiative for eThekwini Municipality

Impetus and ethos

Concerning the fragmented, sporadic public art projects in the city, the Durban Art Gallery has come up with the Outdoor Public Art Initiative for eThekwini Municipality with a view to ensuring that:

- the public urban spaces are beautified,

• the general public is afforded an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate art without having to visit traditional spaces where visual art is displayed,

• cultural elitism, in terms of race and class, is eliminated,

• the notion of visual art is demystified in public members’ collective psyche and

• the Initiative itself should provide an incentive for local visual artists to live and work in the city instead of relocating to other more culturally ‘relevant’ cities for greener pastures.

In a nutshell, the main idea was that

the city of eThekwini should embark

on a conscious introspection and

strive to transform itself into a

‘greener pasture’ in order to curb what

can be regarded as cultural brain

drain.

* For a company playing an oversight role…

Project Concept and Council Authority- Conception of the idea: 2011- Competition: enabling every interested artist to participate- No specific theme- Artists had to independently imagine how a uniquely

beautiful Durban should look like- Council authority was obtained in 2011

Global precedents included: • The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

• The Statue of Liberty in New York City, the USA and• The Great Wall in China

These are spatial signifiers which are meant to address needs of both cultural and tourism industries in the city.

Marking spaces in this fashion also helps reconfigure these spaces in the collective psyche of the public.

Competition requirements and criteria

• A five-meter high public art piece had to be erected on the basis of a winning marquette in terms of the following requirements and criteria:

durability of a final piece, affordability of a piece in question, availability of materials, originality of artistic ideas

cont. addressing the ‘set’ thematic question, compliance with all competition rules and sensitive consideration of harmonious relationship

between a selected piece and a given environment.

Selected site:

Intersection node of Dr Pixley kaSeme Street and O R Tambo Parade, South Beach, Durban CBD.

Funding: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Museum Subsidy. This Subsidy enables the Durban Art Gallery to

have only one public art piece produced per financial year.

Selection of a winning entry: A Panel of experts from visual art, supply chain

management and engineering backgrounds was set up,

A winner would be selected from three finalists, Kerry Wallace, Clive Sithole and Umcebo

Trust (Robin Opperman and Ujala Sewpersad) were selected as finalists,

cont. Clive Sithole was selected as the final winner of the competition.

Clive Sithole, the artist: Clive is an innovative ceramicist,

He carries forward the legacy of the late Nesta Nala, a highly

renowned KwaZulu-Natal ceramicist,

Nala produced Zulu ceramic vessels, enhancing the beauty and technical quality of the traditional art of making beer pots,

Clive produces both ‘utilitarian’ and ‘fine art’ pieces, transcending the existing ceramics tradition.

The first piece:

Clive’s piece was eventually erected on site in 2014, titled The Dream.

Dominant motifs: - Amansumpa (raised bumps found on

traditional Zulu vessels), - Headrests which were also used as stools