IsmailFarouk.com

urban geographer

Navigation

Previous Posts
Archives

Quick links

About

Contact

Credits

Research: Johannesburg Emerging Diverging Metropolis

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, April 03, 2007

In February 2006 I was hired as an exhibition researcher for the exhibition, Johannesburg Emerging / Diverging Metropolis' which was held in Medrisio, Switzerland. Find out more about my contribution here. Below please find the official text from the exhibition:



With an approximate metropolitan population of 3,5 million (of a total for South Africa of 40 million), a large share of its Province (Gauteng)'s 33% contribution to the country's GDP, a high level of infrastructural and technological development, a cultural and creative vitality that radiates throughout the entire country, and a growing significance in the global economy, Johannesburg is demographically and economically not only a leading metropolis on the African continent, but it also constitutes an illuminating point of reference when trying to understand the new global urban system under way.

 Furthermore, Johannesburg also brings together with particular intensity all the problems inherited from a dramatically divided past under the apartheid regime: territorial and urban fragmentation, ageing infrastructure, a slowing industrial economy based on mining, economic and social polarization, a tremendous shortage of dwellings and services in the most disadvantaged sectors, the proliferation of new informal settlements, etc. It is no wonder that many of the most significant urban and architectural projects in the country are concentrated here.

 The exhibition here outlined offersa - gainst the backdrop of an outlook comprising the serious problems inherited from apartheid - an overview of the transformations under way in the city and its metropolitan area, and a selection of the most interesting architectural and urban projects completed or under way in the last ten years (1995-2005).

 The common denominator of the best of these projects is twofold: firstly, they implement architectural and planning practices to overcome the social, political and cultural divisions of the past and to respond to the fluidity of the post apartheid landscape; secondly, and simultaneously, they contribute to develop South Africa's enormous economic potential and to make its principal cities (most particularly Johannesburg, but also Cape Town and Durban) international points of reference.

 In addition, the exhibition also includes a selection of daring projects by former students of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of University of Witwatersrand, dealing with some of the most pressing and often intractable issues that the city faces.

 Finally, an extraordinary series of photos by David Goldblatt documents and portrays how ordinary people are responding to these projects, and their agency in transforming the city; how their initiatives and the necessities of their lives (economic, social and cultural) rewrite the public and private spaces of the apartheid city (streets, parks, apartment blocks, traffic intersections, vacant land) into a fluid and contested urban terrain; and how, in the face of this, other citizens are retreating into private, parallel worlds, behind gates, fences and guard houses.

 With its multi-dimensional approach, the exhibition shows how the transformations under way are often the scene of serious conflict between, on the one hand, the will to develop an urban policy that prioritizes the objective of greater justice and social and territorial balance and, on the other, strategies and large specific projects aimed at transforming an industrial economy to a financial and services based economy and at increasing competitiveness and profitability - strategies and projects that very often mean consolidating the territorial and urban guidelines handed down by apartheid.

 By this token, beyond its intrinsic interest, the current South African experience, and more specifically the Johannesburg experience, speak to other 'emerging' countries and cities that are reinventing themselves in the wake of complex and divided pasts.

Labels: , , , ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

Johannesburg Exhaust Sculpture: Mendrisio, Switzerland

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, April 03, 2007


Minibus Taxis are the most popular means of transportation in the urban areas of South Africa. The taxi industry is largely informal and is characterised by competing Taxi associations. This informality is also reflected by the service industry related to the maintenance of taxis. Taxis are predominantly serviced by immigrant populations who provide specialised motor related services on the immediate sidewalks, in direct contravention of the city by-laws.

For most immigrants, harassment by the police is a constant fear, which has led to the criminalizing of activities and a sense of non-belonging and subsequent transient nature of life. Popular strategies of survival from police harassment include the falsification of identification documents, which is a thriving business in Johannesburg. Other strategies for survival include the speaking of Zulu by Zimbabwean residents. Most Zimbabweans claim to come from Kwa-Zulu Natal as a strategy for survival.

In negotiating a new vision for the city, It is often the economically disadvantaged who feel marginalised by the decision-making, because the vision is not theirs. In response to the situation, my construction of a car exhaust sculpture is a small gesture of recognition to the contribution made by the informal motor tradesman of Johannesburg.

 Photo Credit: Pep Subiros

My brief here in Switzerland was to construct a freestanding visible physical element within a gallery context, which began to speak about the informal aspects of the city of Johannesburg. I was also asked to design a soundscape landscape and to produce an interactive map locating post-apartheid architectural projects in Johannesburg. With the generous help from a small family owned metal working company called 'Finke' here in Mendrisio Switzerland, a free standing exhaust structure constructed from car exhausts parts of Swiss origin was assembled. Sound equipment consisting of various car radio/tape players and car speakers were easily attached to the structure for the soundscape component of the brief. Lastly two 19" LCD screens were mounted on either end of the structure for the interactive mapping application.

My good friend Babak Fakhamzadeh who now resides in Thailand designed the mapping application. Babak's application allows me to map a location, add a description, tag associated images from Flickr.com and display relevant information related to a location through the use of Google Blog search.

For a first hand experience of the mapping application please visit the map page of this site.

Labels: , , , , ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

Dirk Bahmann's Minedump Furniture

posted by Ismail Farouk at Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Photo Credit: Elaine Banister

Dirk Bahmann is a Johannesburg architect and artist who has always shared a fascination for the minedumps of Johannesburg. As an architectural student, his master's thesis project focussed on minedumps as sacred spaces. As Bahmann elaborates, "The minedumps around the city seem to be part of the city landscape, yet at the same time they are dislocated from the activities of everyday life". Indeed it is this detached nature of the minedumps, which provides an opportunity for self-reflection.

It seems like the minedumps of Johannesburg have always been there. They are a constant reminder of the origins of the city from mining town to emerging Metropolis - the minedumps are an important part of the political economy of space. At the same time, the minedumps of Johannesburg are a contested space. Used as physical barriers to the city, the minedumps to the South West of the city were used effectively to divide the city from the South Western townships (Soweto).

And it is here, pressed up against the township side that the true nature of the Johannesburg minedumps are revealed. In tiny houses, the residents of Diepkloof Soweto struggle with respiratory diseases and continual dust, which has ingrained daily life. The minedumps are toxic landscapes synonymous for acidifying groundwater and radon gas. In recent years, many studies have been carried out looking at the potential of redeveloping the minedumps as potential areas for new housing developments. Other proposals seek to relocate minedumps away from the city to peripheral urban towns where they can be reprocessed. It seems like the minedumps of the city provides development value because of their proximity to the city. However, environmentalists warn that the dangers associated with radon gas are still apparent even though the minedumps are to be relocated.

In interpreting this shifting landscape, Bahmann was presented with the challenging task of recreating the minedump landscape of Johannesburg in a gallery context in Mendrisio Switzerland. His brief was to construct a type of furniture in the form of a minedump. According to the brief, the purpose of the furniture was to house exhibition related material, typically 2d graphic panels. Starting in early 2006, Bahmann's conceptualisation and design process was aided by Tom Chapman, an architecture student at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Early attempts to construct the minedump furniture resulted in failure. And so it seemed like an unenviable task, but strangely enough, it is funny how physical distance provides a new point of view, which often helps the creative process. In Bahmann's case, being here Mendrisio, away from the pressures of work and the big city, resulted in success. As new installation and building techniques developed with assistants from the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio all came together, culminating in impressive structures, which resemble the massive minedumps of Johannesburg.


In the gallery context, Bahmann's furniture seen in relation to one another seem to be shifting, their massive imposition, divides the gallery space, with visitors needing to walk on either side of the structures. Here in Mendrisio, a small town surrounded by the Swiss Alps, many parallels can be drawn between the impressive surrounding mountain range and the man made minedumps of Johannesburg. Perhaps many comparisons will be made through the mediation of Bahmann's furniture. And so ultimately, Mendrisio is not that far away from Johannesburg after all.

Click here for a slideshow presentation of the minedump furniture construction process.

Labels: , , ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

About Ismail Farouk

posted by Babak Fakhamzadeh at Monday, April 02, 2007

By Rat Western

Ismail Farouk began his studies with a degree in Fine Art at Wits University where he first embarked on the observation and documentation of the socio-economic inequalities of urban living.

Farouk's early work focused on informal trade in the area of Braamfontein which he documented using an entry level 1.3 mega pixel digital camera. It was specifically the continuous mode feature of this camera (which takes 2 pictures per second) that would become pivotal to Farouk's modus operandi.

After completing his Fine Arts degree, Farouk joined the Geography Department at Wits for a Masters degree in Urban Geography. Here he learnt a theoretical framework for some of the observations he had already been making during his Fine Arts degree.

In 2004, Farouk was hired by a leading architectural firm to develop an alternative methodology for the regeneration of Yeoville. With his business partner and fellow geographer Milos Sajin, the network approach methodology was developed.

Farouk's more recent work has taken him into the suburb of Bertrams. The suburb, the oldest in Johannesburg, has been ear marked for regeneration because of its proximity to the Ellis Park Stadium and the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The area and many of its heritage homes are in a severe state of physical decline. This has long been a problem in the area.

READ MORE...

Labels: ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

Recycle Public Display Systems

posted by Ismail Farouk at Monday, April 02, 2007

Functional Social Sculpture

Recycle display systems was an idea I conceived with Milos Sajin as a fine art student in 2001. The idea behind Recycle was to provide free public Internet by constructing Internet units made from redundant computer parts.

The image above is an example of an advertising unit which was built from old CRT monitors. The idea is to sell advertising on the screens in order to sustain free Internet. The project is still applicable to the Johannesburg context as Internet access is limited to the economically advantaged sectors of society.

Read more here: http://www.antiant.co.za/recycle


Labels: ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

The Parking Gallery: Sometimes a Fire

posted by Ismail Farouk at Sunday, April 01, 2007


'Sometimes a Fire' was the name give to the photographic series depicting a fire and subsequent struggle at a heritage house located in Bertrams, the oldest suburb in Johannesburg. The fire occurred in June 2006 on a cold winters night and was caused by a paraffin heater. The photographic series was exhibited 1 month later at the Parking Gallery in downtown Jozi, on the 29th of July 2006.

The house has been suffering from structural problems and has been declared unsafe for sometime now. Regardless of this fact the building was at the time of the blaze sublet by slum lords and the house had a high occupancy rate of +-40 people of various ages. Currently, the house is being demolished to make way for a new housing development linked to the 2010 soccer world cup.



In addition to the photography, visitors to the exhibition were treated to sneak preview of my film JHB626GP - A film made for the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006. The movie was projected on a whitewashed wall, which formed an impressive rooftop cinema, with commanding night time views of the inner city of Johannesburg.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

Exhibitions and Awards

posted by Ismail Farouk at Sunday, April 01, 2007

Exhibition List:

Awards and Fellowships:

Labels: , , ,

0 Comments | Links to this post

Powered by Blogger | Blog | Links | Photos | Video | Audio