Cultural Advocacy for Whom by Who?

Keleketla! Library, Skaftien #5, im Rahmen der documenta fünfzehn

To deploy culture in development on an infrastructural level is to walk the tightrope between gentrification and social justice, while striving to evade the former. 

The multi-modal discourse programme foregrounds and consolidates DHAAP to map the multiyear framework of the project. The invited guests engage the key terms and frameworks of the Skaftien (Keleketla!’s long term series of projects to bridge bureaucracy and cultural production for the benefit of cultural workers and society): land, infrastructure, and autonomy. Each gives their take on these key terms, with a focus on the Drill Hall site in the context of Johannesburg/Gauteng within the scope, scale, and ambitions of the project. Their contributions centre a focus on issues related to public policy and implementation—both the possibilities and challenges—as they relate to cultural deployment in an urban integrated infrastructural development. 

The parties and entities represented in the contributors are at the forefront of praxis and discourses, starting from city planning and public administration but also engaging with issues that are as historical as they are contemporary. These include, among others: right of law and housing; architecture and immovable heritage; public space and public cultures; climate Change and ‘ecological futures’; and social justice and political Economy.

South African constituency:

Mpho Phalatse (medical doctor, former Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg)

Nkululeko Mbundu (Jozi My Jozi member and former MMC of Economic Development City of Johannesburg)

Mark Raymond (Director, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg)

Mxolisi Makhubo (Urbanist, architect and educator at GSA)

Rangoato Hlasane and Malose Malahlela (Artistic Directors, Keleketla Media Arts Project)

German constituency:

Andries Oosthuizen (Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Head of Mission of South African Embassy, Berlin)

Dr. Luisa Braun (Office of the Head of Department Dr. Andreas Görgen, The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM))

Next date:

• Date Saturday, 23/November/2024 12:00
• Venue Haus der Kulturen der Welt
• Address John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten