Wam commemorates Land Act
JOBURG - The centenary of the 1913 Land Act will be commemorated in a photographic exhibition at Wits Art Museum.
Curated by David Goldblatt, Paul Weinberg, Bongi Dhlomo and Pam Warne, Umhlaba 1913 – 2013 was already shown at Cape Town’s Iziko National Gallery.
“The 100-year commemoration of the Land Act provides an unparalleled opportunity to experience the stories of land in South Africa in ways that have not been told before,” said the museum’s Leigh Blanckenberg.
“The exhibition offers insights into the complexity and contested nature of our landscape, and asks questions about how the land is signified and used, and the multiple meanings it has for those who live on it.”
Works by more than 30 photographers, drawn from the collections of 12 archives, portray the history of land dispossession and its legacies.
“Struggles over land, child labour, forced removals and last-ditch stands are threads in the visual narrative, while a musical component to the exhibition expresses a deep passion and attachment aroused by land,” said Blanckenberg.
Paul Mashatile, Minister of Arts and Culture, spoke about the exhibition during its Cape Town run.
“We are building a new nation, united in our diversity. A century later, government is still grappling to try and ensure land is distributed to all those who work it. “This exhibition illustrates where we come from and how one of the most significant events in South African history affected thousands of rural communities and the lives of millions of South Africans over the last 100 years,” he said.
The exhibition was made possible through the support of the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Law and Society, Stellenbosch University’s Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology and the Land, Environment and Society in Africa Research Programme, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Gillian Mackay Graham, and Georgina Hamilton.
To further impress the importance of the exhibition, the museum will offer specialised guided tours, a high school pupils’ worksheet, and public talkabouts for adults and children.
Adult talkabouts will take place on 28 September and 26 October, and a children’s talkabout with artist Alison Kearney will take place on 21 September.
Umhlaba 1913 -2013 is at Wits Art Museum, corner of Jan Smuts Avenue and Jorissen Street, Braamfontein, from 28 August until November.
Details: 011-717-1358; Vuyiswa.Ngesman@wits.ac.za
