Project R-14105

Beyond Demarcation and Fault Lines: navigating and mapping the divide through artistic practice in Post- Apartheid Cape Town and Post-War Beirut (Research)

The broad research topic for this practice-led doctoral study is the evaluation of select artistic practices and public art in relation to my own practice, in countries that have undergone a political transition to democracy after years of conflict and strife. For the purposes of this study, select South African artistic practices will be compared with select artistic practices emanating from Lebanon. From the 1970s onwards these countries have parallel/ dual histories, as they both transitioned to democracy in 1990. The research will seek to illustrate whether there are similar themes and subject matter emerging from their artistic production after political transition and post-democracy. Further public space, public art and art inventions in urban space as a means of protest/ memorialising/ commemoration/ critique will also be interrogated. In particular, the focus is on Cape Town and Beirut as sister cities, both in terms of their urban design and political significance. The Post-Apartheid/ Post-War period city space will be additionally analysed, by critiquing the urban fabric and city design and how it was used during Apartheid/ wartime/ conflict to create a landscape of resistance or division. The research will overlap the fields of African Studies, Oriental Studies, Visual Culture Studies, Urban Studies, Historical Studies, History of Art, Decolonial Studies and Art/ Design Theory. Thus, it will be interdisciplinary. Further, this study is practice-led with both the creation of artworks and the curation of an exhibition forming part of the project. The artistic enquiries and curatorial strategies employed in this study will be theorised, outlined and evaluated in the accompanying thesis but the various components are conceptualised as part of an integrated and entangled whole.

01 September 2023 - 31 August 2027