Watermarks: intervening in the City of Cape Town

Abstract

Point of entry This is the story of a man who decided to paint a pink line three kilometres long from the foot of Table Mountain (Molteno Reservoir in Oranjezicht) to the sea. A luminescent line that traces a hidden treasure that lies beneath: water. This gift from the earth, in the form of the Camissa River and the numerous springs (1) in the Table Valley, is one of the major reasons for both indigenous and colonial settlement in the area--yet it has since been paved and tarred over--by roads which echo the secret of the deep, such as Heerengracht and Kaisersgracht Streets. The water which now runs in tunnels underground has, in many ways, become a myth and in an age of global warming and rampant capitalism; a political symbol of wastage, disrespect for the environment and the mismanagement of resources. The site-responsive (2) intervention (Kwon 2004) was part of the 'Infecting the City' (ITC) festival in January 2011. This form of art/performance is, in simple terms, live art, which finds location outside of conventional spaces (galleries/theatre). However, in its engagement with space it becomes politicised, since space is neither 'empty' nor neutral, but as Manuel Castells (in Soja 1989:71) argues, 'socially produced'. Thus, as Miwon Kwon (2004: 24) notes, site-responsive work is 'concerned to integrate art more directly into the realm of the social, either in order to redress (in an activist sense) urgent social problems ... or to relativise art as one among many forms of cultural work'. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the case of the pink line, by subverting the element of control which lines in the city (yellow, white, red) often represent, the aim was to raise awareness around the issue of water generally, but more specifically in the city of Cape Town. The Cape as a region is dry, particularly during the summer months, and prone to drought. Various organisations, in particular Reclaim Camissa Project, (3) spear-headed by Caron von Zeil, have been trying to mobilise around this issue. Von Zeil has done extensive research into the natural and as-yet-untapped water resources in the city that trace a fascinating tale of Cape Town's history (see website) and the people who lived there. Yet these are not the stories being told in this essay. These narratives are of the present. Tracing the hidden water system enabled doung (the artist and member of dala (4)) to tap into the political and social landscape of the people of Cape Town and make some interesting observations about class, race and culture in a post-apartheid/democratic state. Form follows Renowned pedagogue Paulo Freire (1970/1993: 160-164) emphasises that societal transformation that is directed towards humanisation and the dissolution of political divides can only occur through (dialogic) cultural action. The rationale for this is twofold: cultural action whose objective is liberation celebrates the innate creativity of humankind and creativity refutes societal-stasis; and, second, it is in the exchange between people that we are able to conscientise through generating debate/conversation and so we become more human to each other. This may appear 'soft' and 'simple', but in fact it is unequivocally radical since it 'threatens the interests of those who are already served well by the dominant culture' (McLaren 2000: 148). Dressed in municipal overalls and armed with a paintbrush and stencil, doung painstakingly painted the 5cm-thick line. A form of endurance art--doung worked 14 hours a day (5am-7pm) for six days to complete the line. The 'paint' was white paint mixed with a bright pink 'muthi' used by sangomas (5) called ngomanamakosi. In powder form, it is used as a binding agent. The intervention then had the conceptual meaning of 'cleansing' as well as an applied function. This fusion of aesthetic form and function, and the corresponding incorporation of art into everyday practice, as well as the interdisciplinarity of it (art/drama/dance), is what defines authentically African art/performance (Kamlongera 1988; Kerr 1995). …