See Festival Conference

ABOUT

A full day conference hosted by The City, with discussions led by a range of experts. They represent fields as diverse as botany and museology, film-making and anthropology. This event is open to the public. For more information on the See project and Festival visit www.iseeyou.capetown

Venue: Cultivate, C3 Salt Orchard, 45 Yew Street, Salt River.

Duration: 08:30-17:00

Cost: R550 per person including refreshments.

08:30 Arrival & Welcome, Zahira Asmal – Director, The City

09:00 The Wreck of the São José Paquete d’África, Unlocking Hidden Histories: Archaeology as Protagonist, Jaco Boshoff – Curator Scientist, Iziko Museums

The wrecking of the São José Paquete d’África on the Cape coast in December 1794 was not seen as different from any other shipwreck at the time. History only recorded the basic details of the incident, relegating it to no more than a footnote. In the 1980’s treasure hunters misidentified the wreck, further burying the narrative. This changed with the identification of the wreck as the São José Paquete d’África by the Slave Wrecks Project in 2012. The story of this shipwreck has inspired a plethora of responses from media, artists, museum exhibitions as well as public interest groups. Jaco’s talk will highlight some of the reactions to the unveiling of the wreck’s identity and juxtapose it against the background of the ongoing archaeological research

09:30 Visualising migrations in Cape Town: The Story of three ships through 'time', 'space' and 'memory', Meghna Singh – Visual Artist

Focusing on the theme of contemporary and historical migrations at Cape Town through research conducted on three ships between 2013 and 2018, Meghna will present a body of work that renders visible and unravels capitalist imaginaries in this port city. The work interrogates the hidden process of globalisation; the invisibility of the workings of the port; the invisibility of the workers; their stories and their connection to the movement of capital and renders them visible through the immersive audio visual creations.

10:15 Tea

10:30 Uncover, Kamyar Bineshtarigh – Artist

Kamyar will share the process behind his latest exhibition at The Norval Foundation. This body of work starts with his studio wall in Salt River, in a previously abandoned clothing factory. Two years of working accumulated a mass of marks and textures, which seeped onto the studio wall as an unintended tracing of creating other pieces. The studio wall is a site for experimentation and record, as people who visit the studio leave their mark on it. The works become an accumulation of time passing through the visual layers seen on its surface. Uncover is a body of work that pivots around memory, layering and place. Thinking through the questions of location, while working in the former clothing factory, his work arises out of reflection and intuitive mark-making, while engaging with notions of history and presence.

11:00 Kaaps, Creolisation & Double Consciousness: Language & Meaning-making Under the Classification of Coloured

Jamaican-British sociologist Stuart Hall famously said identity is an unfinished conversation. In this panel the three speakers Dylan Valley (director of an Afrikaaps documentary), Prof Adam Haupt (University of Cape Town) and Shaquille Southgate (Heal The Hood) will reflect on language, politics and culture in Cape Town and how this relates to "coloured" identity today.

12:15 Lunch

13:15 Unfinished Business, Reflections on the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, by Zahira Asmal – Director, The City

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up by South Africa’s Government of National Unity to investigate, gather evidence and help address gross human rights violations that took place under apartheid from 1960 to 1994. Violations included abductions, torture and killings. While intended to heal and promote reconciliation, the court-like hearings were also controversial as the TRC had the power to grant amnesty to those who undertook to confess their crimes in full. The TRC held more than 2500 amnesty hearings and granted 1500. The authorities were slow to implement, or did not implement, many of the TRC’s recommendations. It appears that the architects of apartheid and perpetrators escaped accountability. Zahira reflects on the TRC, and the societal impact when justice is not served.

15:00 Reimagining Sustainable & Inclusive Urban Futures

Convened by Prof. Steven Robins, this panel will focus on the roles of activist and community-based responses to interventions in the socio-spatial and cultural landscapes of Cape Town. It will discuss how these responses can contribute towards deepening democratic participation and creating more inclusive urban futures. The specific sites, which include Philippi Horticultural Area, Maiden’s Cove, Tafelberg, Bo-Kaap, the Two Rivers Urban Park and Princess Vlei, raise troubling questions about spatial injustice as well as the suppressed histories and cultural heritage of indigenous, enslaved, and marginalised populations. Panelists will discuss the issues of their particular sites and suggest possibilities for creating shared visions of a more sustainable and inclusive urban landscape.

Panelists: Nazeer Sonday, Tauriq Jenkins, Gary Stewart,  Denisha Anand, Jonty Cogger and Jacky Ponting

17:00 Closing drinks

DIRECTIONS