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«KIN:BE:JOZI» is a process and dialogue driven project – for the last 3 weeks 6 artists from the DRC, Switzerland and South Africa have been working in the east end of the inner city: With an interest in working with sound, songs and folk-tales, Steffi Weissman and Luvuyo Gope are collaborating on a dialogue that is based on random sound commonalities between Swiss German and Xhosa. The resulting dialogue will be presented as a live/recorded performance piece in the final exhibition. Poet and DJ Raphael Urweider is working with emerging local poets and rappers ‘Joca’, ‘Tashika’ and ‘Xtra’ who are based at the Drill Hall. Aiming to produce a series of interviews/music tracks, the artists are incorporating sampled material from the city, including documentation of the rapid changes around the Joubert Park and Doornfontein area, with buildings being auctioned, revamped and residents having to face re-location. Vitshois Mwilembwe is working on a photographic series at sites in Johannesburg that for him bear political resonances with the history of the DRC. Considering himself an engineer and seeing the city as a beast of social engineering, Athi Patra Ruga (justnje) is designing a range/performance in direct relation to the streets surrounding August House. Call it a reflection on the craft that drives him, on the face-lifting of the Fashion District and how it intersects with textile workers unions, ‘working girls’ at night, Congolese freight companies, chop shops and the corner where musician Gito Baloi was attacked and murdered 3 years ago…

In the following 3 weeks a range of interventions will unfold around End Street, the Drill Hall, Claim Street and Berea with a view to showcasing a final event at August House, where the artists have been living and working.


Leading up to June 15th

02.06 Street performance by Steffi Weismann, starting at August House, End Street, 11 am - “ The complexities around commuting in Johannesburg, where driving is part and parcel of life and where walking by myself is said to be unsafe, brought me to the idea to construct a sort of "dummy landrover" that I can carry with me. I’m after an absurd and comical image that can talk to this unsettling situation and resulting attitudes and habits within one of ‘the most violent cities in the world’.

05.06 ‘extraordinary deals’ – taxi safari into the northern suburbs; directed by Urweider and Shomali. Congolese and local residents have been invited to join this tour which will cover northern suburb highlights like monte-casino and sandton. Picking up on the concept of the ideal city and sight-seeing as the metropolitain cultural experience, the tour is planned as a docu-performance which will result in video and sound-recordings.

09.06 Intervention at Boxing Gym (‘extra-ordinary deals’ continued), 32 Claim Street, Hillbrow, 6pm.
Directed by Anthea Moys: a collaboration between ex-champion and trainer George K.Khosi Steffi Weismann, Joca (Joao Paulo) and two pros from DRC who currently train with Khosi. Working with her interest in games, sports, gyms and self-defense as ways of negotiating and approaching the city and its territorial rules, Moys initiated this collaboration which will develop over two weeks with intense training. The collaboration will result in a screening and perfomance/fight at the boxing ring (a former pertrol station on Claim Street) and a video inspired by the Congolese music industry. Further interventions at gyms and in Joubert Park are planned.

11.06 ‘welcome to berea - it’s a complex situation’; opening and ad campaign directed by Athi Patra Ruga, 15th floor, the Plumridge, corner Alexander and Tudhope Street in Berea; starting at 6pm. Facing daily pass port controls in the streets and restricted to host 3 visitors at a time only, Patra Ruga turns towards his living space to reflect on the ongoing ‘population control’ and gentrification in the inner city that profoundly effect the cosmopolitan make-up of the area. The event will include performances with Weismann, ‘Victoria’ and projections. Posters will be installed in the street prior to the event.

The above events take place in public and private – interested audiences are welcome to attend. Parking at own safety.



15.05 Final exhibition at August House, 3rd floor, 76—85 End Street, New Doornforntein, 5pm onwards
Safe parking, cash bar/catering. The exhibition will comprise in-situ installations/projections/street performances and presentations that have developed out of the 6 weeks residency. It will act as a final moment in the making of the project. Emerging dialogues which will be continued on line. Further details of the event will be released by the 04 June.