Paper short abstract:

The post-apartheid transformation of Johannesburg has been offering artists a place and topic for their creative and social practices. The paper discusses the ambiguities and contradictions of these practices in a transforming city that is shifting from perceived "decay" to "urban regeneration".

Paper long abstract:

Johannesburg inner city has undergone major changes in the last 20 years, a process keenly observed, commented and negotiated by many local artists. There were major discourses of urban "decay" in the first years of transition as well as discourses of "urban regeneration" when the city authorities intervened rigorously through private public partnerships around 2000. These interventions promise a better city but also appear to reinforce social injustice and spatial control. Furthermore, they - often strategically as a means of gentrification - involve artists and the art market, offering new opportunities and spaces for studios, galleries, or art commissions. The reaction of artists in Johannesburg is accordingly ambivalent if not contradictory. In both phases of "decay" and "regeneration" artists have conducted a socially sensitive art practice, but it varied significantly from one artist to the other. While some were fascinated by the visual changes in their physical and social environment, others tried to understand the newly emerging social networks and include them in their art practice. This often involved opposing the increasing regulations by the city authorities and police. Others discovered business opportunities by offering their creative, administrative and collaborative competences to the city and engaging in public art projects. Artistic and social practices often converge but also interfere with each other. This paper presents some of these social and artistic practices and discusses the observed ambiguities not as something particular to the situation in Johannesburg but in many cities that undergo major transformation in contemporary Africa.