Paper short abstract:

The public representation of South Africa‘s long history of protest is closely tied to bodily performances. This paper sheds light on how the portrayal of corporeal street protests as imaginary bodies in visual arts changes the horizon of possibilities, space and time of activism.

Paper long abstract:

The long history of South African protest is closely tied to bodily performances such as the Toyi-toyi dance that has been widely represented as a corporeal way of resisting bodies in movement. By the stomping of feet and chanting of political songs and rallying cries, the Toyi-toyi creates a particular atmosphere that is often referred to as powerful and intimidating. Depicted in the media as South Africa‘s „12th language“ or activist‘s „weapon“ against police violence, the Toyi-toyi is widely performed to articulate social grievances.

This paper focuses on pictured representations of protest performances on walls and canvases. It inquires how an artistic transfer from corporeal to imaginary bodies alters the set of political capabilities and affordances of activism. By transgressing the limits of bounded time and habitual space of street protests, the artistic uptake of bodily performances adopts political possibilities in a different way. Imaginary bodies in visual arts work as memories, interpretations and inventions of past and future protests. They might disrupt visual orders in urban landscapes and/or fit in „legitimate“ exhibition venues and thereby address and affect a different, at times unexpected audience.

Whereas imaginative bodies exceed the tangible situation of street protest, they come with changed contingencies such as the absence of collective voices, motions and rhythms. The artistic representation of Toyi-toyi prompts questions about the „right“ place for and the appropriate form of protest and, thus, gives rise to contested ideas on the normative dimension of bodies in movement.