The AVA in partnership with Spier presents the opening of a new photographic exhibition entitled "FLATLANDS - by Marc Shoul". The exhibition runs from 18 of August - 04 September 2009. Johannesburg has always been a city of immigrants; a beacon for people searching for 'gold' in one form or another. Today, this sprawling and ambivalent metropolis continues to attract a constant stream of hopefuls from all over Africa. And many of these new arrivals settle in
the Joburg inner city, which has become a hub for the entire sub-continent.
The result is a journey through a world that is sometimes dark, sometimes joyful, and always
fascinating. Every picture tells a story and each image illuminates a place that is often
misunderstood.
Indeed, the Joburg inner city is a complicated place that offers its citizens a densely
populated landscape, filled with high-rise office buildings and apartments. Accommodation is
cheap but basic, and this suits the waves of immigrants who move through these Flatlands.
However, Johannesburg has an infectious momentum and relentless energy and drive. It's
the excitement that overpowers the fear. Streams of people walk the streets. Children go to
school, taxi hooters echo off the buildings as they race to beat the amber light. Outside
shops, MC's call to customers through microphones, mixed to a distorted house music beat.
Streets are congested with cars and people. Shops sell anything and everything.
Everyone is watching their back but going forward.
Shoul documented this new era of the Flatlands in post-Apartheid times - when the former
white population has given way to a uniquely African cosmopolitan population. As such, the
inner city is home to a huge mix of people and cultures squeezed so tightly together that the
place is barely able contain it all.
The Joburg CBD and its surrounding Flatlands were once compared to the great modern
cities of the first world. Now it has taken on a significantly different character; it is a space of
transience, a place on the way to something better, be it in South Africa or back at home. He
also wanted to see how people are making their own way through this amazing matrix of
crumbling buildings, while still holding onto the promise of a better future that Johannesburg
offers.
Marc Shoul's previous exhibitions include:
Faces, Resolution Gallery, group exhibition, Johannesburg, 2008
Obsess, Photo Za, group exhibition, Johannesburg, 2005
TB Exhibition, group exhibition, World Health Organisation, India, 2005
Detour, Month of Photography, Cape Town, 2002
Art Scape, group exhibition on mental health, Cape Town, 2001
Beyond Walmer, Association for Visual Arts (Cape Town) and NSA (Durban), 2000.
Beyond Walmer forms part of the permanent collection of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
Museum, Port Elizabeth.
His photographs have appeared in various local and international magazines such as Time,
Colors, Neon, Modern Painters, Mother Jones, Ink, The Times - London, Business Week,
Wired, Vice, Dazed and Confused and Blue Print.
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