ACC Senior Researcher, Rike Sitas, contributed a chapter to the recently published Restless Infections: Public Art and a Transforming City by Wits University Press. Rike’s chapter is titled Unpredictable Publics and Anxious Audiences: From Anomie to Agonism in Provocative Public Art.
Edited by Jay Paner, Restless Infections is an innovative collection of critical essays exploring artistic interventions in urban spaces, focusing on place-making and the politics of space in post-colonial South Africa. The title refers to Cape Town’s popular Infecting the City public art festival and the persistent state of restlessness of a city still grappling with the legacies of colonialism, inequality and racial segregation. The concept of ‘restlessness’ provides a critical tool for understanding public space in a country desiring economic and political stability, as expressed through transient art forms such as Santu Mofokeng’s billboard photography.
The volume shifts the focus of public art discourse in South Africa from static forms like monuments and statues to dynamic, temporary interventions, offering fresh perspectives on public art as an interactive, community-engaged practice. The interventions engage with protest, public intimacy, audience interaction and the disrupted topography of apartheid cities. Through an examination of seminal artworks, contributors address diverse forms of expression that range from site-specific performances, immersive installations, film and photography to online performances. They introduce new perspectives on public sphere performance, such as Khanyisile Mbongwa’s re-imagining of township alleyways for public encounters and Mbongeni Mtshali’s study of everyday performances that challenge colonial and neo-colonial spatial organisation.
The book is divided into three sections: The Restless City, Public Art for Multiple Publics, and Land, Home, Belonging. It features both critical essays and visual documentation of the powerful, often temporary public artworks, providing readers with an opportunity to explore cutting-edge artistic practices that tackle global issues like inequality, segregation, and public space reclamation.
Restless Infections reads public spheres through a multi- and interdisciplinary lens, and makes a strong contribution to our understanding of the complexities of public art in South Africa. It will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners across the fields of art, cultural studies and social justice.
