IN: DIALOG #indialog #inbezvalley
As part of the Goethe Institutes Cultural Entrepreneuership Program the concept company/prpduct/service of OTYNET was born.
Otynet stands for 'Online' 'Tethering' 'Y' Network as is based in the idealogy of art & dialogue as currency for the socio-cultural enterprise landscape.
As a product dependent on network it was the work of myself and the team of incredible volunteeeeeers that put together a series of two events called 'IN:DIALOG' which aimed to virtualise wasted spaces inorder to realise future place - the place of the network which aimed to online artists, tether technologies and continue asking Y ?
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Whilst the Goethe program focused on developing a company, embedding valuable lessons, theories & skills sets of everything from empathy mapping to business canvases the development of a practice was surely flourishing and whilst the program focused on individual development - my personal practice was hungry for realising collaboration with this new network established through the Goethe istelf.
Dialogue about a virtual space led to the realising of a real place.
With the help of Mohau Memenza [FANAKALO TOURS} & Tumi Moroeng[MAKERS VALLEY COLLECTIVE} we were able to explore prototypes of event formats for social change in the city of Johannesburg. From this we could then identify pivots, problems and passages forward.
The posters below are from the first IN: Dialog event hosted in collaboration with 'The Makers Valley Colletive'. The first prototype for an event not only in competition with scaled art fairs running in parallel on the otherside of Johannesburg - but also as adirect response to the art fair typology of event entirely which also existed on a side of Johannesburg which notedly turned its back on the xenophobic attacks underway right at the heart of our event location.
People had doubts - we had faith in our collectives.
The headquarters of The Makers Valley collective exists as a collaborative exchange space already - and we followed suit and invested into the further making of space that would host an art exhibition, performances, poetry, food and more than that open up a portion of the city which was being washed and painted in coats of media frenzy and fear.
There were several concerns about safety - and though we were invested in the safety that community offered - it was evident - and one of our largest lessons learnt - that safety requires its own visual infrastructure - like a poster is the infrastructure of a marketing strategy - so to an architecture of its very own was needed by which to demostrate a democratic expression of safety for all - yet also doesnt exclude the community through typical boundaries existing in the South African & broader African context- ---- we had hoped the bulding - with its fortification typology would serve as this - but our failed collaboration with Kop Jhb revealed that we had a long way to go before we could consider ourself a space of safety - and a space for all.
We moved forward into the following month with the second IN:DIALOG #ingoethe - which pivoted our spatial response. [another project for this]
Thank you to everyone who made this project possible! We couldnt have done it without all the aritsts who responded to the call, the team of Makers Valley Collective [the original] who faciliated a spatial journey and helped manage our chaos into a beautiful event overall, my partner in action Nina Erasmus, Glory for the food, my mother for her support, the musicians for their sounds, the poets for thier words, the dancers for their spellbinding performances, the people who came through to support!
