kagablog

With the aim of building awareness for 300 lbs of Hammer - the installation, at The Sans Souci in Kliptown, Soweto, Berlin Bar served to present a live visual and electronic sound mix of Stephen Hobbs’ Sasol Wax Award 2008 entry: State. Conceived originally as a take on the precariousness of urbanism in third world contexts, the film and previous installation projects are intended for reassembly at the Sans Souci ‘ruin’. In this sense the audience was invited to consider and imagine the function and power of aesthetic spectacle in a setting of ruination and urban decay.

Working with Dave Olivier and Joao Orecchia the editor and sound designer of State, respectively, and 2610 South Architects, this project takes on an interdisciplinary approach to the site of the ruin, and more broadly considers the range of architectural and performative studies and interventions that have been produced in response to this ruin, to date. In this sense the preview aimed to raise the audience’s awareness of the practice of cultural programming as a means of architectural expression and axis for future design.

The following project statement gives some background to the work of Lindsay Bremner and 2610 South Architects, in this regard.

Kliptown, a dilapidated township in Greater Johannesburg, is the site of this project to rebuild the Sans Souci, a community cinema that burnt down in 1995. The Sans Souci, which translates literally to ‘without a care’ in French, was born in 1948, in a building that had previously been a dance hall and a stable. It featured many of South Africa’s eminent performers, including Miriam Makeba, Kippie Moketsi and Abdullah Ibrahim (known then as Dollar Brand) and was one of the few cinemas where black people could view movies during the apartheid period. After falling into disrepair in the early 1990’s, it was scavenged and disassembled by squatters looking for corrugated metal for housing. Since then its striking ruin has featured in many music videos.

Beginning with the question, “What minimum resources does one need to turn a ruin into a cinema?”, the project does not start with a building, in fact, the infrastructure and the architecture are almost invisible on a material level. Instead, it develops and gives the ‘idea’ of cinema new meaning over time, through a number of events and incremental architectural interventions that reconstruct the memory of the Sans Souci and project it into the future.

Over 125 interviews conducted in 2002 confirmed that the Sans Souci Cinema occupied a powerful place in the memory of many Sowetans and that residents felt that its rebuilding would bring increased opportunities for employment, education, recreation and entertainment. In keeping with this, the cinema has been conceptually redeveloped as a community based heritage project, a “living archive”!

The project was driven by the Kliptown Our Town Trust, a community development organisation of Kliptown residents. The Vuyani Dance Theatre Project, ran a dance outreach programme in the area. Film screenings, film and dance festivals, audience development, dance training and film production should allow visitors and residents to actively participate in excavating and remembering/recreating/imagining the history of Kliptown and the Sans Souci and in constructing its future.

In collaboration with artists several outdoor events and film screenings were held at the ruin which brought the Sans Souci to live again. In 2009 the ruin collapsed due to heavy rains. To render the place safe surrounding residents took initiative to clear the site with “300 pounds of hammer “

The Sans Souci no longer exists.
The Sans Souci, Lindsay Bremner Architect in collaboration with 26’10 south Architects
Kliptown (Soweto), Gauteng, South Africa