IsmailFarouk.com :: Blog

Trolley Works Multi-Disciplinary Exhibition

2009-05-25T12:27:00.000+02:00

Loitering Workshop - Drill Hall 16th May 2009

2009-05-15T10:13:00.000+02:00

The Trolley Works Team in conjunction with the Africa Diaspora Forum are hosting a workshop dealing with the issue of 'loitering'. The team have been handing out flyers on the sidewalk, and empowering people about their rights.

Workshop Details:

When: Saturday 16th May 2009, 10:30am
Where: Drill Hall (Corner Twist and Plein Streets)
Contact: AFRICAN DIASPORA FORUM for free support (011.633.21.40)

All Welcome!!

What to do in case you are arrested for Loitering:
(Produced by the African Diaspora Forum)

1) If possible, take note of the POLICE CAR NUMBER (for instance HB07, Hillbrow car number 7), if you are not able to take note of the police officer’s name.

2) If arrested, ask for a NOTICE OF RIGHTS at the police station (it is compulsory for the police to give notice and explain why you are arrested).

3) Ask for a RECEIPT if you pay the fee to the police, or ADMISSION OF GUILT if you are not able to.

4) After your release, you can contact the AFRICAN DIASPORA FORUM for free support (011.633.21.40).

Migration and Society Seminar Series

2009-03-24T22:59:00.011+02:00

I will be presenting a lecture about the Trolleyworks.org project at Wits University next Tuesday. Here are the details:

12.30-13.30h, Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Seminar Room, Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences,
South West Engineering Building, University of the Witwatersrand.

If you have any questions or would like to present your own research, please contact:

lorena.nunezcarrasco@wits.ac.za or 011 717 4084

Trolleyworks.org

2009-02-28T15:45:00.004+02:00

Trolley Works is a multi-disciplinary art project, which seeks to regulate trolley-pushing activity in downtown Johannesburg. The project was initiated as part of the Sylt Quelle Cultural Award for Southern Africa 2008. The first phase of the Trolleyworks project began in December 2008, and is proposed to run until May 2009.

Please follow the project at the official trolley works blog: www.trolleyworks.org

Sylt Quelle Cultural Award for Southern Africa

2009-01-18T12:28:00.006+02:00

I've been awarded with the Sylt Quelle Cultural Award for Southern Africa. My proposal to formalise trolley pushing activity in downtown Johannesburg was selected by an independent jury who felt that my work dealt with inner city renewal in a practical and inspiring way.

The cross-disciplinary award, launched by the Foundation Kunst:raum Sylt Quelle and the Goethe-Institute, invited proposals from writers, artists, choreographers, musicians, filmmakers and others, in Southern Africa, focusing on practitioners that engage relevant social issues in their work.

I am extremely excited by this award as I finally have some capacity to affect positive change in the Johannesburg urban environment. The trolley pushers in downtown Johannesburg are continually being harassed and abused by the police, who perceive the trolley pushers as criminals. I am hopeful that my project will change the negative perceptions associated with the activity and will demonstrate the viability of trolley pushing as a positive means of income generation.

For more information please visit the project blog here: www.trolleyworks.org

With thanks to the foundation kunst:raum sylt quelle and the Goethe-Institute.

Cancelled Without Prejudice

2008-11-02T03:45:00.003+02:00

THE MAK URBAN FUTURE INITIATIVE PRESENTS:
Cancelled Without Prejudice by Ismail Farouk
Part Two of Exhibition Series Locus Remix. Three Contemporary Positions

Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 5, 7 - 9 pm
Artist Walkthrough on MAK Day: Saturday, November 8, 2 pm
Exhibition Dates: November 6, 2008 - January 4, 2009

MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
Schindler House
835 North Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Please join us on Wednesday, November 5 for the opening of Cancelled Without Prejudice, a survey of the work of UFI fellow Ismail Farouk, an artist and urban geographer from Johannesburg, South Africa. Through video, photography and performance, Farouk documents patterns of spatial injustice and explores a variety of interventions aimed at producing a more just urban landscape. With Cancelled Without Prejudice, Farouk examines the contradictions of mainstream urban development in Johannesburg and Los Angeles, revealing a common narrative unfolding in both cities: the privatization of public space and the criminalization of poverty.

Cancelled Without Prejudice includes a selection of video installations that illustrate Farouk's varied approach to circumventing the mechanisms of injustice, such as a series of surveillance videos documenting police corruption and abuse of undocumented migrants. In the video "Rock Sale," Farouk challenges Johannesburg's ban on street vendors by setting up his own sidewalk enterprise and attempting to sell rocks and piles of sand - items of no monetary value. Farouk's video and photography bare witness to similar patterns of injustice in Los Angeles, particularly in Skid Row.

Cancelled Without Prejudice will be on view at the Schindler House from November 6, 2008 - January 4, 2009. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will be on Wednesday, November 5 at 7 p.m. Farouk will lead a walkthrough of the exhibition as part of MAK Day, on Saturday, November 8, at 2 p.m.

The MAK Center presents Cancelled Without Prejudice as the second part of Locus Remix. Three Contemporary Positions, a three-part exhibition featuring the work of Katie Grinnan, Ismail Farouk and Dorit Margreiter. In a rapidly changing world where complexity, uncertainty and instability are givens, it is increasingly important to combine precise focus with diverse points of view. Locus Remix features three artists who work with place, meaning, and representation. In each case, the artist is drawing from cultural iconography, the poetics and the politics of space, and the sacred and profane in architecture. In three distinct ways, the act of cultural interpretation is questioned and problemitized. Locus Remix is organized by MAK Center Director Kimberli Meyer.

Creative Strategies for Spatial Injustice

2008-09-26T07:43:00.004+02:00

A public salon co-curated by Farmlab and the MAK Center

Friday, September 26 at noon
Farmlab, 1745 North Spring Street
This event is free and open to the public.

The MAK Center and Farmlab invite you to participate in a dialogue exploring creative strategies for dealing with spatial injustice with artist and urban geographer Ismail Farouk. Farouk is in Los Angeles as part of the MAK Urban Future Initiative (UFI), an international fellowship program dedicated to creating meaningful cross-cultural exchange about topics related to the challenges confronting cities worldwide. Farouk will present an overview of his work, which attempts to highlight the patterns of spatial inequality associated with the global desire to narrowly define space along lines of profit.

Urban Future Initiative, Los Angeles, CA

2008-09-13T17:22:00.003+02:00

Greetings from Los Angeles! I am here as part of the MAK Center Urban Future Initiative (UFI), a visionary fellowship program for research of urban phenomenon hosted at the Fitzpatrick-Leland House.

I will be staying in Los Angeles for the next 2 months, realising my proposal to map patterns of spatial injustice, informed by a comparative analysis of the social, political, economic and geographic landscapes of Los Angeles and Johannesburg. The basis for my work is the common nature of exclusion experienced as a result of the dominant neo-liberal urban planning policies being implemented in cities globally.

In both Johannesburg and Los Angeles, the expanding privatised urban environment, characterised by the formation of Business Improvement Districts (BIDS), seem to support the perception of cleanliness and safety. BIDS concentrate power for the property owners only, who benefit as a result is the surge in property prices in the area. However, they also suppress the varied expression of human interaction and limit the capacity of small businesses to stay afloat. Ultimately, BIDS have no benefits for poorer residents and often result in the end of a livelihood. My proposal at the UFI, is an attempt to understand the patterns of poverty and injustice as it relates to the privatisation of public space.

Please feel free to follow my progress on the official UFI blog .

The Criminilisation of Informal Trolley Pushers in Downtown JHB

2008-09-10T18:16:00.008+02:00

Trolley pushing activity in downtown Joburg provides a service for commuters who want to transport heavy luggage between The Jack Mincer Taxi Rank and The Park City Taxi Rank. Whilst the trolley pushers provide an important service, the activity has always occurred in contravention of the law as the trolleys (shopping carts) used are generally stolen from supermarket chain stores. The trolley pushers are not responsible for the theft of the trolleys. Gangs made up of Zimbabwean youth are responsible for the supply trolleys - Stolen trolleys are sold for R50 on the street.

Most trolley pushers charge a fee of R20 for a single load between the taxi ranks, however trolley pushers are rarely paid more than R5. Customers are aware of the illegal nature of the activity and bargain for the cheapest possible rate for the service.

Here is a little trolley cam video demonstrating the activity:

A major problem associated with trolley pushing activity has been victimization by the police. Every time a raid occurs, trolley pushers are fined R300 and trolleys are confiscated. Lately, raids have been occurring with increasing frequency and trolley pushers are being detained in prison for a seemingly harmless economic activity. As a result, trolley pushers try to avoid police hot spots and choose to walk through the De Villiers Street market, a highly congested linear market which connects the taxi ranks in Joubert Park.

Compounding the problems faced by trolley pushers has been the struggle for citizenship as most trolley pushers in the study area are Mozambican, however, there is an increase of Zimbabwean Trolley Pushers. Most trolley pushers are growing tired of being arrested and deported for a lack of citizenship.

Surprisingly, a large number of trolley pushers interviewed all claim to have been operating in the area since 2001. This fact dispels the perceptions related to the transient nature of life in Joubert Park.

An official response to the activity has been the formation of an organisation called "Crime Stop Porters" who utilize flat bed trolleys as opposed to the shopping cart trolleys. Porters are required to pay R20 per day for rental of the flat bed trolleys. Many pushers involved in the initiative complain that the rental fee is too high, and feel exploited by the initiative. Trolley pushers operating using illegal trolleys also complain about the small capacity of the flat bed trolleys.

Action: In April 2008 a trolley pusher protest was orchestrated in collaboration with the the trolley pushers of Joubert Park. The objective behind the action was to mobilize support for the formalisation of a representative trolley association. The protest took place at the vehicular entrance of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), a location synonymous with police activity. Since the protest, weekly meetings with the trolley pushers have been organised in aid of formalising the activity in the city. This work is being undertaken independently and without the support of the Urban Concerns project or The Johannesburg Art Gallery.

The Right to the City: Police activity at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG)

2008-08-24T14:11:00.012+02:00

This article first appeared in the Urban Concerns Research Report (April 2008), produced for the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) as part of the Urban Concerns Research Project.

Every day hundreds of undocumented migrants and refugees are arrested and loaded into trucks within the confines of the JAG - In the process many human rights abuses occur in their arrest. Sometimes entire families are arrested and detained (including children and babies). All of this activity occurs at the vehicular entrance to the JAG where corruption is a common feature in the activity.

Volunteer police officers make up the bulk of patrolling officers who mingle in the public realm outside the gates of the gallery, where passer-bys are nabbed and detained unlawfully. The police are also known to go door to door in flats in the surrounding area in their efforts to detain undocumented migrants. Through our research process, we have found out that the bribe for release is a hefty R500. The police are quite open about talking about bribery and seem to be solely focused on the activity of extracting money from their victims all day. Sometimes volunteer police will go and request payment victim's friends and family. In most cases, if you cannot afford the full amount of R500, you are released but only at 15h30 when the police trucks are about to leave.

Friends and families of victims gather at the gates of the gallery every day around15h00 to plead and negotiate for the release of victims. There is much jeering as the truck leaves at 16h00 as police hurl abuse at those who have gathered at the gates.

Findings:

Not all undocumented migrants are arrested. Most victims say that it depends on your attitude towards the police and this determines weather you are arrested or not
Language and dress determine weather you are approached and detained by police.
Volunteer police are not receiving a monthly salary and resort to corruption as a means of earning an income.
By 10:30am the police trucks and van are filled with people. However, more people are arrested during the course of the day. Sometimes people wait around the police trucks because they are fully loaded.
If you pay the bribe you are free to go.
People who try to escape are brutally beaten.
Police utilise the ablution facilities at the gallery and often are seen washing the blood of victims within the gallery.
Metro police are also part of the operation. The Metro Police work in conjunction with the police and are responsible for confiscating trader's goods or stolen trolleys. Traders' goods are released with a bribe.
Metro Police utilise the vehicular entrance as a motorist checkpoint - drivers license and roadworthy of private vehicles and taxis are checked.
More recently, cars have also been impounded into the gallery space. Impounded cars are released with a bribe.

Action: As a result of the injustice occurring at the JAG vehicular gate, the Urban Concerns research team, planned and implemented a number of creative strategies for dealing with the issue of police corruption. Our primary focus was the gathering of appropriate audio and visual evidence, which pointed to police corruption and brutality.

Checkout this short video shot at the gate:

Ultimately, it was a meeting coordinated by the director of JAG and the responsible policing administrators, which has led to the end of the abuse of undocumented migrants. However, police are still utilizing the JAG yard to park police cars, and have subsequently shifted their focus to the surrounding Noord Taxi Rank area.

Rites of Passage Performance Exhibition

2008-08-06T22:13:00.005+02:00

Recently, I was invited by the Bag factory Artist Studios in Johannesburg to participate in a 10 day performance workshop called 'Rites of Fealty/ Rites of Passage', which culminated in a one-night exhibition showcasing new performance artworks by emerging South African artists. The complete list of invited artists included Bronwyn Lace, Nadine Hutton, Anthea Moys, Mlu Zondi, Ntando Cele, Rat Western, Murray Turpin, Kemang wa Luhere, Dinkies Sithole and Johan Thom.

Here is a little video from the event:

Sidewalk Reservation Live: Wits Archi Film Fest

2008-08-04T21:51:00.004+02:00

Here are pics from the Sidewalk Reservation Live act at the Wits Great Hall. Murray and I used 7 projectors to create our massive projection surface. The performance was well received by about 100 people.

Sincere thanks to Eduardo Cachucho for organising the event and for facilitating our performance.

sidewalk reservation live: student archi filmfest 2008

2008-07-08T13:35:00.006+02:00

Thats right, The Sidewalk Reservation (Murry Turpin and myself) will be closing the Student Archi filmfest with a live video performance.

Date: 17th of July,
Time and Place: 20h00,Wits University Great Hall.

Soweto Uprisings . com: Phase 3

2008-06-09T07:24:00.008+02:00

Phase 3 of the Hector Pieterson Research Project has just got underway. The focus of this latest phase of research is the completion of the school routes related to the Soweto uprisings of 1976. This work coincides with the annual June 16 activities at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum.

For more information please visit the project website.

Chris the Pussy: 2 June 2008

2008-06-03T07:22:00.003+02:00

More here...

Sidewalk Reservation Live at Wits University

2008-05-23T08:32:00.002+02:00

Xenophobia and You

2008-05-22T10:44:00.002+02:00

My neighbour, Tara Polzer has produced this leaflet, which she has been distributing in the suburbs of Johannesburg:

DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER, DON'T TOUCH MY BROTHER

You are not powerless in the face of violence and xenophobia around you. It is not only the responsibility of government and the police to respond. If you are horrified and saddened by the current violence, there are things you can do right now:

1. Speak with your local councillor, individually or in a group, and ensure that (s)he calls a ward meeting to condemn violence.

2. Start conversations with family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, fellow learners and students, etc. about xenophobia and violence and about taking a public stance against it.

3. Call a meeting at your place of work and organise a discussion on the violence and on xenophobia.

4. Join your community policing forum and ensure that the CPF acts to protect foreign nationals and anyone else being threatened or targeted in your area.

5. Report any agitation or threats against foreign nationals or groups of South Africans to the police.

6. Check with police stations, community centres and churches sheltering victims of violence on what material donations are needed, and donate blankets, food and clothes, as needed.

7. Participate in any public forums you can access, including calling into talk radio shows, public meetings, writing letters to newspapers, etc.

8. Check that your foreign friends/ colleagues/ neighbours/ cleaners/ gardeners and their families are safe, and, if necessary, offer them refuge in your house.

9. If foreign nationals in your neighbourhood are likely to be targeted in their homes, organise a group of people to spend the night at their house so that a South African can open the door if someone knocks in the night asking about foreigners.

10. Encourage any public figures you know, including artists, sports persons, business people, teachers, etc. to speak out publically against racism, xenophobia and violence.

11. Do not let racist and xenophobic comments go unchallenged.

12. Pass this list on to everyone you know.

Johannesburg Trolley Pusher Protest (2008)

2008-05-21T23:54:00.009+02:00

Trolley pushing activity in the city provides a necessary service for people wanting to transport heavy baggage through the city. Most trolley pushers charge a fee of R20 for a single load, but are seldom paid more than R5 by streetwise customers who know that trolley pushers are in no position to bargain. The problem with the activity has been the illegal nature of the trolleys used as they are stolen from supermarket chain stores. However, the trolley pushers are not responsible for the theft of trolleys. Trolleys are supplied to pushers on the street by gangsters for a fee of R50.

Harassment by the police is also a problem. Every time a raid occurs, trolley pushers are fined R300 and trolleys are confiscated. Lately, raids have been occurring on Fridays, with trolley pushers being arrested over the weekend.

The trolley pusher protest was orchestrated in collaboration with the the trolley pushers of Joubert Park. The objective behind the action was to mobilize support for the formalisation of a representative trolley association. The protest took place at the vehicular entrance of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), a location synonymous with police activity. Since the protest, weekly meetings with the trolley pushers have been organised in aid of formalising their activities in the city.

WSOA Digital Arts: Live Performance

2008-05-13T14:14:00.003+02:00

With Thanks to Christo Doherty

Urban Future Initiative (UFI) Fellowship Program

2008-05-07T07:47:00.001+02:00

I've been awarded the Urban Future Initiative (UFI) fellowship, a new initiative at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, which is focused on contemporary urban issues.

I will be traveling to LA later this year where I will collaborate with practitioners who have furthered an understanding of spatial justice. I am interested in interrogating the kinds of criteria that can be used to measure and map spatial justice across diverse scales.

Ultimately my aim is to build an online mapping application, which will connect cities and practitioners globally, through the mapping of spatial justice and also as a means for mobilising a collective response to local urban struggles.

Read more...

Wits Architecture: School Talk

2008-05-07T02:35:00.000+02:00

Live Performance By Ismail Farouk and MT at "Push Play"

2008-03-20T16:33:00.004+02:00

By Christo Doherty

One of the less publicized events at the the Johannesburg Art Fair was the "Push Play" exhibition at the Bag Factory in Fordsburg. The show, rather hastily curated by Rat Western featured single channel videos from a number of new Johannesburg artists. Of the videos on exhibition, there is not a great deal to say, but Rat’s own contribution stood out due to her wry humour and unrelenting exploration of domestic pathos. The real treat however was the live video and sound performance by Ismail Farouk and MT (Murray Turpin) that was held in a room at the back of the exhibition area.

For anyone familiar with the trajectory of these two artists it was a revelatory collaboration. Ismail's visual explorations of street life in Johannesburg, using time lapse animation and video filters, was dynamically matched to MT’s sound collages which fused urban sound recordings with abstract beats. What really took their work into a new paradigm was that they fused installation art with the imperatives of live VJ and DJ performance. Perhaps it was indicative of the distorted priorities that characterised the Johannesburg Art Fair, where the well-monied and expensively dressed buyers crowded into the Sandton Convention Centre; while the really exciting work at this performance in Fordburg was witnessed by about 12 people.

MT in performance on the audio decks at the "Push Play" opening at the Bag Factory

Ismail's primary video projection which illuminated the angle between the wall and the pressed steel ceiling of the back room at the Bag Factory in Fordsburg.

A view of the full installation showing the main projection with the associated single-channel video monitors positioned strategically around the performance space.

This Article first appeared on www.atjoburg.net

Urban Concerns

2008-03-06T09:27:00.008+02:00

In December 2007 I was approached to work on the 'Urban Concerns' project by the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG). I was hired as a researcher and designer of a research HUB located within the public space of JAG.

The 'Urban Concerns' pr0ject addresses the complexities of community dynamics in public space and is a collaboration between Bildmuseet, in Umea -Sweden, and The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) in Johannesburg.

Find out more here: www.urbanconcerns.org

Beats and Shoe Sales

2008-02-27T10:07:00.005+02:00

By Rat Western

Armed with microphones and pumping beats, the Fashion MC's of the Fashion District are a welcoming party into the discount fashion world of downtown Johannesburg. This cosmopolitan melting pot sees Chinese, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Indians, Mozambicans, Congolese, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Zimbabweans and South Africans hustling their products and services on a daily basis. The Fashion MC's are an integral part of this exchange as they do far more than shout out the special deals of the day. The Fashion MC is advertiser, commentator and entertainer within his realm positioned at the entrances of cash-and-carry high rise buildings. Many of the Fashion MC's cross dress, but this is not a gender statement. Rather it is representative of the character he enacts - the pantomime dame or the medieval court jester.

As an entertainer, the Fashion MC humanizes the busy space of the otherwise alienating inner city shop. He spins tunes, makes jokes with the customers and generally keeps the mood lively. Mostly South African and Zimbabwean the Fashion MCs have a strong relationship with the owners of the shops as well as the Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers who have taken control of high rise 'bad buildings' in the fashion district.

The importance of the Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers is the fact that they have organised the inner city space through the formalisation of a refugee run NGO called the The Horn of Africa Crime Stop Association (HACSA). HACSA was formed after an Ethiopian trader was killed during a robbery in 2006. The organisation pays for supplementary security services which consist of 25 private guards who patrol an 8 block radius of the Fashion District. Through formal partnerships with the South African Police (SAP) and Central Johannesburg Property Company (CJP), the organisation dispels the myths and negative perceptions of immigrants in the city as contributing to crime. HACSA's efforts are beginning to pay dividends as the crime levels in the area have dramatically subsided. South African investors and chain stores are beginning to notice the business potential of the area, now that crime has been controlled. The development value of the area is on the increase and there is much activity by private sector housing companies who are redeveloping residential buildings for middle class South African families. However, for the Ethiopian and Eritrean businesses which started the initiative, their success may lead to their displacement as refugees and asylum seekers are unable to get a foothold in the city due to backlogs in the Department of Home Affairs.

In response to the situation artist and urban geographer Ismail Farouk organised a performance at Nadiba's Wholesalers in the fashion district where he collaborated with teamuncool and the Fashion MC's in an intervention/performance. The event brought a middle class art crowd to a space in their own city which, for many of them, was alien and exotic.

For the performance, Farouk and the Fashion MC's, dressed in their drag, sold cheap mass produced products of a tourist African design. Leopard print and camouflage hats and shirts, large shopping bags emblazoned with the 'Big Five' represented the unfair logic of exchanges in developing world and exploitation of African resources. They pimped the tourist vision of Africa.

To accompany the performance was an installation using surveillance footage of police arresting immigrants in the city. The merchandise on sale was draped across TV screens - a combination of the mass consumerism represented by the produce and some of the daily realities of those who engage in its sale as a means of survival.

After the event, traditional Ethiopian coffee was served on the rooftop. People walked through the five floor multi use building - higher into the unknown they were confronted by a multitude of hanging produce from clothing to drying meat and then into a Utopian environment with a fountain, roof garden and view of the city.

For Ethiopians, coffee is about an important social interaction. Visitors were fortunate enough to be part of a more traditional aspect of Ethiopian culture.

Letter of Doom

2008-02-26T09:06:00.003+02:00