Titus Mateyane’s artwork at Rea Vaya’s Lakeview station reflects the new spatial dynamic between Soweto and Johannesburg that has been ushered in by the city’s revolutionary BRT system. Elias Nkabinde reports.
Reflecting, refracting the changing dynamic between Johannesburg and SowetoReflecting, refracting the changing dynamic between Johannesburg and Soweto.Soweto is one of the most populous of South Africa’s historically black urban residential areas. The crowded, sprawling township is infused with a distinctive energy, informed by the history of the struggle against apartheid.
The policies of apartheid accelerated the growth of separate townships across the country. Cities were designated for white people only, while townships like Soweto served as permanent camps for housing the “non-white” labour force that powered the mines and other industries that grew the economy.
Titus Mateyane’s artwork at Rea Vaya’s Lakeview station, located on Chris Hani Road in Soweto, features close-ups of a large-scale map-type artwork that reflects the changing geographic relationship between Johannesburg and Soweto.
The shapes, shades and patterns engraved on the glass side structures of the station tell the story of the new spatial dynamic between the two formerly segregated areas that has been ushered in by the Johannesburg Development Agency’s (JDA’s) flagship project, the revolutionary Rea Vaya bus rapid transit (BRT) system.
Completed in September 2009, Mateyane’s artwork gives the thousands of Soweto residents, as they prepare to board the bus to work, school or university, or as they disembark on their return home, a window onto the Corridors of Freedom programme that is moving to undo the legacy of apartheid social engineering.
Artwork inspired by the people and the environment of the neighbouring communityEach Rea Vaya station features glass-engraved artwork inspired by the people and the environment of the community it serves.A crucial part of the Joburg 2040 growth and development strategy, the Corridors will liberate Sowetans and Joburgers alike from the social ills – such as informal settlements, poor schooling and limited recreational spaces – that resulted from apartheid.
Underpinning the Corridors: the safe, efficient, affordable mobility provided by the strategic routes, dedicated lanes, regular stations, easy payment and access systems and other distinctive features of the Rea Vaya BRT service.
It’s a people-oriented programme, driven by a people-friendly service – and the appointment of artists, Mateyane among them, to enliven Rea Vaya’s stations with urban- and African-inspired art, speaks to this fact.
Each station has an original artwork that reflects Joburg’s diverse population, echoes its vibrant energy, and mirrors and refracts its unique architecture, colours, shapes and textures.
The art is about interconnectedness – between the network of stations as part of a holistic system of travel, as well as between the stations and their immediate neighbourhoods, always taking into account the people who live and work in the communities served by each station.
The Rea Vaya artworks project is not merely an attempt to beautify the stations, but also to create something of worth, embedded in the very structure of the stations, that engages and pays tribute to the people who use the facilities on a daily basis.