IN-FORM-ALL is a collective open archive of counterpublics between Johannesburg and Rotterdam initiated by Matri-Archi(tecture). The archive connects existing informal local practices and counterpublics in Johannesburg central business district (CBD) South Africa and Rotterdam, Netherlands.
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Counterpublics are discursive arenas that develop in parallel to the official public spheres and where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs (Fraser, 1990).
The project reframes informality beyond the dominant narratives that suggest it as a state of chaos, dirtiness, darkness and disorganisation, by demonstrating a process of making a counterpublic platform through a set of collaborations. All of the images on IN-FORM-ALL are taken by and in dialogue with local practitioners embedded in their cities, constructing and nurturing counterpublics.
Every image tells a story asking us to rethink and reconsider what we understand as informality. After all, in the words of Moten and Harney (2013) – “the informal is not the absence of form. It’s the thing that gives form.”
As such, IN-FORM-ALL foregrounds the spatial intelligences embedded in encounters of Black life that tend to be overlooked and displaced in urban developments due to their poor material qualities. However, the material condition does not represent spatial intelligence, for example. The images on IN-FORM-ALL point us to take seriously and read the systems, supply chains, socialites, materials and architectural configurations that are all at once self-made by Blackness operating and constructing social life in the city. The visual storytelling agency of IN-FORM-ALL illuminates the inherently creative: disruptive, often disobedient, seemingly contested and indisputably convenient nature of counterpublics.
We have learnt that counterpublics are entangled in different ways depending on the city, and through our network diagrams we have sought to articulate the fluid nature of these ecosystems. Through IN-FORM-ALL, we propose a different approach to moving through the archive, not defined solely in single categories, but according to relations. What happens when practices relate Hustler’s spirit, method and repurpose? What happens when practices relate conviviality, kinship and nightlife? We invite you to explore the archive through it’s endless tags, with an openness to knowing that it is not fixed in definition, and certainly forever incomplete.
IN-FORM-ALL is a connector and a reference point. On the one hand, we invite and prompt contributors to work with us in understanding counterpublics, connecting spatial storytellers in and across cities. On the other hand, as an archive, we strive to unsettle notions of informality within spatial discourse, serving as a reference point for spatial practitioners who are concerned with and working in these cities.
IN-FORM-ALL in itself is a method and a project in continuum.
If you interested in working with us, please email hello@matri-archi.ch
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References:
Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere.” Social text 8.3 (1990): 56-. Print.
Harney, Stefano, and Fred Moten. The Undercommons : Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Wivenhoe ; Minor Compositions, 2013. Print.
IMPRESSUM
Idea, design and curatorial team: Matri-Archi(tecture) – Afaina de Jong, Iyo Bisseck, Khensani Jurczok-de Klerk, Lesego Bantsheng, Tapiwa Manase
Project made possible with the support of: The Creative Industries Fund NL
Johannesburg launch made possible with the support of: The Creative Industries Fund NL, Pro Helvetia, LAPA - Goethe Institute, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (South Africa)
Visual contributors Johannesburg: Ayanda Mnyandu, Beki Dube, Lethabo Xulu, Thato Moetanalo, Thelma Ndebele, Sumayya Mohamed
Visual contributors Rotterdam: Elisa Heath, Imani Dap, Nora Marica, Niteshop (Romy Zhang), Kevin Naarden
Contributor and workshop facilitation Rotterdam: Niteshop – Abdirahmaan Abdikarim
Contributor and workshop facilitation Johannesburg: Matri-Archi(tecture) – Khensani Jurczok-de Klerk, Lesego Bantsheng, Tapiwa Manase
Videographer Rotterdam: Niteshop – Ahmet Buyuk
Videographer Johannesburg: Katlego Matlala
Film editing and post-production: Matri-Archi(tecture) – Neo Twala
Sound composition: Bonolo Thomas
Website code: Matri-Archi(tecture) – Iyo Bisseck