The suburb of Yeoville, Johannesburg is a melting pot of cultures and now there’s an exciting new public art project that embraces and celebrates this diversity. Hotel Yeoville is a freshly designed digital interface at the Yeoville public library on Raleigh Street.
The project has two parts, a community website and an interactive digital project with a range of private booths in which the public are invited to document themselves.
In these people can
- Tell stories of home, love, longing, anything
- Map their roots and routes, across Africa and beyond
- Take a snap in the Love Booth with their sweetheart
- Make a movie to upload to YouTube
- Browse an online notice board of local classifieds
- Barter hairdressing skills with a freelance accountant
- Seek legal advice
- Connect with fellow refugees from the motherland
Conceived and directed by Terry Kurgan, Hotel Yeoville aims to address themes of migration, the idiosyncrasies of place and the threat of xenophobia. The project was produced in collaboration with a group or professionals, including architects, photographers, researchers, urban planners, social scientists and community activists.
Hotel Yeoville provides the community with tools to embrace difference. And build social networks and start conversations about important public issues and events.
“By sharing snippets from their everyday lives, participants contribute to the building of a social map of the pan-African suburb in which they live."
