SOAS Research Online

Abstract

State-ments, an exhibition that draws on Julia Gallagher’s research on popular ideas of state buildings, has just finished a tour of five public locations around Johannesburg and Pretoria. The mobile exhibition features comments made by South African citizens on state buildings, collected by Gallagher during focus group discussions carried out in January 2019. These statements are set against abstract depictions of five buildings - the Union Buildings, the Parliament, the Constitutional Court, the Johannesburg Central Police Station and the Northern Cape Parliament. The aim of the exhibition was to reach wider audiences and provoke further discussions on state architecture. Many visitors left statements of their own. The exhibition was designed by South African architectural firm Counterspace. It was shown at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg, Jabulani Shopping Mall, Soweto, Church Square, Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg.