To accompany Ivan Vladislavić as he makes his way through the streets of Johannesburg is to be filled at once with delight and an overwhelming saudade for a city that has undergone staggering changes. Taking on multiple identities for the diverse populations that call it home, our once-thriving metropolis is teetering on the brink of a catastrophic infrastructure crisis.
Vladislavić’s concerns are with art and architecture, with the places where people choose to live and the things they seek to create. Portrait with Keys (2007), a predecessor to The Near North, was in effect an archive of 138 numbered texts on Kensington and surrounds, an area of Johannesburg that he walked, observed and reflected on over a number of years...
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