social protest
Homelessness: The politics of place
The #WeSeeYou collective’s occupation of a Camps Bay Airbnb is both activism and performance art. In that, it’s succeeded in getting South Africans to think more deeply about the issue of homelessness
If you’re an art collective of queer black and coloured activists from the working and middle class, I would imagine the last thing you want is a white, middle-class man writing approvingly about your work. The potential for being patronised, misunderstood or having your message derailed is immense. And even if those pitfalls are avoided, it’s going to open you up to accusations of being drastically uncool.
So I tried not to comment on the recent artwork by the #WeSeeYou collective, I really did. But I just love it too much. If you’ve forgotten the work, or don’t know the story because the Covid-caused dearth of regular suburban braais means your source of things to be outraged about has dried up, let me remind you. On the weekend of September 19, seven people from the #WeSeeYou collective moved into a fairly luxurious Airbnb house in Camps Bay, a suburb in what the SABC news mysteriously called "the upmarket Cape peninsula"...
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