Atlas of Uncertainty art exhibition explores how art shapes African cities

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]SABC News has a special focus on migration later on today. Now, Liesl Wilson is at the Atlas of Uncertainty art exhibition which explores how migration, urbanization, and mobility shape the future of African cities.

[00:00:12]Let's now cross to her in Bloemfontein in Johannesburg. A very good morning to you, Liesl. Thank you so much for joining us. Now, this exhibition, I suppose, couldn't have come at an opportune moment as South Africa is grappling migrant issues. What's happening there?

[00:00:28]>> A very good morning to you, Sim, and to our viewers. It is an apt time to be having these discussions. And today, we are starting the morning off by coming to you live from the Wits Art Centre right here in the heart of Johannesburg.

[00:00:41]A laid city with lots of nuances and obviously also deals with themes and issues with regards to migration, identity, belonging, and really what home means. As you may know, the narratives that persist exist rather and persist in mainstream media, um look at numbers. They're politicized. But as you also may know, there's the heart of the matter, and that is the people, the movement, not just across borders. It's from city to city. It's from province to province. And it's from rural areas to cities as well. And so, when we look at what that actually means in search of better opportunities, whether it is just for education, for safety, and a brighter future, um perhaps this obviously has socioeconomic ramifications as well. Infrastructure, housing, amongst many of the other um issues. And so, as we explore what that means, I mean, the lens through which we look at it is that Atlas of Uncertainty exhibition which uses the art of storytelling um as well as, you know, visual mediums, video, sound as well to spark those necessary conversations that continues to permeate the world over given um geopolitical dynamics and given urbanization and globalization as well.

[00:01:57]And so this morning with our special broadcast on migration on identity and belonging, we ask what does it mean to belong in unfamiliar spaces? How do you define home? And also what does it mean to coexist especially when cultures and languages are directly absorbed by the city itself. And so the special broadcast continues here from the heart of Johannesburg at the Wits Art Museum as I mentioned and we'll be speaking to the artists, the curators and the experts, the researchers to delve into some of those themes as we continue with that special broadcast on the SABC. So for now, let's leave it there. We'll take you around the exhibition, explore what it also means for cities like Johannesburg, like Nairobi, like Accra and the continent itself as we explore what agency also looks like at large. So as we leave it there for now, it's back to you in studio. Let's continue to focus on those important endeavors.