This years, the residency programme at Victoria Yards will offer a unique platform for cultural practitioners, artists, researchers, civic society leaders, and activists to immerse themselves in Johannesburg's vibrant landscape. Residents will collaborate with affiliated organizations and host partners at Victoria Yards over a month-long period to implement projects focused on sustainability and community engagement.
Naledi Chai, independent artist
Naledi is a visual and sonic artist, researcher, archivist and serial experimentalist.
The project she is realizing for Sustainable Together is a sculpture based on a zine. She will use elements of collage and DIY to bring the sculpture to life making use of found and waste materials while fostering actionable collaboration through community engagement.
Social media:
IG: @cu_xtremes
Plenty Green, Nkululeko Motloung & Sizwe Ndhlovu
Nkululeko is a gardener, researcher and an eco-activist. With Sizwe Ndhlovu, he is the co-founder of Plenty Green Africa, a community based urban gardening project.
During the Sustainable Together residency, they aim to contribute to bridging the gap in the local food system, implement regenerative gardens and turn waste into opportunity through recycling and upcycling.
Social media:
IG: @plentygreen_sa
@nkulimotloung
LOCK (Love Our City Klean), Zwelihle Magwaza
Love Our City Klean is a creative waste management NPC focused on Education and Awareness through Training, Workshops, Recycling and Upcycling projects.
LOCK believes in collaboration for solutions and an alternative lifestyle for a more climate safe future as well as a wellbeing ecosystem in our lifetime.
LOCK will be working on developing their Community Swop Shop in the Makers Valley community where participants are educated on what can be recycled, we provide a drop off facility for the recycling and people can get points for recycling which you can then redeem at the swop shop for food, clothing, toiletries and other essentials in hopes of a new sustainable world where we can grow together and build communities that thrive.
Social media:
Instagram- @weloveourcityklean
Facebook- loveourcityklean
Octopi, Leila Kidson & Cara Eyre
OCTOPI is a social design studio supporting collective action against systemic oppression. Through work with INGOs, social movements and grassroots initiatives, Octopi aims to collaboratively reimagine more inclusive futures through narrative activism, systems design, and solidarity.
As part of their residency, Leila and Cara will research and document existing cultural practices of reciprocity, exchange, resource efficiency and coordination, to make visible the contributions by grassroots groups to the growing knowledge commons on circularity.
Social media:
https://www.instagram.com/octopi_africa/
https://za.linkedin.com/company/octopi-africa