Provocation
“Carefully Curated Confusion”

Audre Lorde once wrote that “as we learn to bear the intimacy of scrutiny and to flourish within it, (...) the fears which rule our lives and form our silences, begin to lose their control over us”. This state of being would be a good starting point for “Power Talks”. This long-read invites to scrutinise the motifs underlying the discussions in Durban. 

Durban Power Talks is a three-part experience. Through provocation, reimagining and reflection, creatives in the city, alongside leaders, policymakers and art institute representatives, are invited to sit in the Gestalt, play a part in the spectacle, and unpack the meaning of power. 

“As we learn to bear the intimacy of scrutiny and to flourish within it, as we learn to use the products of that scrutiny for the power within our living, those fears which rule our lives and form our silences, begin to lose their control over us.”
— Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury.

The Durban Power Talks are a deep dive into how space, people, art, and politics influence local creative dynamics. Over three days, three facilitators will assume the roles of provocateur, animateur, and reflecteur with an aim to provoke critical reflection on the form, function, dynamics and implications of power for Durban’s cultural scene. The programme is centred on these three figures, who will carefully curate conversations with Power Talks guests. Our facilitators are: Nomcebisi Moyikwa as provocateur, Russel Hlongwane as animateur and Nocebo Bucibo as reflecteur.

Facilitators foundational to the experience

The programme will commence with the provocateur instigating discomfort, and surfacing  the dimensions of power inherent in the local context. Through provocation, attendees  will be challenged to confront and interrogate their positions, relationships, proximity to and deployment of power.

The animateur will engage attendees into a process of imagining, encouraging a deliberate departure from reliance on recurrent narratives and default modes of engagements. The role of this facilitator will be to hold space, to create room for and catalyse future ideas; provoking a reconceptualisation of the role of the cultural institute and artist; opening up discussion on alternative uses of power, and; shifting the experience from present problems, to a future vision of art, spaces and power.

Finally, the reflecteur will weave together the strands of all that  transpires over the two days, facilitating a process of introspection, and enabling the co-creation of a cohesive conception of power - how it looks, feels and operates - in Durban’s cultural landscape. The reflecteur will  additionally offer space for the review, revision, rejection of exposed power positionalities, systems, relationships, and dynamics, so that Power Talks participants walk away with renewed insight once the programme is concluded. The reflecteur’s role will be to  ascertain whether there exists a common purpose, or engender acceptance of the lack of one. Ultimately, the reflecteur will be tasked with facilitating a collective debrief, a careful unpacking of the Durban Power Talks programme.  

All attendants of this experience will repeatedly have their attention drawn to their agency, the independence of their voice, and the particularity of the power they variously possess.  The expectation of all attendants will be a commitment to truthfulness, and courage to be as vulnerable as one’s agency permits. A moderator, The Outsider, will reiterate these guidelines that are intended to lay the foundation for meaningful engagement with the topic of power, which stretches people far out of their comfort zone.

This programme, which aims to be a gathering rather than a conventional conference, will seek out intimate spaces, where all who are present can participate;  in unpacking issues relating to power, its substance and contours.

“As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning  grounds for the most radical and daring ideas. They become a safe-house for that difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action.” 
— Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury.

Art as expression

Facilitators will frame and initiate conversations, and artistic disruptions / interventions /entertainment, to breathe life into the space(s) and how each day unfolds. Several artistic installations - dance, poetry, theatrical dialogue/monologue, song and music are potential offerings - will provoke or respond to the discussions on power. The intention is for attendees to become part of the spectacle in public spaces when performances are viewed by them and passers-by. Facilitators will create space for the unpacking of the questions generated by the cultural installations. 

The Durban programme has intentionally moved away from public panel discussions, and is shaped as a private experience where all present are asked to participate and own/dismantle/engage in their power. Those invited to take part have been considered. These are people in seats of power, artists who engage on the topic of power (through their research, body’s of work, and life approaches), and people who need to be affirmed that they have power. The curation of the programme offers space for honest, and difficult conversations, in a safe environment, informed by the spaces we sit in, and the terms of engagement we set up. By letting dialogue unfold privately, the programme does not forget the public space matters, and we set up one provocative performance in a public space, and another public event showcasing the pulse of the city’s creatives.

“We must constantly encourage ourselves and each other to attempt the heretical actions that our dreams imply, and so many of our old ideas disparage. In the forefront of our move towards change, there is only poetry to hint at possibility made real. Our poems formulate implications of ourselves, what we feel within and dare make real (or bring action into accordance with), our fears, our hopes, our most cherished terrors.” 
— Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury.

Space as story 

Multi-venue planning is part of the Durban experience. Each day’s talks will be hosted at different sites; these venues,  which will be curated in part by the event facilitators,will be selected on the basis of the memory and history informing the space. 

From  ‘old guard’ / white-cube art spaces; to religious venues previously functioning as meeting sites for anti-apartheid discussions; to contemporary spaces for artists shaping their own realities;  to a ‘no-walls’ venue breaking from conventional perceptions of space and its politics… participants will have the opportunity to form part of a spatial story.

The site specific experience of the Durban programme is influenced by personal memory and interactions with the KZN landscape. The Durban Art Gallery is symbolic of a monolithic structure, and of traditional gallery/museum space. The programme intentionally begins here, using their status of power legitimise our programme. However, we move away from the space very quickly, into the city and to a Methodist Church. This ‘curated confusion’, and spectacle, of walking guests back into a public space, is an attempt to prompt vulnerability, confusion, and remove ourselves from the walls of perceived power.

We walk to Central City Mission yaseThekwini. The church space is one that I am familiar with, and although this specific church is a space of contention (from childhood experiences of being the only white Minister’s child in a predominately Black congregation, where some wanted to reject our presence), it is still a site that evokes/provokes deep meaning.

Historically, the church have been used as gathering spaces for FeesMustFall student activists, housing for refugees, and anti-xenophobia meetings. The Methodist church has a history of being part of the anti-apartheid movement, and social justice issues. In a church, guests might feel comfort or discomfort, which is useful for provocative conversations on power.

The Chairman as a site of re-imagining, independent initiative, and commercialism, is situated in a gentrified part of Durban’s CBD. The site is one of many ventures (such as Amasosha Art Collective) in the city that has tried to activate an alternative art culture for creatives in the city, and for ‘Outside’ visitors. Music, specifically jazz, has given The Chairman its gravitas. The vision of the site is expanding, as owner and architect Ndabo Landa is restructuring the space, to offer artists a free space to exhibit to a clientele interested in music, art and culture. The site is important as an example of creative innovation, and aligns with the programme animateur’s exploration of power in a more imaginative light.

We gather once more to a site that has been a significant influencer in tangible social change: The Diakonia Council of Churches. The ethos of the centre was to provide an environment for people and organisations committed to social transformation. Through internal politics, a pandemic and economic crunches, Dakonia now operates more predominantly as a conference centre. The symbolism of structures and power, how they sometimes fail, or come to a natural end, will inform much of the reflective conversations guests engage in on the final day.

Power in performance and play

As much as the Durban experience is a serious investigation of, and open conversation on power, there is a bottom line that the three days are a fun intervention for attendees. The last two to three years of fatigue and loss occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic have been overwhelming. Without undermining the aforementioned experiences, Power Talks seek to offer an opportunity for re-connection, inspiration, play, catharsis, escape, and re-evaluation.
 
To conclude the intense three-day Durban Power Talks programme, all will be invited to attend a public afterparty, POWER PARTY, which will be hosted at 3 Millar Road, opening the programme from a private to public experience, where participants will have the opportunity to more informally debrief, against the backdrop of music by local DJs. 

The hope for the Durban programme is to re-connect creatives and organisations in the city. Even without a specific outcome, it is important that time is taken to sit down, and see each other. There would be great success if all sites are able to influence attendees in the way of: rethinking approaches to creative relationships, being brave in future projects, making access to space easier, informing artists of alternative ways to work in the industry. There is opportunity to re-align and re-inspire through the critical reflections and dialogues.