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Hotel Yeoville, is a ground-breaking public art project which, by way of freshly designed digital interfaces, keys into the diversity of Forced Migrant, Refugee and South African experiences that make the controversial suburb of Yeoville such a hot melting pot. This neglected suburb on the eastern edge of Johannesburg is home to 40 000 people, 70 percent of whom are migrants and refugees from the rest of the African continent.

Hotel Yeoville, is a ground-breaking public art project which, by way of freshly designed digital interfaces, keys into the diversity of Forced Migrant, Refugee and South African experiences that make the controversial suburb of Yeoville such a hot melting pot. This neglected suburb on the eastern edge of Johannesburg is home to 40 000 people, 70 percent of whom are migrants and refugees from the rest of the African continent.

Hotel Yeoville aims to address themes of forced migration, the idiosyncrasies of place and the threat of xenophobia by tapping into the vital role of the Internet as a diasporic hub. Instead of reporting on the violent and extreme outcomes of xenophobia, the project explores the roots of difference, attempting to give public airtime to the most ordinary, everyday conversations of South Africans, migrants, refugees and foreigners. The broadest objective is to produce a social map of an inner city neighborhood (Yeoville) that is home to a largely invisible community of forced migrants and refugees from all over the African continent.

The project was developed in partnership with the Forced Migration Studies Programme, at the University of the Witwatersrand and is driven by public participation and participatory design processes. Hotel Yeoville was conceived of and is directed by Johannesburg-based artist Terry Kurgan. To produce the exhibition in the library she has worked closely with Tegan Bristow, an artist and interactive digital media developer and with Alexander Opper and Amir Livneh of Notion Architects as well as Artist Guylain Lutu.

The project aims on the one hand, to provide useful information, access to hidden resources, and communication opportunity to the migrant and refugee community in Yeoville and beyond. On the other, it aims to connect people and generate content; an online community aimed at building social networks and starting conversations about important public and social issues and events. Inhabiting the familiar global life of the Internet, and produced entirely through public participation and participatory design processes, the Hotel Yeoville is a project designed to make people feel at home wherever they find themselves.

Please visit http://www.hotelyeoville.co.za to view some of the products of our interactive exhibition. There is a slide show embedded into the homepage which will give you a close up view of what we have produced.

VISIT:
Yeoville Library
51-53 Raleigh Street
Yeoville, Johannesburg

EXHIBITION HOURS:
Mon to Thurs 1-5pm,
Fri and Sat 9am ­ 1pm

SEE:
[email protected]