See - The City

See is an ongoing transnational project. It brings together cities, institutions, activists, artists, designers, and other creatives to exchange ideas, debate, and develop methodologies to bring about representational equity in the public life of cities impacted by colonialism and apartheid.

See widens the scope and range of our knowledge about the contributions that various individuals and visionary groups of people have made to the texture of Cape Town’s urban life. Through doing so, it seeks to wrestle Cape Town’s hybrid spirit from apartheid’s enduring spatial and social legacies.

While focused on Cape Town, See offers insights for global discussions on contested urban histories, and the construction of resilient postcolonial spaces and identities. The project team works with a number of partner cities and institutions, looking to those that have challenges with contested urban histories and those that have successfully integrated representative symbols into their landscapes, literature and teachings.

A visual metaphor for See: insight and inspiration

The creative expression of See, elements of which are seen throughout the project, has been informed by Kintsugi. This is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. As an approach, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something to disguise. Kintsugi literally means ‘golden joinery’.

Cape Town has a fractured past. History is patched together, and updated over time. In conducting research for See, we find pieces of the past, pieces of stories, pieces that have long been hidden. There are human remains, flotsam from shipwrecks, shards from homes torn down during forced removals, fragments of lives. See seeks to bring these pieces together, combining them into a unique narrative whole. The aim is greater visibility; the making of a more coherent, inclusive artefact. Togetherness, while imperfect, is better.

The Kintsugi technique also suggests that there is a usefulness in the past; it should not necessarily be discarded. It can, instead, be integrated into the present. Among many things, this represents a sense of resilience. What is broken can be healed. From trauma can come understanding. From destruction; golden light.

See is led by Zahira Asmal and produced by The City in collaboration with individuals and institutions in South Africa and the Netherlands. See more at www.iseeyou.capetown