Abstract:
Protests, often violent have become a major talking point in South African politics.
This dissertation focuses on three matters: decolonisation of public spaces in South Africa, the
notion of landscape narratives in re-interpreting landscapes of contestation and using a scenographic
approach in communicating landscape narratives.
Decolonisation of public spaces
The problem that this dissertation aims to address is how public spaces in South Africa can be
re-imagined so that they represent all inhabitants of the city they (public spaces) occupy.
The landscape narrative
The protests concerning the decolonising of public spaces in South Africa is an issue of narratives.
The protests are not a reaction to the actual design of the spaces, but they are a reaction to the
narrative that these spaces represent. The main issue regarding narratives in landscapes is whose
story gets communicated and whose story is left out. For that reason, the notion of landscape
narratives is investigated.
Scenography as an approach to landscape narratives
This dissertation focuses on the application of scenographic principles in representing and
communicating narratives in public spaces. Scenography is researched as an alternative approach
to dealing with landscape narratives because scenography emphasises on the design of performance
spaces where the narrative is performed, rather than the design of elements that represent the
narrative. This approach is important because the aim of the investigation is to move away from the
use of symbols and signs in communicating narratives in public spaces. The vandalism of statues
in South African public spaces is a testimony of why symbolism might not be the best narrative
approach.
