A glance into public memory : which public? Whose memory? The demise of Red Location Cultural Precinct

Abstract

In 2021, the international award-winning South African Red Location Museum (RLM), situated within the Red Location Cultural Precinct and termed a‘ national site of struggle’ by Noero Wolff Architects, remains derelict. This paper is about the continuing narrative of state-built infrastructure being held hostage to community protests. It focuses on the museum and its depiction of the public/s that made Red Location. The intensity of community protest has had a significant impact on the Red Location Cultural Precinct with the museum’s closure in 2013. As I shall argue in the paper, more attention should be paid to the questions of museum public/s and whose memory heritage projects intend to document. Furthermore, the place of cultural institutions such as township museums requires a review of the idea itself. Given this context, I discuss two intertwined narratives, one, the concept of the promise of infrastructure, and the second, the impact of politics on heritage.