An international artist working at the Bag Factory in Fordsburg has added some of Joburg's public artworks to an international public art website.

The Nelson Mandela statue in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton

SOME of Joburg's public artworks have been listed on an international website, together with works from four major European cities. The cities are Brussels in Belgium, Budapest in Hungary, and Delft and Rotterdam in Holland.

The website, Beeldenstad.net, plots 39 of Joburg's artworks on a satellite map. It lists the works and in some cases gives descriptions of them. Readers can submit information on artworks not listed and add comments on those that are listed.

Those from Joburg on the site include the huge Nelson Mandela statue in Nelson Mandela Square, in Sandton; the golden Mapungubwe rhino in Main Street; the Brenda Fassie bust in Newtown; the Captain Carl von Brandis statue outside the high court in Pritchard Street; the Gandhi statue in Gandhi Square; the David Webster house wall in Troyeville; the mosaic walls at the entrances to the Yeoville and Ellis Park swimming pools; and graffiti in Newtown.

Works from 13 other cities, without satellite maps, are also listed on the website.

Public art encompasses mosaic, sculptures, fountains, paving, light sculptures, building wraps and other elements of buildings, and decorative bollards.

The City has installed three major public artworks in recent years: the bronze statue of MK Gandhi at Gandhi Square; a steel sculpture entitled Open Arms outside Uncle Tom's Community Hall in Orlando West; and nine large steel tree sculptures in Juta Street, Braamfontein.

A new work, a large eland, is to be unveiled this week on the corner of Ameshoff and Bertha streets in Braamfontein. In 2005 the art, culture and heritage services department began assembling a database of public art in the city. Over 40 works have since been recorded, and the process is ongoing.

"This forms part of a broader project to identify all cultural assets in the city, including historic buildings, landmark sites, museums, artworks and artefacts," says Eric Itzkin, the deputy director of immovable heritage in the department. The database will be useful in guiding repair and maintenance of the works.

The original idea for the website comes from Dutchman Babak Fakhamzadeh, a web developer and digital artist. He set it up seven years ago with a friend in Rotterdam, the first city to go on it.

Fakhamzadeh has been a resident artist at the Bag Factory in Fordsburg this year, and has visited many of the city's artworks, photographing them and putting them up on the website.

If he had funding, he says, he would be willing to enter other South African cities on the site. He says it's the perfect way to learn more about a city.

The City provided the information on the artworks it has documented.

Public Art Policy
THE City's Public Art Policy is compiled by the arts, culture and heritage services department.
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