flynn098

On 30 March 2017 pumflet: art, architecture and stuff  distributed its second edition called pumflet   'gaiety'.  'Gaiety' published the recollections of  Wilfred Damon,  ex-resident of Die Vlakte a site of apartheid forced removals in Stellenbosch. Wilfred's memories focused on the Gaiety Cinema, the bioscope designated for racialised persons of colour. He writes how he learnt that his favourite opera would not be screened there despite it showing at the Plaza, the cinema for white patrons. He snuck into the white cinema and watched the opera 'illegally'. The intervention included a public tour of the demolished neighbourhood and a screening of La Boheme at the site where the Gaiety once stood, today a commercial complex and a pizza eatery. A big thank you to all who contributed to make this event and intervention possible and to everyone who attended. Another tour is organised on 18 November 2017 from 10am -1pm and organised by Gallery University Stellenb...

This project evokes the lived experiences of Die Vlakte. Die Vlakte was demolished between 1969 and 1972 as part of apartheid’s project of separate development and forced removals of racialised people of colour from the centre of Stellenbosch.  Residents of Die Vlakte, led by Wilfred Damon, will take the audience on a tour of their memories behind contemporary Stellenbosch. "Wherever you see a parking lot - that's were we lived". The tour will be given in Afrikaans, translated into English. The tour will end at GUS with a music performance of live guitar by Wilfred, discussion, refreshments and distribution of the second edition of pumflet ‘gaiety’ - a publication of Wilfred’s recollections of Die Vlakte based events: the earthquake interrupted screening at Gaiety Bioscope and the non-screening of La Bohème. pumflet: 'gaiety’ compiled by  Ilze Wolff , Wilfred's daughter, architect and artist, is part of a serial publication co-founded with artist Kemang Wa Lehuler...

Extract from 'In Ons Bloed' compiled by Hilton Biscombe. PUMFLET 'GAIETY' My father, Wilfred Damon, has written down his memories of going to the Gaiety Bioscope, the cinema that once stood in Andringa Street in an area that was known as Die Vlakte in Stellenbosch. Die Vlakte was demolished between 1960 ad 1970 as part of apartheid’s project of separate development and forced removals of racialised people of colour from the centre of Stellenbosch. Wilfred recalls particularly two stories. The one occurred during the earthquake of 1969, where the film, a typical Hollywood action flick of the late 1960s, was interrupted because of the effect of the tremor. At that moment, he writes, fantasy and reality was confused. Patrons ran out of the cinema feeling as if stepping out of the cinema meant stepping inside a real life extraordinary drama of the earthquake and its after effects. The second story that Wilfred writes about concerns the Plaza Bioscope, the cinema that was de...