Discover Johannesburg through art, sound and story

Johannesburg, a city of contradictions — vibrant yet volatile, hopeful yet hardened. Its 139-year history has seen it reinvent itself many times. Today the city exists in layers. Some are visible, others hidden beneath its cracked pavements and once-gold-rich soils.

Later this week art will become the latest lens through which the city is considered and interrogated, as a programme of immersive performances and installations is scheduled at The Centre For The Less Good Idea.

From March 27-29, Johannesburg takes centre stage in Collation 3 The Unexpected City, the latest iteration of The Centre’s performance series, curated by The Centre’s Impresario, Neo Muyanga. It’s an open invitation to all to see the city anew.

This Johannesburg life

There’s a tacit agreement entered into for all who live in Johannesburg. We accept the city as volatile, a place that both demands and rewards. A city that gives, but always takes back. But how often do we step back and interrogate those narratives? How often do we truly listen to the city, instead of just surviving it?

The Unexpected City is built on conversations, both literal and metaphorical, between artists, residents and the city itself. It challenges us to rethink Johannesburg not just as a backdrop to our everyday lives, but as a collaborator, an actor in its own right.

“We see the Johannesburg CBD as being emblematic of the city of the Global South in the 21st century, and we are interested in making art through it, with it,” said Muyanga. “We envision a programme that is partly based at The Centre and partly in the public, with artists responding to the central provocation of The Unexpected City on the stage and out in the streets of Maboneng.”

Playwrights Jefferson Tshabalala, MoMo Matsunyane, Balindile ka Ngcobo and Melusi Mnqobi Molefe will each bring short-form theatre pieces to an array of spaces around The Centre, their works a series of sketches that reflect Johannesburg’s multiplicities. Sharp, devised and deeply rooted in experience, these performances aim to present the city in ways that might surprise even the most seasoned city-dweller.

Celebrating local design talent, a collaboration between The Centre and The University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture will see postgraduate architecture students working alongside The Centre’s scenographer Nthabiseng Malaka to create responsive set and design elements, which will also form an installation in the Events Space, capturing fragments of the city.

A city of sounds

Johannesburg is a city of sounds. Not just the hooting of taxis or the hum of everyday life on the streets, but the more subtle sounds too. The stolen moments of conversation between traders or the melodic notes of isicathamiya on those selfsame streets.

These are the sounds that The Unexpected City seeks to capture. The Johannesburg-based sound art collective, Playgroup (Jill Richards, BJ Engelbrecht and Jurgen Meekel), will lead a project in which participants record the soundscape of Maboneng using their mobile phones. The result? A sound installation that doesn’t just document the city, but listens to it. On March 29, a listening session and discussion in the Less Good Lounge will reflect on these urban symphonies, challenging us to open our ears to new possibilities for experiencing the city.

In the same spirit, the Jeppestown-based isicathamiya group Dumbe Jealous Down will activate The Centre’s Events Space with daily open rehearsals. Their presence is more than performance, it is a living, breathing continuation of a proud history that exists in song and movement.

Complementing this will be a film by artists Stephen Hobbs and Angel Khumalo, which intertwines the story of Dumbe Jealous Down with Khumalo’s past home in Jeppestown. Projected in and around Arts on Main, the film will fold time back onto itself, exploring the city’s many lived layers.

These city walls

Johannesburg’s streets are a living canvas, layered with stories of resilience, rebellion and celebration. From bold murals to fleeting graffiti tags, the city’s street art mirrors its people — vibrant, diverse and unapologetically expressive.

For The Unexpected City, mural artist and curator Nonka Mbonambi, alongside a team of local artists, will paint a large-scale mural outside the Arts on Main building. But beyond static artworks, two interactive, mobile walls will emerge, one in The Atrium and another shifting between Fox Street and the Arts on Main Courtyard, inviting the public to engage with Johannesburg in real-time.

Then there’s performance artist Qondiswa James, who will take Johannesburg’s streets as her stage in a one-off, site-specific piece addressing life, death and the ghosts the city keeps.

And, because no Johannesburg night is ever complete without its rhythms, cultural collective Narowbi will transform the Arts on Main courtyard into a curated space of poetry, live music and DJ sets, paying homage to a city that never stops moving.

Join the conversation

The Unexpected City is a question, not an answer. It is a provocation, an exploration, a moment to pause and consider Johannesburg beyond its usual definitions and lacklustre colloquialisms.

From theatre to sound, murals to movement, The Unexpected City is a reflection not only of the city as it is, but more importantly as it could be. It is an opportunity to see Johannesburg as a place to live, but also as a place to experience — fully, deeply and unexpectedly.

Join the journey from March 27-29 at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Arts on Main, Maboneng.

Book your tickets at www.lessgoodidea.com