Anja Planiscek

Goodman, Magagula Heights Township, Johannesburg, South African Republic

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“Domovi, kjer nisem bila” je kolektivni fotografski projekt, ki se osredotoča na človekovo razumevanje doma. Projekt se je začel v Južnoafriški republiki in nadaljeval v Sloveniji, vlogo fotografov pa so prevzeli prebivalci lokalnih skupnosti, ki so fotografirali svoje domove.

Tema doma me kot arhitekto zanima že vrsto let, v katerih sem se poleg projektiranja ukvarjala tudi s pisanjem o arhitekturi, predvsem o hišah, ki so jih zasnovali razni arhitekti. V pisanju o teh hišah sem poskušala razložiti arhitekturno idejo prostora, predvsem pa razumeti kako ljudje v njih prebivajo. To me je neizogibno vodilo do razmišljanja o domu. Kako prostor, v katerem prebivamo, postane dom? Je dom le fizični prostor, zatočišče pred zunanjostjo? Prostor umika pred javnim življenjem? Oziroma – je dom nekaj drugega, kar ni nujno obdano s stenami in prekrito s streho?

V projektu “Domovi, kjer nisem bila” sem vlogo zapisovalcev zgodb prepustila drugim. V Južnoafriški republiki, kjer sem jeseni leta 2010 preživela dva meseca, sem ljudem razdelila fotoaparate za enkratno uporabo in jih prosila, da zgodbe svojih domov s kamero opišejo sami.

V Južnoafriški republiki sem se znašla v okviru projekta izgradnje nove šole za otroke enega od revnih južnih predmestij Johannesburga (Šola za prihodnost – Gradimo šolo v Južnoafriški republiki, Fakulteta za arhitekturo, Univerza v Ljubljani). Stavbo smo skupaj z lokalnimi delavci gradili študenti in mentorji ljubljanske Fakultete za arhitekturo. Večina delavcev je prebivala v bližnjem Magagula Heights Townshipu, tipičnem južnoafriškem barakarskemm naselju za temnopolte. Mnogo prebivalcev se je v “Magagulo” priselilo iz ruralnih območij in drugih afriških držav. Ker me je zanimalo, kakšni so njihovi domovi in kako v njih prebivajo, sem jih prosila, da jih fotografirajo sami, brez moje prisotnosti.

Za sodelovanje se je odločilo 22 delavcev in drugih prebivalcev “Magagule”. Vsem sem za teden dni razdelila fotoaparate za enkratno uporabo in kratko besedilo z mojimi razmišljanji o domu. Posnetih je bilo preko 400 fotografij, ki sem jih razvila ob povratku v Slovenijo. Obenem sem enako kot prebivalci “Magagule” fotografirala svoj dom. Fotografije sem nato zbrala v knjigi, ki je izšla v omejeni nakladi. Vsak udeleženec projekta je prejel svojo knjigo.

Admir, Rakova jelša, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Projekt se je spomladi 2011 nadaljeval v Ljubljani v naselju Rakova jelša. Na Rakovi jelši, ki je podobno kot “Magagula” v Johannesburgu pomensko in prostorsko odrinjena na rob mesta, živijo večinoma prebivalci iz nekdanjih jugoslovanskih republik – Bosne in Hercegovine, Srbije in Makedonije. K udeležbi v projektu sem povabila učence lokalne Osnovne šole Livada, s katerimi sem sodelovala že leto prej pri delavnici v okviru razstave Doma – Arhitekta Marta in France Ivanšek. Tudi njih sem prosila, da brez moje prisotnosti fotografirajo svoje domove. Sodelovalo je 13 učencev.

Danes je v arhivu projekta preko 600 fotografij iz Johannesburga in Ljubljane, izbrane pa so predstavljene na razstavi. Čeprav so fotografije snapshoti nepoklicnih fotografov, na povsem oseben način kažejo razumevanje doma in ponujajo vrsto odgovorov na vprašanja, zastavljena ob začetku projekta.

Anja Planišček

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“Homes I Have Not Been To” is a collective photographic project which focuses on a man’s understanding of home. Project started in South African Republic and continued in Slovenia. The role of photographers was given to inhabitants of local communities who took pictures of their homes.

The project focused on the idea of home. It derived from my previous engagement with the topic – as an architect I have not only designed homes, but have also written about them. In the last years I wrote many articles for different magazines on houses designed by various architects. I visited these houses, on one hand trying to decode the architectural concept of space and on the other trying to understand how people inhabit it. This inevitably led me to the question of home. How does a space someone inhabits become home? Is it only a physical space, a shelter from the outside and public life, that makes home for us? Or – is home something more intangible, not necessarily enclosed by walls and a roof?

In the project “Homes I have not been to” I released myself from the role of observer and storyteller. In South African Republic, far away from what I think of as my home, I gave disposable cameras to people and ask them to tell their own stories of homes through the cameras. In Autumn 2010 I spent two months in one of southern shanty towns of Johannesburg while taking part in a social project. We were building a classroom and library in Ithuba Skills College together with students of the Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture and local workers. Workers lived in Magagula Heights Township, typical South African settlement for black people. Many of them have moved there from rural areas or other African states. Because I was interested how they live and what they think of their homes, I offered them cameras to take pictures on their own and without my presence.

22 workers and other inhabitants of Magagula Heights Township took part in the project. They received a short text with my reflections on the topic of home and disposable cameras for a week. They took more than 400 photographs, which I developed and scanned upon my return to Slovenia. In Slovenia I did the same as participants from Magagula – took pictures of my home without their presence. The selection of photographs we took was presented in a book, published in limited edition in November 2010. Each participant received a copy.

Project continued in spring 2011 in Ljubljana in Rakova jelša. Rakova jelša is a settlement that is in many ways similar to Magagula Heights Township in Johannesburg: inhabitants have moved there mostly from ex-Yugoslavian republics – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia. A settlement is  pushed to the spatial and mental edge of the city. By initiative of Adela Železnik from Museum for Contemporary Art Metelkova/Modern Gallery Ljubljana and teachers Andreja Miketič and Natalija Veselič Martinjak from Primary School Livada I invited pupils from this school to take part in the project. I worked with them a year before in the context of the exhibition “Home”. Upon presentation of the project I asked pupils to photograph their homes with disposable cameras. 13 of them decided to participate.

There are more than 600 photographs from Johannesburg and Ljubljana in the project archive today. Their selection will be presented at the exhibition. Although they are snapshots of non-photographers, they reveal entirely individual and personal understandings of home, offering a variety of answers to the questions addressed at the start of the project.

Anja Planišček