Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

Time-lapse sequences shot at various public locations in Johannesburg blend into hybrid spaces. The locations include underwater shoots at public swimming pools over 24 hours, similar studies of the Bree Street taxi rank, as well as impressionistic studies of moments such as rain beating on a car windshield. These spaces interpenetrate and blend in the film, creating hybrid spaces: an underwater taxi rank with swimmers darting across the ceiling, legs of swimmers tangling in the branches of a Jacaranda tree during a summer storm, and giant ballroom dancers stepping through the taxi rank at the end of a commuting day. In this film we have explored the poetic possibilities of these hybrid, polyrhythmic spaces, moving into the realm of dream images rather than the sometimes harsh documentary studies from which the material is drawn. Still, dreaming about Johannesburg will always be to an extent disquieting. The interweaving of the rhythms of work and leisure time, as well as the underlying currents of class and race tensions within Johannesburg are absorbed by the camera, emerging as a questioning of the complex multiplicities of daily life experience in this often brutal city.

Mocke Jansen van Veuren was born in 1976 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has worked in educational publishing and arts research in the non-governmental sector, as a professional animator and, since 2002, as a lecturer in Multimedia and digital filmmaking. In 2004, he started the on-going collaborative Minutes Project with Theresa Collins, documenting aspects of life in Johannesburg via time-lapse photography. Since 2006 van Veuren has collaborated with choreographer Nelisiwe Xaba in the creation of various performative works, focusing on sound composition and experimental video. He currently divides his time between the production of experimental films, the development of an analytical body of research, educational materials development, performative work, and lecturing at the UJ Multimedia Department and the Academy of Screen Arts (a new division of the Academy of Sound Engineering).
Theresa Collins lives and works in Johannesburg and graduated in 2002 with an MA Fine Art degree. The video and photography-based work she produces engages with elements drawn from her urban environment. She has worked in collaboration with Mocke Jansen van Veuren over the last 8 years and their preferred medium, time-lapse photography, lies somewhere between documentary film-making and animation. Their interest in time-lapse photography stems from studies in, and a passion for, the animation medium. Collins has recently worked as a researcher in the fields of education, heritage and history. She is currently working with the Market Photo Workshop as manager of curriculum and training.