Show shines spotlight on the men called the Red Ants
EXHIBITION EXPLORES PEOPLE HIRED TO CARRY OUT EVICTIONS
ONE DAY in 2007, the notorious Red Ants descended upon Monis Mansions in central Johannesburg and evicted hundreds of occupants who lived there. Photographers Moshe Sekete and Kabelo Mofokeng responded to the chaos unfolding before them with their cameras.
“They looked frightening, almost like they were prepared for a war situation,” Sekete says of the eviction unit nicknamed Red Ants.
Fascinated with the dissonance and fear instilled by the eviction unit, the two photographers captured those moments, which has now resulted in a photo-exhibition titled Red Ants.
People nicknamed the group Red Ants because of their red uniforms.
Having been launched in Johannesburg ’ s Goethe on Main, the exhibition is set to make its way to Soweto this month.
This time around, the exhibition will be held at the newly opened WhiteCityStudioGallery in Soweto.
Both Sekete and Mofokeng agree that aesthetic pleasure is secondary to the message conveyed by the photographs.
The exhibition features haunting images of children amid piles of furniture and apartments left empty after the families had been kicked out.
While the story of eviction is often told through the voices of the evicted, it is not often that we take an interest in the evictor.
Sekete says that he was drawn to the personal stories of the men in red.
When he started interacting with them, he found out that most of them were young, desperate for work and they came from similar backgrounds to the people they were evicting.
He says he learnt that some of the men lived in squatter camps and others were ex-convicts who were trying to reintegrate into society.
Speaking of the first showing, Sekete says: “The response was incredible because the exhibition had many facets. Not only was it visual, but we also included other voices to speak about the topic. There was poetry, music and discussion forums throughout the days.”
He says the reopening of the exhibition comes at an opportune time as debates around displacement are at an all-time high.
While 2013 marks the centenary of the 1913 Native Land Act, which accounted for mass historical displacement of South Africans, the exhibition becomes the ultimate conversation catalyst.
Families evicted from Monis Mansions were invited to talk at the initial Joburg launch.
Sekete says this offered them an opportunity to interpret their own stories in a way which is deeply personal.
One woman who was evicted said that she had lived in a flat for many years while she sold vegetables outside Monis Mansions.
The exhibition is a localised take on global issues of housing, homelessness and the occupation of space.
‘ Red Ants’ shows at the WhiteCityStudioGallery from this Sunday, July 14, until the end of August.