Parking des Anges [parking angels]: navigating the ‘in-between’ as spaces of transition through the arts in Durban, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Durban, on the East coast of South Africa, is home to a growing community of Francophone and other refugees. The most common occupation for these people is the ‘car-guard’ – an informal job of parking and guarding cars for tips. This film and photography documents an interdisciplinary project (2014) conceptualised and facilitated by doung Jahangeer and Miranda Young-Jahangeer through his Durban-based arts organisation dala. The initiative brought together French dance company Ex Nilho (Anne Le Batard, Antoine Bigot); French arts organisation Les Pas Perdu (Guy Andre Lagesse) and five car-guards towards the creation of an artistic language to articulate ‘dis-placed’ experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinary
• applied arts
• refugees
• asylum seekers
• car-guard

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Miranda Young-Jahangeer is currently Academic Leader in Teaching and Learning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. She is also a researcher/lecturer/practitioner in the Drama and Performance Studies programme, where she leads the Applied Theatre Stream.

doung Anwar Jahangeer is the founder of dala: art and architecture for social change, a non-profit organisation focussed on using creative practice to facilitate spatial justice. He is also a qualified architect, fine artist and performance artist who has performed extensively nationally and internationally. He is currently doing his PhD with the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology.