Johannesburg Wall Posters
by Alessandro Sala
In 1886 the gold rush began in Johannesburg, marking what is considered to be “the beginning of the end” of one of the biggest cities in Africa. Millions of “new” white Africans invaded the city center looking for fortune, forcing the native population into townships and triggering the violent and bloody racial issues that South Africa had to face until 1994. Since the end of Apartheid, this internal migration has reversed: the native black population came back to the city center of Johannesburg, while the economic power controlled by the white population moved 50 km north, in the suburb of Sandton.
The skyscrapers of “Joburg” are the perfect portrait of the city: the appearance of a tidy western city with a chaotic soul that is typical of African townships. A microcosm narrated through these images that symbolically aim to represent people and places as if they were inhabitants of one huge block: there is no difference between internal and external; the western idea of a separation between private and social life is completely changed and reinvented, until they almost merge and become one.
Single sheets
8.2 x 11.7 in / 21 x 29.7 cm
Xerox print
Mounted Poster
58.4 x 74.4 in / 148.5 x 189 cm
Xerox print
Printed in Italy, 2010