Portrait with Keys

This dazzling portrait of Johannesburg is one of the most haunting, poetic pieces of reportage about a metropolis since Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City. Through precisely crafted snapshots, Vladislavić observes the unpredictable, day-to-day transformation of his embattled city: the homeless using manholes as cupboards; a public statue slowly cannibalized for scrap. Most poignantly he charts the small, devastating changes along the post-apartheid streets: walls grow higher, neighbourhoods are gated, the keys multiply. Security – insecurity? – is the growth industry.

Portrait with KeysUmuziPortrait with Keys
Joburg & what-what
Umuzi, 2006
ISBN 978-1-4152-0020-9
More at www.randomstruik.co.za

 

 

 

 

Portrait with KeysNortonPortrait with Keys
The City of Johannesburg Unlocked
W.W. Norton, 2009
ISBN 978-0-393-33540-8

More at www.books.wwnorton.com

 

 

 

 

portrait with keys portobello2Portrait with Keys
The City of Johannesburg Unlocked
Portobello, 2007
ISBN 9781846270604
More at www.portobellobooks.com

EXTRACT
Johannesburg is justly renowned for its scenic waterways. The finest body of water in my part of town is generally held to be the pond at Rhodes Park, established when the city was young on the site of an existing vlei, but I have always preferred Bruma Lake, which replaced the old sewage treatment works on the banks of the Jukskei. When the lake was first excavated in the eighties, as the focal point for a new shopping centre, there were teething troubles: the Jukskei kept washing down garbage and clogging the drainage system. Not long after the grand opening they had to drain the water to make modifications to the filters, and the system has worked well ever since. In 2000 and 2001, when the Bruma serial killers were at work in the eastern suburbs, the bodies of several men were discovered in the water, and the police had the lake drained to search for clues. It was a salutary reminder that the lake was artificial, that it was nothing but a reservoir lined with plastic. There was something fiercely reassuring about that reeking muddy hole in the ground, and it was almost a pity when the frogmen and the waders in gumboots had finished scouring the silty bottom, in vain, and the thing could be filled up with water again.
      In Johannesburg, the Venice of the South, the backdrop is always a man-made one. We have planted a forest the birds endorse. For hills, we have mine dumps covered with grass. We do not wait for time and the elements to weather us, we change the scenery ourselves, to suit our moods. Nature is for other people, in other places. We are happy taking the air on the Randburg Waterfront, with its pasteboard wharves and masts, or watching the plastic ducks bob in the stream at Montecasino, or eating our surf ’n turf on Cleopatra’s Barge in the middle of Caesar’s.
      When Bruma Lake was brimming again and the worst of the stench had dispersed, Minky and I had supper down on the quay at Fishermen’s Village. Afterwards we took a stroll over the little pedestrian replica of the Golden Gate Bridge, with its stays and cables picked out in lights, and watched the reflections dancing on the dead water.

TRANSLATIONS

ClespourJohannesbourgZoeClés pour Johannesbourg
Editions Zoe, 2009
ISBN 978-2-88182-654-2
More at www.editionszoe.ch

 

 

 

 

 

JohannesburgInselausZufallA1Johannesburg – Insel aus Zufall
A1 Verlag, 2008
ISBN 978-3-927743-99-1
More at www.a1-verlag.de
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PortrettmedNoklerHFPortrett med Nøkler
Humanist Forlag, 2008
ISBN: 978-82-92-62244-5

COMMENTARY
Jan Morris in the Guardian on Portrait with Keys
See the article at www.theguardian.com

Read 17478 times
back to top

Other Writing

  • L'insieme delle parti published by Utopia

     Utopia Editore in Torino have published an Italian translation of The Exploded View under the title L'insieme delle parti. The translator is Carmen Concilio.

    More here

  • 'Time-Travelling in the Archive' in Publishing from the South

    Publishing from the South: A Century of Wits University Press is edited by Sarah Nuttall and Isabel Hofmeyr and published by WUP. Featuring contributions from scholars, publishers and authors, this multi-voiced volume offers a deep dive into the history, sociology and politics of the oldest South African university press. It explores the strategies deployed to professionalise global South knowledge making and supports the scholarly missions of their universities.

    More here

  • 'In Passing' in Walking as Embodied Research

    In recent years, walking has emerged as a methodological tool and as a conceptually exciting point of departure across a range of disciplines and practices. This volume explores walking as a form of embodied research practice that offers fresh perspectives on key contemporary debates and areas of interest. These include the climate emergency and the debate around the Anthropocene, decolonial thinking and the struggle for social justice, feminist and queer walking methodologies, and the notion of the ‘infraordinary’ and practices of everyday life. Walking as Embodied Research: Drift, Pause, Indirection is edited by Christian Ernsten and Nick Shepherd and published by Routledge.

    More here

  • La Lecture published by Éditions Elyzad

    The Tunisian imprint Elyzad has published a French translation of Vladislavić's story 'The Reading' as a separate volume. The text, which appeared in the collection 101 Detectives, is translated by Georges Lory.

    More here

  • Peter Beilharz Festschrift: 'Three Lectures'

    On the occasion of his 70th birthday, friends and colleagues of Peter Beilharz celebrate his work and friendship in articles and other reflections. The texts make up a special issue of Thesis Eleven, the journal he co-founded in 1980.

    Full issue here