LORENZO NASSIMBENI

The project was a community initiative aimed to uplift and improve the existing building of the CAPE TOWN DISTRICT ASSOCIATION FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED. Spearheaded by the Afrika Burn collective, the project was project managed by Karen Stewart (The Ah HA Company), as part of the Streetopia Legacy Street Festival. The benefactors of the project were Afrika Burn and OBSID. Their funding contribution was the foundation for the support of the project.

The upliftment of the building was seen as a way to improve the overall environment of Observatory, and to include various community members in the process.

Architect and artist Lorenzo Nassimbeni was enlisted to design and implement the mural. A decision was made with Karen Stewart to work with the Mary Kihn School For The Deaf in Observatory and to conduct an art workshop with the students of the school. As such, the community of Observatory was engaged. The staff of the Mary Kihn School were closely involved in the process of the workshop. Much was learned and gained by all participants. The workshop produced fantastic artworks and experiences, and was seen as the most important part of the project, with the actual mural being a representative physical manifestation of it. The mural is a marker for this wonderful workshop experience.

Lorenzo Nassimbeni in collaboration with project facilitator Thandile Giyama worked with students of the Mary Kihn School For The Deaf in the workshop process. The workshop was designed to generate artwork material which would form the basis of the mural design. Students were taken into the Observatory neighbourhood to draw typical buildings. These drawings were translated into shapes, which Nassimbeni in turn translated into the mural design. As such, the students took ownership of the mural, which they essentially had directly worked on. The students were brought in to visit the process of painting the mural, so that they could see the result of their participation.

Further to this, members of the CTDAHI were included in the process through a presnetation of the process of the project. Hosted by Karen Stewart, CTDAHI members and Afrika Burn representatives saw a presentation by Thandile Giyama.

Motebang of KIEF COLLECTIVE was involved in the implementation process, as he had worked in the context of Observatory as an artist before.

Thandile Giyama, Simon Chinoda and Motebang Masitha worked with Lorenzo Nassimbeni in the implementation of the mural.

Artist Ralph Borland, who has created public artworks in Observatory before, was enlisted to create 2 illuminated artworks which would for a related part of the mural. He worked collaboratively with Lorenzo Nassimbeni.

Client :

Afrika Burn Streetopia Legacy and CTDAHI (Cape Town District Association for the Hearing Impaired)

Project Manager :

Karen Stewart (The Ah HA Company )

Artists :

Lorenzo Nassimbeni (mural) and Ralph Borland (illuminated artworks)

Project facilitator:

Thandile Giyama

Project custodians:

OBSID (Observatory Improvement District) and Mary Kihn School

Mural implementation:

Simon Chinoda

Motebang Masitha

The Westbury Park was designed by IYER Urban Design Studio in association with Local Studio Architecture and Urban Design. The brief for this mural encouraged the inclusion of the community of Westbury in the process of the creation of the mural. As such, I decided to engage members of the Westbury Youth Centre in the design process leading up to the implementation of the mural, in which they also played a significant part. I understood that the idea of physical and historical boundaries in the context of Westbury was important. The design strategy was to harness the site analysis skills of the members of the Westbury Youth Centre. In a guided process, the members ventured into the suburb of Westbury with cameras and the brief to document their understanding of and insight into the idea of ‘boundary’ with respect to Westbury past and present. The physical boundaries between Westbury and Sophiatown, Westbury and Newclare and Westbury and Coronationville were all included in the documentation. I then took the photographic information and used it to generate a collaged geometric which would pay homage to both the composition and narrative of the photographs taken by the Westbury Youth Centre members. Seeing the park as a physical microcosm of Westbury, the collaged geometries were painted onto the walls which refer spatially to the actual boundaries which the collage depicts. In this way, an image derived from contextual analysis refers in turn to context. 

I was commissioned by Artist Shaunez Benting in the role of architectural consultant for a mural of his design in Langa, Cape Town. The mural is for a project by Carin Smuts Architects at the Siyabulela Primary School. It is a project bringing together complementary actors to offer the youth of Langa an inspiring, welcoming, and safe space, primarily designed for dance practice (gumboots) and offering many other possibilities in terms of activities (academic support, robotics, etc.). The building is composed of two containers making an open courtyard. The building is programmed to facilitate the curriculum of the Happy Feet Youth Project.

The mural was commissioned by the We Are Etendart association and Lacoste. The brief called for a mural which would celebrate the era of freedom after the Apartheid regime. The idea was also to establish the connection of the Madiba Challenge with Nelson Mandela. The mural was set to incorporate a joyful and festive dimension and communicate the notion of progress.

A simple patterned geometry was used on the facades facing the open courtyard. The facade at the back of the performance space shows the emblematic Table Mountain, a reference to the Madiba Challenge. The mural on the back of the ablution block bears the graphic referring to Lacoste.

Artist: Shaunez Benting @shaunezbentingart

Design consultant: Lorenzo Nassimbeni

Architect of the building project: CS Studio #csstudio@csstudioarchitects

Client: We Are Etendart @weareetendart

Host organisation: Happy Feet Youth Project @happyfeetyouthproject

Site: Siyabulela Primary School, Langa #siyabulelaprimaryschool

Project benefactor: Lacoste @lacoste

Photography: 

Clip My Biz (images 1-3) @clipmybiz_video

The project saw the projection of 2 artworks on a digital screen of the ABSA building in the CBD of Johannesburg. Curated by Parts&Labour, it was a project for MABONENG ART WEEK 2014. The artworks are entitled Diagonal and Stair to Imagined City. Diagonal is an illustration from a series entitled Urban Moments commissioned by Architecture and Urbanism practice, UrbanWorks. The illustration represents an iconic view of Diagonal Street, looking northwards to the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange building, affectionately referred to as the ‘Diamond’ building. It captures an ‘urban moment’ in the context of the city – alluding to Diagonal Street as one of the 3 important lines in the urban landscape which formed what was known as the ‘Uitvalgrond’. Translated to ‘leftover land’ the space was delineated by the 3 farms of Braamfontein, Doornfontein and Turffontein.

Comparatively, the other illustration, Stair to Imagined City is inspired by the subterranean architecture of the Cradle of Humankind, just north of the Johannesburg. The Cradle of Humankind is widely regarded as one of the worlds most significant sites of paleontological discovery. The drawing was created in the  ‘Wonder cave’ and traces the passage up a natural stairway, culminating in a rock formation resembling a sculptural ‘Madonna.’ The illustration was created during a drawing workshop entitled Drawing on Origins, hosted by the NIROX Foundation and the Gauteng Institute for Architecture (GIFA), and was curated by architects Elena Rocchi and Dieter Brandt. The workshop investigated the relationship between the disciplines of paleontology and architecture. The workshop featured a trip into the field by renowned paleontologist Professor Lee Berger, to the site of his recent discovery of Australopithecus sediba.

La Città Vuota (The Empty City)

La Città Vuota (‘The Empty City’) is a gallery installation of drawings held at OPEN CO WORKSPACE at 163 Bree Street, Cape Town. OPEN CO WORKSPACE is a space designed and curated by Open City Architecture Urban Design Research. It pays homage to those who lost their lives in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the outset of the pandemic, Italy was particularly harshly affected. At this time, a concert was held where the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sang in the Duomo di Milano, in commemoration of the tragic loss the Italian people had suffered. In an iconic urban moment, Bocelli stood at the entrance to the duomo, facing the empty piazza. The title of the gallery installation relates to the emptiness of the streets of Italian cities as a result of the lockdown restrictions. As Bocelli sang, images of the empty streets of Milan were broadcast on television in accompaniment to his powerful voice.

One of the drawings in the exhibition, La Chiesa Di Santa Maria Della Salute, shows a church which was built in honour of the Venetians that lost their lives during the Plague of 1631. One third of the population of the city passed away. The inclusion of this artwork acknowledges that time, and the recent events of the pandemic in Italy.

The gallery installation also acknowledges the entrance space to the building in which it is held. The frontage of the building looks onto the historic Bree street. The gallery installation is an urban gesture, as was Bocelli’s concert, celebrating the building and its relationship to the street. Pointing toward notions of urbanity, the hope is that the exhibition brings awareness to the fact that the CBD of Cape Town is presently undergoing significant change. The office buildings are less populated due to the conditions of the pandemic. The exhibition communicates a wish that the inner city will thrive once more, as people return to it for work and recreation.

The design was based upon the notion of the importance of trade in the history of Cape Town. A drawing of Adderley street formed the basis of the design. Adderley Street was significant in being a strong link between the inner city and the harbour, and thus was of great commercial importance. The drawing became a motif which was jewel-like in its aesthetic, speaking to the specialness of the new chamber designed by the designers of the space. The background colour for the wallpaper is a direct reference to the corporate identity of the Cape Chamber of Commerce. A careful technical approach was taken so that the layout of the wallpaper would print at a scale which was specific to the space, and appropriate from an experiential point of view. The pattern was designed to have impact from a distance, giving prominence to the chamber. At close range, the detail and line quality of the drawings creates intrigue. Thus the experience of the artwork from both near and far brings a layer of depth to the overall space.

Location: Foreshore, Cape Town, South Africa

For: Cape Town Chamber of Commerce

Year: 2013

Architects: Jakupa Architects and Urban Designers

Photographer: Lorenzo Nassimbeni

The mural was inspired by the geometry of an existing subterranean tunnel, linking Johannesburg’s

Park Station with the Post Office in Jeppe Street. The tunnel is no longer in use, and was previously used to transport postal mail from the train station to the post office. The exhibition formed part of an ongoing research project regarding the subterranean architecture of Johannesburg. The notion of the ‘invisible city’ is thus explored, the network of tunnels and mines which contributed to the establishment of Johannesburg as a city. The relationship of the geometry of the artwork, and the geometry of the volume of the gallery was considered, in keeping with the interest in the link between art and architecture.

Exhibition David Krut Projects October 2018.

The exhibition is a portrait of the artist, composed of varying qualities and languages of line work which are reflective of his response to various physical environments and contexts. The work in the exhibition is made up of 4 distinct chapters which are structured as a linear narrative - a journey from one form of urbanity or place to another as experienced by the artist.  As the journey progresses, so the line quality, and its message, changes. The line is a barometer of the personal condition of the artist, in response to place.
 
Much like in the instance of a polygraph, the line changes depending on the pulse of the artist. This pulse is a reflection of Nassimbeni’s attitude to a place. The architecture of place is considered as well as felt, guiding the line intuitively. The works seek to uncover the idea of ‘the process of making’, and the discipline of printmaking. The layering of paper brings focus to the quality of line and process of the building of an image. These are principles inherent in the discipline of architecture and urbanism, as uncovered by the process of drawing and printmaking.

The collection of many images layered onto one another is about the creation of a language of line which tells the story of the artist’s emotive and cerebral response to varying types of urban environment, and in particular, the two which have been most present in his recent linear journey. In all, the artworks are a series of portraits of places made of lines which represent the artist's response to those places. As such, the portraits of the places work together in the presentation of a portrait of the artist.