Red Location Museum
The Red Location Museum was created by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (Port Elizabeth) as a not-for-commercial entity which embraces the following Vision and Mission:
VISION: Red Location Museum of Struggle will focus on the memorialisation and depiction of the apartheid narrative. It will portray the horrors of Institutionalised Racism and the heroic struggles of the Anti-Apartheid movement aimed at liberating the oppressed people. Responsive to the developmental needs of the local community, the museum will be an integral component of initiatives and programmes associated with the empowerment, education and redress of the local community at large. The museum will be a locally responsive institution of international standing.
MISSION: Red Location Museum of struggle engages the public in educational and awareness-raising programmes on Arts, Culture and Heritage; lends itself to partnerships and collaborative work; partakes in poverty alleviation and entrepreneurship-growing initiatives, affirming indigenous knowledge; adheres to international codes of practices; and embraces ongoing intellectual engagement and critique.
BACKGROUND: Red Location was the first settled Black Township of Port Elizabeth. It derives its name from a series of corrugated iron barrack buildings, which are rusted a deep red colour. Building materials for these sheds stem from the First South African War (1899-1902) structures - the Boer concentration camp at Uitenhage as well as the Imperial Yeomanry Hospi tal at De Aar.
It became a site of struggle during the years of Apartheid. Many prominent po litical and cultural leaders were either born or lived in Red Location and a number of significant struggle events occurred here.
THE MUSEUM It is designed to challenge conventional views of museum design. It draws on the work of Andreas Huyssen who has written extensively on the concept of memory and history. Visitors are not treated as consumers but active participants. The conventions of representing history as a single story are challenged through the design of the museum spaces. The past is represented as a set of memories that are disconnected yet bound together by themes.
The concept of the Memory Box is used to achieve these ends. These boxes are inspired by the boxes that migrant workers used to accommodate their prized possessions when separated from their families. These memory boxes were highly treasured. The Museum comprises a series of 12 unmarked, rusted boxes offer ing a set of different memories of struggle in South Africa. The boxes are housed in the main exhibition space and each box is 6 meter by 6 meter and twelve meters tall.
The contents of the boxes are revealed only on entry - there is no sequence - the contents and themes of the boxes are juxta posed - the experience in each box is a total one. The spaces be tween the boxes are spaces of refl ection - what Huyssen calls the twilight of memory.
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