In partnership with Modern Art Projects South Africa (MAPSA), the National Heritage Council of South Africa, the Ruach Elohim Church and MTN SA Foundation launched the Right to Defiance Poster Project. It was launched on June 16th to celebrate Youth Day in Richmond, Northern Cape.
The powerful exhibition consists of 63 resistance posters from the MTN Art Collection, produced during the struggle against apartheid before 1994, and is housed in the Ruach Elohim Church.
“This collection of posters reflects a grassroots vision of the struggles of those who have come before us and of hopes for the future”, says Niel Nortje of the MTN SA Foundation. “For us, there was no better time than Youth Month to introduce and share this awe-inspiring collection with South Africa. The posters are real, raw and inspirational. They are something that everyone should see.”
The exhibition will run until January 2023 to allow tourists and visitors, the youth during overlapping school holidays and attendees of other cultural events in Richmond, such as the Annual Book Festival at the end of October, to visit and view it.
As part of the exhibition launch, MTN SA Foundation and MAPSA (Modern Art Projects South Africa) hosted a poster-making project, allowing young artists, printmakers, craft workers and other youth from the community of Richmond to create, design and develop their resistance posters, in any of SA’s official languages, using various printmaking techniques.
“The Apartheid resistance posters were the inspiration behind the poster-making project facilitated by MAPSA, the results of which are a current-day representation of the struggles our youth are still fighting. The bright, colourful posters also offer insight into where changes can and should be made to better our country for future generations,” continues Nortje.
Thuys Bouwers, Youth Pastor from Ruach Elohim Kerk, says, “we are so excited to be a part of this journey. It is important to ensure that the youth of SA know their history to carry on the legacy of standing for change. The community of Richmond has a strong history of storytelling through art, and when MTN and MAPS knocked on our doors, we could not resist; we wanted to tell our story”.
The exhibition and poster-making project formed part of MTN’s 2022 21 Days of Y’ello Care project – a commitment by MTN SA to make a sustainable difference in the communities it serves – and will run until 31 January 2023.
