Library of the Margin

The Exchange of Migrant Stories in a Transport Hub

Lesego Tsatsimpe

MArch 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Claudia Morgado
Unit Tutor: Ruby Mungoshi
Unit Assistant: Azraa Gabru

UNIT 13^︎︎︎
Second Nature | Shared Futures

My project morphs two typologies, that being a library and a taxi rank. The margin is referred to as the place we call home, that being where we come from and the centre being the place which we migrate to. I explore the terms of my MDP through my own lived experience moving from a small town in KZN to the city of Johannesburg with the female figure being predominant in my explorations.

I investigate the physical and non-physical boundaries of how marginal practices are negotiated when they are centered. The MDP is located within an existing taxi rank, the JITI (Johannesburg International Transport Interchange). Constructed for long distance and cross border travel, the taxi rank is located on the corner of Gwigwi Mrwebi and Simmonds streets. The retail spaces of the JITI become inhabited by collaborative cooking spaces that transcend boundaries. Spilling out and overlapping each other, I see this library as a living activity that is manifest through the acts of cooking and eating where narratives, oral histories and food are shared. Where the commuter, taxi driver, trader and the participant all share a common space between moments of arrival, waiting and departure.

Keywords:
Margin, Centre, Female, Narrative, Culture, Transforming

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