On 2 March 2023, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in collaboration with Loughborough University, hosted a workshop titled “Exploring Madiba’s Graphic Heritage”. Nelson Mandela continues to be memorialised in different ways all over the world.
The workshop highlighted new insights from the Memorialising Mandela in the Metropolis project at Loughborough University, exploring the relationship between toponomy, graphic images, cultural heritage and placemaking in locations named after Nelson Mandela.
Dr Robert Harland, working with Dr Yolandi Burger, introduced the workshop by giving an overview of the term “graphic heritage” by breaking the term down. The “graphic” in graphic heritage refers to graphic images which can be abstract, architectural or representational. It can also refer to designs, pictures, statues or structures that visually tell the story of space.
This started an amazing collaboration between the two institutions that gave birth to the Named after Nelson (NAN) exhibition. Through careful research and curation, the exhibition explores six places named after Nelson Mandela in South Africa’s Gauteng province. It explores the contrast in imagery, information, location and access which links back to the archive held in custody at the Foundation.
This collaboration will inform our ongoing mission to keep the legacy of Nelson Mandela alive through convening dialogue around critical social issues. Specifically, the project will support existing efforts to disseminate his life’s work through the Foundation’s core activities in the memory and dialogue nexus.
Named after Nelson (NAN) is a temporary exhibition at the Nelson Mandela Foundation from 25 April 2024 until the end of September 2024.
Visitors are encouraged to take advantage of the new Red Bus stop at the Foundation and the new opening hours on a Saturday morning.