Lauren Segal with family and friends inside the Constitutional Box Display.
Guests at the opening event looking at the table display
View of the opening eveing
From left to right, Schalk Erasmus (installation), Nabeel Essa (exhibition design), Jenna Burchell (management), Jackie Downs (administration and research), Cyril Ramaphosa (client), Lauren Segal (curator) and Sandy Shoolman (copy editor).
Lighting the flame
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On the 10 December 2011, the 15th Anniversary of the Constitution, Trace officially opened an exhibition One Law One Nation in the foyer of the Constitutional Court on behalf of the Constitution Hill Trust. For the first time, each of South Africa’s five constitutions was put on view. Seen together, they very graphically illustrated South Africa’s journey to democracy. Indeed, the final signed copy of the 1996 Constitution, which had never before been on display, took pride of place directly outside the Constitutional Court chamber. The Court was created as a result of the Constitution and it is therefore highly symbolic that it housed these documents in celebration of the 15th anniversary.
The three maces that have been used in South Africa’s parliament to signify that the House of Assembly is formally in session and that the proceedings are official were also on display. These beautifully carved gold rods also graphically represented the history and traditions of the country with the final People’s Mace of 2005 being truly inclusive of the diversity of all South Africans for the first time.
The second part of the exhibition mounted in the Constitutional Court’s art gallery, lead the viewer along fifteen steps in the story of the making of the final Constitution. Artworks were juxtaposed with documentary archive to represent each of the important moments in our history that culminated in the enshrinement of freedom, dignity and equality in our society today.
The artworks ranged from striking photographs to paintings to embroidery and were drawn from many different communities across the country and from across the decades. There were two Sekoto paintings which Sekoto painted in exile and which represent the Sharpeville massacre; a Gavin Jantjies collage representing life under apartheid; there was a Willie Bester piece made out of fragments left behind on the site of the Bisho Massacre; the Keiskamma Tapestry which wove the story of freedom in South Africa since 1994. Many of the documents on display – had all seldom been seen and shed new light on the history of the country.
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