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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The inspiration for this piece is fantasy itself. Its shape, purely imaginative, is a fusion of various animals interpreted

from a very personal perspective. It is an artistic object that, in spite of having a possible function as a f lower vase, has a sculptural essence. The expressive nature of its graphics is inspired by an African motif.â&#x20AC;? Jaime Hayon

VOLUME 1

I M A G I N E

M O R E

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2017/10/12 5:57 PM

editor’s WORDS AND MOODS OCTOBER 2017

hello

a small curation of thoughts and found objects... Pinterest: L E A N A |

After a rather slow journey of becoming, I am ecstatic to announce that we are finally here in our own right, following our presence within the beautifully curated space of Sunday Times The Edit. Even though there is such a vast amount of newness and continuous inspiration within the world of design, art, and interiors, I think I have managed to craft a small selection of places, spaces, and people that I love right now. May it leave you inspired…

CONTENTS 4 SHOPPING Our favourite finds 6 ZEITZ MOCAA Africa’s first contemporary art museum 8 JAMIE HAYON The mad hatter of the design world 14 ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIORS A renovated apartment in the heart of Berlin 2 1 SINGITA Luxury conservation 24 BOOKS Ekow Eshun

COVE R C R E D I T S

Animalità Duck Elefant Multivase by Jaime Hayon for Bosa www.bosatrade.com/it

E D I TOR I AL

EDITOR Leana Schoeman leanas@tisoblackstar.co.za CREATIVE DIRECTOR Anna Lineveldt MANAGING EDITOR Matthew McClure SENIOR DESIGNER Thembekile Vokwana DESIGNER & PICTURE EDITOR Lydia Wessels CHIEF SUBEDITOR Theresa Mallinson DESIGN INTERN Athi Conjwa EDITORIAL INTERN Paula Andropoulos FINAL EYE Karin Mosselson PUBLISHER Aspasia Karras GENERAL MANAGER: GROUP SALES AND MARKETING Reardon Sanderson MANAGING DIRECTOR Andrew Gill ADV E RT I S I NG BUSINESS MANAGER Yvonne Shaff shaffy@tisoblackstar.co.za 082 903 5641 ACCOUNT MANAGERS Letitia Louw (Johannesburg) louwl@ tisoblackstar.co.za 083 454 1137; Samantha Pienaar (Western Cape) pienaars@tisoblackstar.co.za 082 889 0366; Gina van de Wall (Durban) vdwallg@tisoblackstar. co.za, 083 500 5325 ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR Jamie Kinnear P R I NT I NG Hirt & Carter PUBLISHERS Tiso Blackstar Group, 16 Empire Road (cnr of Empire and Hillside roads), Parktown, Johannesburg, 2193 © Copyright Tiso Blackstar Group. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the publishers. The publishers are not responsible for unsolicited material. The Edit Living is published by Tiso Blackstar Group. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Tiso Blackstar Group. All advertisements, advertorials, and promotions have been paid for, and therefore do not carry any endorsement by the publishers.

books

SHOPPING

TE X T Leana Schoeman

A selection of our favourite objects to inspire updates and additions throughout your home

04 11 8

1 Rata candles, from R179 each; Tem sphere, R139, all Country Road at woolworths.co.za 2 Rose home perfume, R425, za.looccitane.com 3 Grundig stainless-steel dishwasher, R5 799, grundig.com 4 Flos IC suspension light, R6 904, cremadesign.co.za 5 Brass desk lamp R9 000, griffithsandgriffiths.co.za 6 Retro chair, R799, mrphome.co.za 7 Hippendale mahogany mirror, R16 500, griffithsandgriffiths.co.za 8 &Tradition Fly sofa, from R83 589, cremadesign.co.za 9 Pomare fabric, R3 158p/m, from Floriental collection by Jim Thompson, at tandco.co.za 10 Finch chair, R6 995, blockandchisel.co.za 11 Large utility basket, R230, mrpricehome.com 12 Mirror cabinet with lighting, from R7 950, geberit.com 13 Velvet ottoman, R3 999, home.co.za 14 Gili rattan bench R2 295, blockandchisel.co.za 15 Scatter cushion, from R950, Haus by hertex.co.za 16 The old vase, R1 128, liammooney.co.za 17 Woodstock chair, R2 995, coricraft.co.za

house TE X T Gra ham Wood

06 06

The Zeitz Mocaa offers more than just an architectural symbol: it embodies a transformative narrative that comes at a crucial time for South Africa and the continent

t the grand opening ceremony of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz Mocaa), Thomas Heatherwick — the British designer and architect who transformed the old grain silos at the V&A Waterfront into the continent’s largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora — compared the project to the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London, by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. “This was not a power station that had giant turbine holds,” he said. “There wasn’t a space inside this extraordinary concrete structure. It was just silos divided and split up.” When it opened 21 years ago, the Tate Modern became the benchmark for the transformation of disused industrial spaces into cultural landmarks, and is a hugely successful contemporary art museum. The V&A Waterfront had similar ambitions for the disused 100-year-old grain silo on the city’s waterfront dock. Although it had operated until about the turn of the millennium, the silos had been disused for some time, but were a listed heritage site. To transform the silo complex into an art museum, however, would require a different approach from that of Herzog & de Meuron. The structure of the building itself comprised more than 100 tubes of various shapes and forms: “square tubes, rectangular tubes, circular tubes, and cruciform tubes”. As a grain silo, it was designed for grain storage, not for the quality of its interiors. “We needed to make a space, and we were trying to work out, how do we do this?” Heatherwick said. “Do we cut a square space; do we cut a sphere?” While contemplating how, “on the most boring level, to stop you getting lost”, he had an extraordinary realisation. “We realised, cutting through circular tubes did something beautiful. We all know what tubes look like, but when you cut through them with a curve, they create these magical lines.” There’s no denying that the central atrium of the Zeitz Mocaa has a magical

C E NT R E FO R TH E M OV IN G IM AG E

CHANGE

ZEITZ MOCAA: SEED OF

beautiful objects. It is a place that is essential for the survival of humanity. It is the place where we have to learn to get on. “We dream for this museum to be a place which is safe, but where very difficult issues can be discussed,” he continued. “Where we can learn about each other, we can learn about our differences. And if we can do it in a safe environment, we can understand each other better.” Mutual understanding, he argued, is the crucial ingredient for peace. In South Africa, the precedent for the Zeitz Mocaa would be a building such as the Constitutional Court, which did the extraordinary work of transforming the meaning of a site of shameful history and inhumanity into a symbol of reconciliation. It did this through the fusion of public institution, architecture, and art. The Zeitz Mocaa is different. Its site isn’t as historically loaded or filled with pain as Constitution Hill, and its context is commercial. It is part of the V&A Waterfront, and follows the commercial sense of dockside redevelopments around the world. The importance of the museum to function as an anchor for commercial activities is quite clear. But that doesn’t detract from its achievement. It might have taken a German billionaire’s private collection to make Africa’s first museum of contemporary African art, and begin the symbolic works of reflecting the importance of the continent’s own modernity back at its people, and a profit-

07 A RTW O RK BY M O H AU M OD IS A K E NG

ZE ITZ M O C AA ATR IUM, DESIGNED BY HEATHER WICK STUDIOS; IMAGE BY IWAN BAAN M AC H O NN E BY C Y R US KA B IR U S C UL P TU RE GA R DE N ON E

quality. It is a mesmerising space, with light flooding down through the tubes from skylights, and the concrete curves creating an extraordinary sense of drama. The new atrium (the shape of which is actually based on a mielie pip, digitally scanned and “enlarged to be almost 10 stories high” and “cut out of the heart of the building” as Heatherwick described it) has been repeatedly compared to a cathedral. It is an appropriate comparison. Art galleries have come to function as secular churches in many ways in various modern cultures. But, more importantly in this case, the simple wonder that the space (or the potential for such beauty) existed all along, but was somehow hidden or unrealised, adds a dimension of redemption to the design. At its simplest, the transformation is metaphorical. Carving an open space from the interior of the building began a narrative, Heatherwick explained, about “busting people out of their separate silos”. It became a metaphor for the beauty that can be created from dissolving separations. “We felt that our role was to create togetherness, and to give a heart to a building that had been heartless,” Heatherwick said. Another layer of the power of the metaphor is that the memory or the reminder of the separation remains in the new design. Those curves and arches represent the drama of the transformation playing itself out eternally in the form of the atrium: a constantly renewed vision of something mundane

becoming something extraordinary. A central part of the narrative of South African life is transformation. Dealing with the heritage of a city, or a building — dealing with history itself — involves a significant effort in reconciling a shameful past with the need to build a future. How do you take a divided and fractured past and find common humanity in it? How do you simultaneously acknowledge a shameful history, but retrieve some sort of common identity or purpose from it? Whereas a spectacular new building might have sent a bold, unambiguous message about hope for the future, a symbolic structure that finds its vision for the future in the transformation of the past has the capacity to heal, to offer redemption. Mark Coetzee, curator of the Zeitz Collection — the private collection of billionaire philanthropist Jochen Zeitz, that forms the heart of the museum’s collection — put it explicitly when he introduced Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu at the opening ceremony: “This museum is more than just a place for

driven enterprise to bring it about, but the extraordinary fact is that it happened. What is even more extraordinary is the nature of the space that’s been created. Heatherwick’s paradoxical description that what he did was to “cut (a grain of maize) out of the heart of the building” so that when you walk in “now there is a heart, and now there is a space”, sums it up. That atrium is a generous space. Rather than projecting a message, it offers an invitation: to be inhabited, to be filled with exhibits, for events to take place. It reminds us that transformation is in our own hands, in the necessity, as Coetzee put it, for safe spaces in which to face difficult issues. “I truly believe that one of the marks of any great civilisation is (its) collective achievements,” said Coetzee. “It shows the collective power of who we are as a people.” It really does seem remarkable that, given all the difficulties and contradictions that afflict South African public life, we have an extraordinary heart — even if it is the shape of a mielie pip.

design TE X T Mi l a Crewe-Brow

GETTING TO KNOW JAIME HAYON

e h T 08

PALE T T E TAB L E

r e t t Ha

JAI M E H AYON

Mad

G REEN CATCH CHAI R

We explore the inimitable work of design superstar Jaime Hayon

aime Hayon wears more hats than Queen Elizabeth. This creative chameleon’s body of work spans the style spectrum, as do the clients he has worked with. The 43-year-old Spanish designer has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most relevant creators of our times and one of Wallpaper* magazine’s most influential creators. But what is it about Hayon that the world can’t get enough of? As with many of history’s greatest creative talents, it’s his disregard for the rules. Take, for example, his iconic Green Chicken, with its knobbly, jade-green body, pert antennae, and generous, rocking base. It’s an entirely unexpected digression for the humble chicken — sculptural, expressive, and quirky — all attributes Hayon has become renowned for. Redefining design as we know it, he shifts the goal posts and smashes the norms.

T IOVIVO

OF THE DESIGN WORLD

www.blockandchisel.co.za

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A NI MA LITA GREEN CHI CKEN

H OTE L BARCE LO TORRE MADRI D

NANI M AR QUI N A RUGS

Unsurprisingly, it’s a challenge to classify Hayon, to underline broadly what kind of designer he is. He strives to keep it that way, believing that the designers of today should not limit themselves, but push the boundaries and set themselves free, even at the risk of being misunderstood. On paper, Hayon is an industrial designer, but in reality he designs chairs, tables, ceramics, lighting, sculptures, watches, clothes, rugs, wallpaper, interiors, glassware, shoes and, well, rocking green chickens. Hayon is, without doubt, one of the major design collaborators of our time, with everyone in the creative sector wanting a piece of him and his inimitable style, which has been described as fearless, childish, playful, humorous, theatrical, and bold. It was only just more than a decade ago that Hayon opened his own studio, having previously worked for Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research academy. During Hayon’s 14-year-old career as a designer in his own right, his work has caught the attention of the world. The magic that he brings to our relationship with design comes down to an element of playfulness and surprise. Who else could have come up with the outsized, animal-like Tiovivo sculpture — which can be climbed into and slid out of — adorned with bright chevrons, dots, and stripes; the enormous, purple rocking sausage; the collection of chairs for &Tradition with their open arms ready to catch or cosset the sitter; or the collection of carefully detailed tableaux in fine porcelain depicting the lives of its characters. The latter, a project for historic porcelain brand Lladro, reveals the scope of Hayon’s reach: working with a brand that many people perceive

to be overtly traditional and surprising us all by wildly reinterpreting its craft. Likewise, for the centuries-old French crystal brand Baccarat, the designer took its classical craft and made a radical departure, fusing the material with plastic and ceramic, and introducing luscious, fruit-inspired colours to his creations. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hayon teamed up with Camper to create a collection of vividly coloured leather shoes, inspired by his fondness for dance halls. “If for me, and also for many others, glasses are important in creating the personality of a person, I think that shoes should be too,” he says of the concept behind this collaboration. Hayon’s Palette tables for &Tradition exemplify his signature use of colour and loose form, with their stacked tops in raw materials inspired by the kinetic sculptures of Alexander Calder. His rug collaboration for Nanimarquina’s 30th birthday is typical of the designers’ fantastical style, featuring lips, hands, stools, and bird-like men in hand-tufted wool. “Jaime Hayon is a true design star, born in Spain, but forged in Italy under the mentorship of the best. His aesthetic is unique and unusual, almost whimsical — qualities that we seek out in our furniture and lighting at Créma,” says owner Craig Tabor-Raeside. “Whether it’s something from Moooi, &Tradition, Magis, Bosa, or Nanimarquina, Hayon never fails to wow and his pieces are true collectibles,” . As varied as Hayon’s projects are in content and discipline, all of them bear his mark: a signature design language unlike any other. While he preserves craft and tradition, Hayon designs with an attitude and approach that is rooted in the now: he’s a rule breaker and style maker, operating in the space between art and design, function and pure expression. hayonstudio.com

IN CONVERSATION WITH JAIME HAYON

You’ re a c ha m eleo n, adapt ing yo u r skil ls to any n umb e r of d e si g n f i eld s f rom f a sh i on t o fur n it ure. Do es t he chang e in fo cu s present ch a l len g e s? I n eed n ew c h a l l en ges to exp l o re ne w w a ys fo r creat ivity. I don’t even t hink about it — i t c o mes n a tura l l y to me a n d i t ’s n ec es s a ry f o r me t o h a ve ne w chal leng es to stay eng ag ed. It must hav e s o met h i n g to w i t h my p ers o n a l i ty , I gues s . How d o you manag e to remain an ind ividu al in y our w ork w h e n y ou’re b om b a rd ed b y 24 /7 st i mul i in t he creat ive realm? I’m extremel y a c t i v e, a n d , f o rtun a tel y , I f i n d i n s p i ra t i o n q u i t e n a t u ra l l y. I also have t he abil ity to concentrate a n d v i s ua l i s e. Th es e tra i ts h el p me to d o o n e t h i ng a t a t i m e , and also to turn off al l ot her st imul i wh en I’ m w o rk i n g. Th e v ery f i rst t h i n g y ou

e v e r d e si g n e d un d e r H a y o n S tu d io ? I ni t i a l l y , a w a t e r b ot t l e t ha t w a s ne ve r m a d e . Eve nt u a l l y , t h e AQ H a y o n b a t h ro o m ra n ge a nd t he J ose p hi ne l a m p. Eve n i f t he y d on’t re f l e ct m y cu r re nt cre a t i ve d i rec t i o n s , b o t h d es i gn s s t i l l g o st rong a nd I ’ m p rou d t o sa y t he y cont i nu e se l l i ng w e l l . W hic h p ri n ci p le i s a t t h e h ea rt o f e v e r y t hing y o u de s ign? He a r t i t se l f . W hat hav e t he pas t 1 0 y e a rs of y our ca re e r h a v e tau ght y o u ? To w or k w i t h p e op l e I l i ke . W hat w as t he tu r ning p oi n t i n y our ea rly ca ree r? S t a b i l i t y vs cha l l e ng e a nd “ t he sy st e m ” vs f re e d om . I chose t he l a t t e r i n ea c h c a s e. It w a s a ri s k : I cou l d ha ve l ost e ve r y t hi ng or I ha d e ve r y t hi ng t o g a i n. A g a i n, I chose t h e l a t ter. W h a t ca n w e a lway s expe c t fro m y o u r w o r k ? A su r p r i se , a nd , hop e f u l l y , a sm i l e .

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house

TE X T Robyn Al exa nder

PR ODUCTI ON Sven Al berd i ng

PH OTOGR APH Y Greg Cox / al l b ureaux.co.za

HOUSE OF BRIDGES

Kasia Korczak and Payam Sharifi, co-founders of art collective Slavs and Tatars, art, craft, and folklore to make a profound statement about hospitality

Getting Even #6 (2014) by Assaf Gruber

BO T T O M LEFT

Man with the Head of Dog, a work by artist Janek Simon, revisits the myth of the Cynocephali described in Marco Polo’s travelogues as peoples living in the Andaman islands

LEFT

The living room of Kasia Korczak and Payam Sharifi’s Gründerzeitwohnung in Berlin Moabit was one of three rooms in which the beautifully moulded stucco ceiling was painstakingly restored

FAR LE F T

Kasia Korczak and Payam Sharifi, co-founders of art collective Slavs and Tatars, in the living room of their Berlin Moabit apartment. They are surrounded by artworks by Florian Auer Agnieszka, Kurant, and Oskar Dawicki

have filled their classic Gründerzeitwohnung in Berlin with

TH I S PAG E

n ornately carved Moroccan door leads from the large Berliner Zimmer to the bedroom in Kasia Korczak and Payam Sharifi’s apartment in a classic Gründerzeitwohnung in Berlin Moabit. Sharifi says that when it’s closed, it has a tromp l’oeil effect: guests often don’t realise that it’s a real door. “Because it doesn’t fit in that environment — there’s this traditional Moroccan door squeezed into a 19th century house — (they assume that) it’s a sculpture or a wall piece,” he says. “They don’t think it opens up.” But it does, and it has a curious psychological effect. “There’s an open-sesame effect of opening an old wooden door, as opposed to a standard door, which makes the passage into the bedroom more pronounced, dividing the private space from the more public realm of the home,” Sharifi says. Korczak had already decided to include the door before plans to renovate the apartment. As their architect Marc Benjamin Drewes, who worked in collaboration with Schneideroelsen, recalls: “The first time we walked into the space, it was already lying on the floor.” He freely admits that he would never have been bold enough to include it in a renovation, but loves its effect. The Moroccan door also marks an important transition in the apartment between the spaces with original 19th century features, which were restored, and a contrasting, more modern section where new walls were added to accommodate

bathrooms, and where, “we couldn’t rely on the old traditional look,” Drewes says. “Hence, we went completely modern and did something without any details.” Finding this apartment and moving in was a turning point for Korczak and Sharifi. As co-founders of the art collective Slavs and Tatars, they and the other members had practised apart, dotted in different cities across the world since they formed in 2006. “We’d been working for seven years in different places in the world and (communicating via) Skype,” Sharifi says. Sharifi is an American-Iranian writer, researcher, and artist from Texas who has lived and worked in cities including London, New York, Paris, Moscow, and Tehran. Korczak, originally from Łódź, in central Poland, has lived, worked, and studied in London, Arnhem, and Brussels. They chose Berlin as their base for several reasons. Slavs and Tatars is a researchbased artistic practice, concentrating on the region between the former Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China. “Berlin is perfectly suited to accommodate those research needs,” Sharifi says. Berlin Moabit is situated slightly north of the city centre, near Tiergarten and the Reichstag. It was in the former West Berlin, but has working-class roots and was among the last neighbourhoods to gentrify. “It’s a microcosm of the whole of Berlin: most of the city is pretty communitarian, but here

On one side of the kitchen area of the Berliner Zimmer is a mid-century Polish unit Korczak inherited from her family. On the other is a kitchen unit with stove and sink

FAR BOT T OM LEFT

In the study, the 1930s swivel chair is from a flea market in Berlin, and the desk is from Poland. The rugs include a Persian kilim and another lion rug, a thick, hand-woven rug often made by nomads

FAR T OP L EF T

The large Berliner Zimmer, the third room where the moulded ceilings were stripped and preserved, is used as a dining room and kitchen; The Moroccan door that leads to the master bedroom was the first piece purchased for the home

TH I S PAG E

you have Germans, Turks, Africans, Arabs, and Eastern Europeans,” Sharifi says. The 19th century Gründerzeit origins of the building were interesting to Korczak and Sharifi in terms of their artistic practice. Part of reason they formed Slavs and Tatars was to envision an alternative idea of modernity that does not so much rupture with the past as innovate within a tradition. Not only was the anonymous craftsmanship embodied in the ceiling mouldings an example of the kind of craft-based practice that they like to reconnect with in their own work, but it also evoked a pre-modern world view common to many cultures. “Of course, modernity has made ceilings blank slates,” Sharifi says. “But until the turn of the 20th century, people around the world invested their wealth in their ceilings.” From the wood carvings in middle European medieval houses to the Muslim world, ceilings were invested with “a certain indulgence of assets or wealth”, as Sharifi puts it. “A nice ceiling elevates you and makes you look up like you do in a cathedral, and modernity recentred that gaze towards the individual and this world and not the next world,” Sharifi says. “You’re always looking at eye level or down, at the floors.” He found the effect of the ornate “pre-modern ceiling, where you can see a relative amount of wealth for a working-class neighbourhood” intriguing, and he and Korczak saw its potential to allow life and their artistic practice to dovetail. For the most part, rather than altering the apartment, the renovation involved bringing out its inherent qualities. “The task was not to destroy anything,” Drewes says. The moulding on the ceilings in three of the rooms, for example, had been painted and repainted so many times over the past century that much of the detail had been obscured. A lot of time and effort went into painstakingly shaving off the layers of paint by hand. As they peeled off the layers, they uncovered patches of colour and even evidence that the ceiling had once been decorated with figurative frescoes. “When everything was cleaned, we decided to just leave it like it is, and not paint over it,” Drewes says. “Now you have this really rich texture of the ceiling that defines the room.” In the back of the apartment, the renovation took on a contrasting approach. These areas, including the bedroom and new bathrooms, are characterised by a minimalist approach. Walls were added, the bathrooms were modernised, and another bathroom was added in the hallway, too. “We went completely modern. It really goes in the complete other direction,” Drewes says. The floors are tiled with patterned, untreated cement tiles, prompted by the Moroccan door, which imparts a particular

In the bedroom, the aqua blue tiles are untreated cement, a natural porous finish that allows them keep the temperature cool. Hanging from the ceiling is a pająk (Polish for ‘spider’). The pająk was traditionally hung from the homes of rural Poles to celebrate the harvest, as well as benediction for the upcoming year

OPP O SIT E PA GE RIGHT

In the study, a coffee-house genre painting of a circumcision comes from a Jewish antique shop in Tehran. A series of sliced bowling balls, Getting Even #6 (2014) by Assaf Gruber, are used as door-stops

OPP O SI T E FAR L EF T

The bathroom is sleek and minimalist, but also tiled with patterned, untreated cement tiles. The threelegged stools are Romanian. The artwork on the wall is Love Me Love Me Not (Wrocław) a mirror-work by Slavs and Tatars, tracing the name changes of various cities as they are claimed by different empires or nations

TH I S PAG E L EF T

atmosphere to these areas of the apartment. They offset the pristine modernity of the new areas, and Sharifi notes how they “breathe” and cool these areas without making it necessary to open windows, Just as Korczak and Sharifi’s artistic practice as Slavs and Tatars involves an investigation of complex, ambiguous, and multiple subjectivities, and the design of the apartment itself plays modern and premodern eras off against each other, so the furnishings and art continue that habit of a complex investigation of space and identity. While Sharifi is clear to point out that he’s not anti-modern, a large portion of Slavs and Tatars’ artistic practice involves collaborating with craftspeople from Eurasia to create elements of the installations and objects that constitute their work. “One of the reasons Slavs and Tatars was created was to put pressure on a received notion of modernity,” Sharifi says. “There’s less emphasis on authorship in the crafts (than) in the fine arts. It’s much less about the individual and much less about rupture. In the arts, the emphasis is always about a break — about going against what came before you; whereas crafts are about actually inscribing yourself in a tradition, and then innovating.” It was very important to Korczak and Sharifi that their home be socially and culturally inclusive: that both builders who worked on the renovation and art collectors who visit could feel comfortable in it. “What’s special about our home is that it manages to be an interesting space without being socially exclusive,” Sharifi says. “The idea of hospitality is central to much of Slavs and Tatars’ work, and couldn’t be more relevant politically in the current climate.” Perhaps one of the most prominent pieces of furniture that embodies this democratisation of design is the Iranian riverbed in the living room. “This is considered an example of a vernacular architecture you find across Central Asia and the Caucuses,” Sharifi says. “You find it at roadside stops. You often find it near rivers, hence its name, and in tea houses. What’s interesting for us is that, as opposed to a Western-type seating where a chair is ‘your chair’ or ‘my chair’, there is no individual space here.” The significance of the carpets throughout the apartment is another exploration into the possibilities of handcrafts to represent a cultural ambiguity that Slavs and Tatars is

interested in. The artists often collaborate with craftsmen from Turkey, Iran, and Poland to create rugs and carpets for their artworks and installations. “In Eastern Europe, people put carpets on the walls,” Sharifi explains. “We, of course, in the Middle East and the Caucuses put them on the floor. We do both in our practice.” The carpets represent a cultural bridge to a pre-modern era and a corrective to the preciousness with which they’re treated in the West. “In places that make carpets like Iran and Turkey — we’re not precious about carpets,” Sharifi says. “They last for a hundred years. Red wine has spilled on my parents’ carpets for as long as I can remember, and you just wash it out. You don’t obsess about it really.” For Sharifi and Korczak, this exploration of the possibilities for a modernity that links with the past is found throughout their house. It’s the ambiguity, the uncertainly, and even sense of conflict in certain elements that create its unique sense of hospitality. It invites interaction; it invites in the craftspeople who created many of its furnishings and features; it invites in the past and the present; it invites interpretation, and wine on the carpets. slavsandtatars.com; marcdrewes.com

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travel TE X T Roberta Tha tcher

SINGITA’S 100 YEAR

VISION W

hen you drive into Singita territory, you can imagine what the land looked like 100 years ago. You’re unlikely to come across other cars, and the undisturbed wildlife is healthy, relaxed, and abundant. The growing safari lodge and luxury accommodation brand, which currently boasts 12 lodges in Africa, is on a mission to ensure all its territories will look the same 100 years from now. “Conservation needs to be done at scale,” says Singita chief operating officer Mark Witney, who is so passionate about the topic that he’s shifted his energy to this sector of the business alone. “We own big, iconic pieces of land with large volumes of game; we work hard to not disrupt the connection people experience with nature.” While this undoubtedly enhances the exclusivity of the guest experience, there’s a larger motivation at play: although Singita has always been known as one of South Africa’s top luxury brands, its conservation efforts are steadily taking centre stage in its evolution. When Witney refers to scale, he’s not viewing the topic lightly. “Conservation requires structures and framework and hundreds of millions of dollars,” he says. When the first lodge opened in 1993 it was all about luxury, but over the past few

The luxury safari group’s conservation efforts are ensuring a magnificent wilderness experience, both now and in the future

1925

1993

1996

2001

James Fawcett Bailes, grandfather of current owner Luke Bailes, purchases a large piece of land in Sabi Sands.

Ebony Lodge opens, introducing one of the first luxury safari experiences.

Singita Boulders opens, offering an even more luxurious and diverse safari experience.

Singita enters first private partnership with the Kruger National Park. Singita Lebombo lodge opens in 133 000ha private concession.

Closer to home, in South Africa, Singita has introduced an anti-poaching “K9” (police dogs) unit and a permanent helicopter at Sabi Sands. Consequently, there has been a massive decrease in poaching. The story behind this particular initiative illustrates how Singita has used its unrivalled luxury status to benefit the environment. “Hospitality on its own would never cover the costs of conservation,” Witney says. “Luckily for us, the world is so crazy now that people with money want what nobody else has. And we’ve managed to sell them exactly that — we sell them a legacy.” The K9 unit, worth $350 000, was donated by a guest. Singita is capitalising on this desire for to leave a legacy, and in 2016 the brand launched a new business model combining commercialism with philanthropy. “We hook

up with these guys who want something unique, and they purchase exclusive-use rights to a villa on our property. They then pay an annual donation, and these funds run the conservation initiatives in that property,” Witney says. “Every single property has a trust, and they’re all run independently, targeting the specific needs of that territory. Singita also works closely with non-governmental organisations and governments, as well as philanthropists, and has created such a strong name for itself that governments are now inviting the brand to open lodges across the continent. “Our conservation footprint is growing fast,” Witney says. “This is why we do what we do. And hopefully in 100 years’ time, everyone else will be able to benefit from it.” singita.com

PHOTOGRAPHY LEANA SCHOEMAN AND SUPPLIED

decades, the group has steadily increased its conservation focus, spending $11-million on conservation in 2016 alone. The effects are clear. In Singita’s Serengeti property there has been a four-fold increase in the number of mammals since 2003, and 5 017 poachers have been arrested since 2001. Best of all, 120 of these poachers have been converted to game keepers, and intelligence constitutes an invaluable arsenal. “Game is incredibly resilient,” Witney says. “As soon as you protect an area, they sense it and come back.” To this end, the Pamushana Lodge in Zimbabwe has not only seen a successful reintroduction of black and white rhino, but has also, amazingly, seen zero poaching of rhinos since 2007. It has even managed to relocate some of its rhino population to Botswana.

TRAVEL DIARY & SINGITA ESSENTIALS

The Edit Living team shares the highlights of Singita Ebony, which epitomises the perfect South African luxury-safari experience 2.

22 2. 3. 5.

Te m p e ra t u re Summer: minimum 18°C; maximum 35°C. Winter: minimum 9°C; maximum 25°C. 10.

G e t t i ng t he re Scheduled flights or private aircraft available, with landing strip in close vicinity. About 500km or 6.5 hours’ drive from Johannesburg.

Sand River Savanna

S I NG I TA

Newington Gate

ational Park Kruger N

1. Gigantic indigenous trees caught our eye 2. We love the Cecil & Boyd interiors 3. The perfect infinity pool 4. A meditative baboon spotted on an early drive 5. The elevated deck areas surrounded by ebony trees 6. Large male leopard spotted on a game drive. 7. An early-morning game drive is one of the most incredible feelings 8. Nothing beats an African sunset 9. Our guide Iska leading the way during a walking safari 10. Taking in the stillness of the river 11. Singita Sabi Sands is renowned for its high concentrations of game 12. The boma dinner is the perfect setting for an evening under the stars

Londolozi

Best time to go? All year round. Spring and summer are best for spotting the new offspring and lush green bush life, and winter for great game viewing and milder days out.

11.

9. 12.

2006

2008

2017

Singita partners with philanthropist and conservationist Paul Tudor Jones to manage Grumeti Reserves in the Serengeti.

Partnership with Jones extends to Zimbabwe, with the opening of Singita Pamushana Lodge.

Innovative solar technology introduced at Singita Kruger National Park, enabling sustainable energy generation and consumption.

Award-winning chef Liam Tomlin joins Singita, and continues to innovate with his experimental cooking techniques, drawing from global food trends.

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books

TE X T Rob erta Tha tcher

“As a British-born, London-based African, I’m excited and proud about what I see happening, culturally, on the African continent today,” says Ekow Eshun, after having delved deep into the South African cultural landscape while researching the publication Africa Modern: Creating the Contemporary Art of a Continent. The book, published to coincide with the opening of the much-anticipated Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz Mocaa) in Cape Town, is edited by Eshun, celebrates the design and build of the museum, as well as presenting a survey of the creative culture of South Africa and the continent.

London-based writer and cultural commentator Ekow Eshun is launching a new publication on the South African cultural landscape. We ask him to share his favourite books

P R I N T-S P I R AT I O N

PORTR AI T BY Y i orgos Kap l ani d i s

“The aim of Africa Modern is to take a portrait, in a small way, of what seems to me to be a fantastically dynamic period in African contemporary art,” Eshun says. “I wanted to use the book to both mark the opening of the first contemporary art museum in Africa, and also to give space to the breadth of extraordinary creative talent in the continent as a whole, but particularly in South Africa.” Africa Modern is produced by the KT Wong Foundation, presented in partnership with Wallpaper* magazine, and edited by Ekow Eshun. ktwong.org

EKOW ESHUN SHARES HIS TOP FIVE BOOKS

BASQUIAT edited by Dieter Buchhart and Eleanor Nairne

INSIDE UTOPIA Visionary Interiors and Futuristic Homes

The first large-scale exhibition of Basquiat’s work opened in London in September. This is the book of the show, and it profiles the artist’s prodigious talent and the breadth of his influences, from graffiti and hip-hop, to bebop jazz and Hollywood cinema. I’m a huge Basquiat fan and this is a comprehensive and insightful survey of his work.

KIM JONG IL LOOKING AT THINGS, by João Rocha

This is a wondrous book filled with the some of the most spectacular, audacious, and irrational homes ever built. The grace and simplicity of the Eames House, designed by Charles and Ray Eames, stands out. But there’s so much here, from the science-fiction-like Lagerfeld Apartment near Cannes, to architect Xavier Corbero’s strange and magnificent Labyrinth Home.

OBAMA: 101 BEST COVERS by Ben Arogundade

This isn’t a new book, but given the state of geopolitical affairs it is a timely one. It’s a collection of photographs that depict the former “Dear Leader” of North Korea, surrounded by flunkeys, looking at things. The images are from the North Korean news agency and the book is a brilliant, deadpan analysis of propaganda imagery.

INVISIBLE MAN by Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison

During his time in office former US president Barack Obama amassed more front covers than any other president in history. This book gathers the most powerful and controversial of those images, which depict Obama in a kaleidoscope of guises, from Superman, Messiah, and George Washington to feminist, communist and Islamic terrorist.

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a dazzling and strange journey through race, identity, and the dark psyche of mid-century America. Around the time of the book’s release, he collaborated with the photographer Gordon Parks on two essays, including A Man Becomes Invisible, a 1952 piece for Life magazine that brings to life key scenes from the novel.

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