On the same day that our Olympic athletes returned in celebratory mood from Rio and the nation’s mood was lifted by their successes, the From Freedom to Fanfare exhibition was launched to the media at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. Funded by the Lotto, the exhibition celebrates South Africa’s successes as a sporting host over the past two decades.
The brief to Flow was quite simple: develop a temporary exhibition covering about 200m2 that allows us to reflect on and enjoy retrospectively the successes we have had as hosts of international sporting events since South Africa became a democracy. It needed to be positive, uplifting, diverse and engaging. We needed to capture some of our most precious national sporting memories, which were at risk of getting lost. As a bunch of people who walked down the road to the busiest intersection in 2010, blowing our vuvuzelas and making a total spectacle of ourselves, who better to take on this brief than the Flow team?
Challenges facing us included engaging with and being relevant to a very diverse target audience. Local and international, young and old, male and female, sports fans and sports novices would all be visiting the exhibition. We had no collection to build an exhibition around so everything needed to be developed from scratch. There needed to be something for everyone and the appropriate tone to speak to them. Extra challenges and logistical issues to take on board included that 200m2 is a relatively small space and the fact that the exhibition would need to be transportable.
This project became Ros Caboz’s and my baby. As project manager and creative lead respectively, it was our task to see this through from idea to implementation. To adopt an appropriate sporting analogy, the success of this project was all about teamwork.
The project is an example of where Flow’s diverse skills set really came to the fore. Keith Nicholls and Stuart Dickinson from the writing team put in all the groundwork for the content development, which included tons of research, an incredible amount of trimming and endless checking of facts. (South Africa has hosted 313 international events over about 12 different sports codes in this time frame – just to place the scope into perspective!)
Nearly every member of our design team over the past two years has had a hand in developing the material, which in itself was a challenge to keep the language consistent and fresh. The developers contributed their skills in developing digital interactive interfaces. So, from developing the creative concept, designing all installations, writing the content and developing digital interfaces to final implementation and project management, Flow exhibited what real teamwork can pull off.
To further the sport analogy, nothing is possible without the sponsor and our clients; project custodians Pippa Freer, Rehaad James and Ian Riley became not only team members, but also cheerleaders in the process as they enthusiastically supported our ideas and progress.
As Professor Paul Singh, of the Gauteng Department of Sport and Recreation, said in his speech at the launch event, it is imperative that we remember and celebrate our sporting culture. Not just the athletes and managers, but all of those who contribute to the bigger picture of what makes sport such a significant part of our culture.
We need to give recognition to the fans, the performers, the support staff, the construction workers, the security guards, the ground staff and the vendors.
This is what the exhibition seeks to do – to show all that they have contributed to what it takes to host events as only South Africans can do. And we think we’ve done it!
(Insert vuvuzela blast here!)