The exhibition Y350?: Old Memorials in New Times was curated by Prof Leslie Witz in 2002.
Leslie Witz is a professor in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He teaches African history and public history, and his research focuses on how different histories are created and represented in the public domain. The exhibition Y350? is about the 1952 Jan van Riebeeck Festival and was contextualised in response the City of Cape Town’s idea to commemorate 350 years of the arrival of van Ribeeck in 2002.
The exhibition was held under the auspices of Iziko at the Castle of Good Hope in 2002 and travelled to the Kleinplasie Museum in Worcester, before it was hosted at UWC. The initial exhibition consisted of an upside-down Van Riebeeck statue, large banners with photographs from the festival in 1952 and artefacts. For Cape Town 350, a series of poster panels were designed to explain memorial processes.This poster series had been donated to Iziko in 2016.
The poster serious are now displayed at the Iziko Betram House and the upside-down van Riebeeckstatue /structure had been installed in the garden at Betram House.This exhibition therefore creates a platform to continue with the much-needed discourse on memorialisation of public spaces.
