ABSTRACT
This chapter unpacks participatory research and participatory democratic definitions alongside participatory public art ones to get into the knottiness of what is at stake in participatory processes of all descriptions, positioning the particular nature of participation facilitated by theatre and performance workshops run in Bertrams, Lorentzville and Judith’s Paarl as part of a larger public art work called the Izithombe 2094 project. The second half of the chapter analyses the process of setting up the workshops and the practice of the workshops themselves to reflect on what the nature of the workshops’ participation allowed for a collective exploration of spatial practice in this particular area of Johannesburg in its 2015/2016 moment.
