In the summer of 2010, deBuren visited the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in South-Africa in order to create a series of city portraits together with authors, photographers and video artists. citybooks Grahamstown is supported by ‘Vlaanderen Internationaal / de Vlaamse overheid’ (Flanders International / the Flemish government).
Author and illustrator Gerda Dendooven represented Flanders at the festival and wrote a citybook. The South-African author Brink Scholtz – who also resided in Utrecht – invited three African authors to write a citybook: Ronelda Kamfer, Ingrid Winterback and Toast Coetzer wrote in Afrikaans. Brink Scholtz wrote in English.
The South-African photographer Sophie Smith produced an impressive photo coverage about poverty, for which she followed a 77-year-old vagrant called ‘Rooiland’.
Students of the Journalism and Media Studies Department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown made City One Minutes. City One Minutes are 24 short films of 1 minute that portray the city during the National Arts Festival. Every hour of the day is visualized in one minute.
