"It was a response to the moment. The Flat gallery straddled the ‘94 elections – literally eight months before and eight months after. It was a dynamic, crazy time in South African history, and we felt like anything was possible. 'Yeah, we're gonna have a gallery! We’re going to have an exhibition every week, or we'll have an exhibition on Wednesday and then one on Friday!' We were very idealistic. It was amazing, and then it got insane, and then it kind of burnt out when it was just too much."
– Siemon Allen
As part of her ongoing project Social, curator Khanya Mashabela collects oral histories of artist-led project spaces in South Africa to complement a growing archive of associated printed matter, photographs, and digital assets collated through an open call to local arts practitioners.