In May 1990 Ad van Denderen travelled to the mining town Welkom to document the nearing end of the racial segregation of apartheid. The growing tension between the white and the black community often lead to unrest; the city was seen as an example of how things could go wrong during the process of change. After multiple visits, the story was published in 1991 in the photobook Welkom in Suid-Afrika.
In May 2016 Lebohang Tlali travelled to Amsterdam to visit Van Denderen with a remarkable request. Tlali grew up in Welkom’s neighbouring township Thabong and found the book while studying fine art in Cape Town. The discovery was eye opening: he saw for the first time how the white community lived during apartheid. Simultaneously the photographs from Thabong provided a great feeling of recognition. Tlali realised the power of photography as a tool to create social awareness. Twenty-five years after the book was published, Tlali will bring Van Den- deren’s project back to its origin.
With Van Denderen and Tlali as a guide, students from different backgrounds become participants in an empowering school programme to create awareness about the past in order to think about the future. The collaborative outcome will be part of a travelling exhibition, book and documentary that colour the post-apartheid period from inside out.