The City of Cape Town today revealed the new decals on the Civic Centre Tower Block depicting two beloved icons of South African history – Madiba and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said: Their vision of a prosperous country united in its diversity is one that we share and strive for. The renewal of these murals is symbolic of the hope that we aim to restore to our city and to our nation.
We had anticipated the project to take one month to complete, but the team managed to restore the images to their former glory within three weeks. I wish to express my gratitude to the team overseeing this project.
Retaining the existing artwork enabled us to preserve the unique imagery without unduly inflating costs. The restoration of the Civic Centre’s decals is just one element of an ongoing process of renewal in the city. The restored twelve-floor-high window murals will once again welcome motorists as they enter the CBD.
Madiba’s shirt contains images representing some of the city’s most iconic features, including the Bo-Kaap, the penguins at Boulders Beach, Table Mountain, a minstrel at the Kaapse Klopse, and the King Protea. Archbishop Tutu’s shirt contains imagery of tolerance, freedom, togetherness, and peace.
With a refreshed appearance, the depiction of these moral guardians offer renewed inspiration that we can achieve the goal of our new Integrated Development Plan: A City of Hope for All.
The conceptual design was done by Dreamfuel Media, who specified that the clothing of the subjects in the artwork should contain various imagery of special significance to Cape Town and South Africa. The image of Madiba was based on a photograph by Matthew Willman and the image of Archbishop Tutu draws on a photograph by Andrew Zuckerman.
The concept designers selected Cape Flats-born artist Linsey Levendall to illustrate it. His resultant artwork invokes a sense of hope and optimism about our country’s future, healing from the wounds of the past, and celebrating the beauty of its diverse people and environment.
