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Dorothee Kreutzfeldt
Dorothee Kreutzfeldt (born 1970) is a Namibian born artist who is currently based in Johannesburg and is a lecturer of Fine Arts at the University of Witwatersrand.

In 1993, Kreutzfeldt obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a distinction in Painting and Theory from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, situated on the University of Cape Town. Following this, Kreutzfeldt became a lecturer in painting at Michaelis School of Fine Arts between 1998 and 2000. She obtained her Masters in Fine Arts with distinction in 2004 from University of Witwatersrand. Her Masters project, Painting in Public, consisted of a series of site-specific collaborative interventions with sign-writers, painted onto buildings that were bricked up and 'mothballed' within the city of Johannesburg. (1)

Kreutzfeldt's work is primarily based in painting but also deals with site specific painting installations. The interventions of urban space critique the histories of the site as well as how the space is imagined within a contemporary context. Themes of architecture, landscape design and political geographies are at play within her work, specifically within the historical context of how space is inhabited in South Africa. Kreutzfeldt's work often critiques the racial divide that is evident through architecture between land division as a result of the colonial legacy of apartheid in South Africa via segregation and institutionalised racism These social and racial divides speaks to the implications of urban planning, restrictions of movement of marginalised communities throughout history and displacement via gentrification within the inner city.

Kreutzfeldt's work questions the foundations on which cities are built, often in the architecture and infrastructure not being able to meet the demands of the population that inhabit the space. Through the use of architectural plans and city maps, Kreutzfeldt's work often highlights the historical division of land resulting from the mining landscape that led to the establishment of Johannesburg. (2) Kreutzfeldt's use of maps details the symbolic markers and historical footprint embedded in the landscape. By juxtaposing historic architectural plans with newer plans, her work highlights the erasure of the complex history of miners over time. Buffer zones created by mines dumps often separate outer lying districts from the city and further displace residents from the inner city. These geographical divisions, resulting from when apartheid was at its height in South Africa, perpetuate the social Utopian ideals of a city often at the cost of the communities who inhabit the city.

In 2014, Kreutzfeldt set up a collective at the Drill Hall that gives a collaborative platform to other creatives to work within the space. one of the results to come out of this was the Joubert Park Public Art Project (JPP), an inter-disciplinary public art focused project held between the Johannesburg Art Gallery and Joubert Park which ran from 13 October 2000 until December 2001 The JPP took place in Joubert Park, one of the few green spaces in the inner city of Johannesburg, and set out to contribute to the development of Joubert Park by critiquing the engagement of the precinct and cultivate new possibilities for the surrounding community.

Exhibitions
Women Artists of the Western Cape at the Sasol Museum (1996) Cyst – Works in Paint at the Castle of Good Hope (1997)

Sluice, a collaborative Multi-Media Exhibition at the Castle of Good Hope (1996-1998)

Sleuth/Rix Dollar in Graft, Second Johannesburg Biennale, a collaboration with Sluice at the South African National Gallery (1997/98)

Unplugged IV. at The Market Theatre Gallery (1999)

Bloedlyn at the Klein Karoo National Kunstefees (1998) and at the Association for Visual Arts in (1999)

Bilde-Dialog, an Exchange/Exhibition with Artists in Denmark (1999)

pm inc. consisting of several public art exhibitions/ performances with a group of senior fine art students (1999-2000)

Contamination, a solo exhibition at AVA (1997)

District Six Sculptural Festival (1997)

Coordinated public interventions for the Mother City Queer Project (1997/98/2000)

Contemporary African Music and Arts Archive (1998)

26 Acts of Balance at the Castle of Good Hope (2000)

Fresh Residency at the South African National Gallery (2001)

Joubert Park Public Art Project (JPP) (2004)

The Imminent Inauguration of the 5th Corner, a solo exhibition at Blank Projects (2010)

At present, a solo exhibition at Blank Projects (2015)

Literature
In 2014 Dorothee Kreutzfeldt co-published the book Not No Place: Johannesburg Fragments of Spaces and Times with Bettina Malcomess.

Kreutzfeldt is also a contributor to the book Up Up: Stories of Johannesburg’s Highrises (Fourthwall Books, 2016)