Structures of Power

Homage to David Goldblatt

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Bordeaux submarine base, France

The Bordeaux submarine base is one of five built on French territory during the Second World War by the Kriegsmarine – the navy of Nazi Germany. Between September 1941 and May 1943, approximately 2,500 prisoners or conscripts (including French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and other nationalities) and 3,000 Spanish Republicans from the Vichy detention camps were forcibly engaged in the building of this military structure. Dozens of them died during the construction.

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Grandfey Viaduct, Fribourg, Switzerland

The Grandfey Viaduct is located on the Bern–Fribourg railway line and crosses the linguistic border between Romandy and German-speaking Switzerland (the Röstigraben). The current Grandfey Viaduct was constructed between 1925 and 1927 by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). Below the railway tracks, and over the top of its six 80-metre-high concrete arches, runs a pedestrian walkway. The bridge has been identified as a ‘suicide hotspot’ in Switzerland.

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Johannesburg, South Africa

In the 1960s and 1970s, militants from the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe [‘Spear of the Nation’] and other anti-apartheid activists frequently targeted electricity pylons for sabotage. During the so-called ‘energy crisis’ in the post-apartheid era, pylons continued to be targeted amid accusations of sabotage between rival ANC factions. The population suffered frequent and widespread power outages resulting from the breakdown of old, poorly maintained power structures, caused mainly by systemic state corruption and mismanagement within the national electricity provider Eskom.

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