Between Two Suns: Cape Town’s New Public Art Passage Opens in the CBD

A new route through Cape Town’s CBD is doing more than getting people from one street to another. Between Two Suns, a collaboration between residential developer Blok, architects TwoFiveFive and Durban-based Studio Kalki, brings public art and architecture together to create a new pedestrian connection between upper Long Street, the Company’s Garden and the surrounding city streets.

Part of Blok’s TENONV development, the thoroughfare transforms what would traditionally be a closed building edge into an open passage anyone can use. There is also public seating along the way, creating a place to stop rather than simply pass through.

“We have always believed that a residential development should contribute something to the city around it,” says Blok CEO Jacques van Embden. “The experience and value of a building shouldn’t stop at its front door or only be available to the people who live there.”

The route itself becomes part of the artwork. At its centre is Between Two Suns, a bespoke, hand-crafted ceramic installation by Studio Kalki, led by Nikhil Tricam and Nindya Bucktowar. Drawing on Cape Town’s fynbos, architecture, mountains, ocean and distinctive light, the piece brings different references to the city together through colour, material and motif.

Its name takes its cue from the sun’s movement across the city. The composition is framed by sunrise and sunset, with changing light catching the hand-glazed ceramic surfaces as people move through the arch during the day. Rather than encountering a static artwork, pedestrians experience something that continually shifts with the light and their own movement.

“The idea of the two suns became particularly important because it speaks to movement, time and the experience of passing through a space rather than simply looking at an artwork,” explains Troy Squires, Head of Marketing at Blok.

For TwoFiveFive, the architectural intervention is deliberately straightforward. “Where there was previously a boundary, there is now a passage,” says architect André Krige. It’s a simple move, but one that changes how TENONV meets the street and connects with the wider neighbourhood.

That everyday connection is ultimately what gives the project its relevance. Someone might use the passage on the way to work, heading towards the Company’s Garden or simply while wandering through the CBD. Along the way, they encounter a piece of South African craftsmanship rooted in Cape Town’s landscape and stories.

Between Two Suns is now open to the public at TENONV, 10 Vredenburg Lane, Cape Town.

Contact: BLOK