Johannesburg

RMB Think Precinct

In and around the piazza that surrounds Rand Merchant Bank's headquarters on Fredman Drive in Sandton Central is the Think Precinct, a small-scale open-air sculpture garden that has been designed as a place where harried Sandton office workers can come take a seat outside, admire some art, and think.

The Think Precinct project began with the installation of the 'Think bench' on the street in front of the Fredman Drive building in 2010. Louie Olivier’s "Differently. Think” is a concrete bench with two pensive life-size bronze figures waiting on it, and is one of ten such corporate-sponsored, artist-designed benches installed in the Sandton Central district.

In June 2019 the RMB Think Precinct welcomed its largest and most impressive sculpture, Edoardo Villa's immense 1978 steel work Confrontation. While Edoardo Villa, one of South Africa's most important modern artists, was never an overtly political artist, this sharply angular and confrontational four-metre tall sculpture of a group of stylised steel figures, boldly alludes to the intense tensions and conflict that shook South Africa in the late 1970s in the wake of the Soweto riots of 1976. 

Other significant works in the Think Precinct include Villa's 1972 wave-like steel sculpture Environmental, Angus Taylor's Entangled Head III, a monumental bronze and granite bust of a man balancing the African continent on his head, Guy du Toit's playful bronze hare which imitates the same pose as Rodin's famous Thinker, Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe's bronze Africa's Fearless Girl, and the RMB Think Bench. Designed by Louie Olivier, the Think Bench is an 'interactive' sculpture that spells out the word 'Think'.

The RMB Think Precinct is located at the corner of Fredman Drive and Gwen Lane in Sandton Central.

GET THERE WITH GAUTRAIN

The RMB Think Precinct is close to the Sandton Gautrain station. See our guide to the Gautrain here and download the Gautrain app for real-time updates on when the next Gautrain and Gautrain midi-bus is due. Visit www.gautrain.co.za for more information on the timetable and fares. #YourGautrainJourneyStartsHere
 

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