Dakar Biennial 2018 | The story so far

Article
Benjamin Biayenda
"Emancipation, freedom and responsibility" lie at the heart of the 2018 Dakar Biennial organisers’ project. But, through the exhibitions arises a certain element of questioning at the heart of the challenges facing Africa in the decades to come.

 

In Dakar, although the Biennial now has a real international impact, the vast majority of the population are not aware of it. With the political ambitions it carries, contemporary art must address those who have the keys, the power to change things. Most artists showing here seem to have integrated this dimension into their work much more successfully than their western counterparts. The frenzy sparked by African contemporary art at the moment is multifaceted. Notably brought about by less conceptual works, a figurative painting with considerable attention from collectors but also by more accessible prices, the reception of its message is equally easier to access.

 

Karem Ibrahim, Progress Digress Regress

 

At the Museum of Veterans, Darb 1718 - an organisation founded in Cairo by Moataz Nasreldin, the previous Egyptian representative at the Venice Biennial - is presenting a project which brings to light the relevance of the Egyptian voice. Normally based in London, Karem Ibrahim is welcoming visitors here with a very powerful in situ work. Progress Digress Regress questions the concept of progress, a theme at the heart of Simon Njami's idea as he heads up this 13th biennial and central in the choices Africa will make in the coming years. Karem Ibrahim suggests taking a step back, in every sense of the term. When the economic development model reveals its limitations (climate, resource exhaustion, etc.) and pushes the planet to its end, should Africa not open up the path to wisdom? With Karem Ibrahim, regression, "turning out the light" to take a new path, seems to depart from the field of utopia.

 

Cairo Bats, Act 1: The Roof (2017)

 

 

The attitude towards the "IN" of the event is unanimously more mixed. Within the sublime Old Courthouse, 75 artists from 33 countries around the world are brought together. The curator, Simon Njami, has this year selected the colour red in reference to Aimé Césaire's text Et les chiens se taisaient.

 

In the middle of the building, which has to be seen to fully appreciate its effect, the Haitian-Swiss artist Pascale Monnin brings to light (!) the shutters torn from his house after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, from which the devastation has still not been cleared. The installation of this work at the centre of the event could suggest that the future, this achievable utopia must be driven by the overwhelming day-to-day misery of the world's population.

 

Pascale Monnin, Matthew

 

 

The Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, based in Abidjan, may be opening a new space in Dakar this week with a successful exhibition, bringing together Vincent Michéa and Sadikou Oukpedjo, a daring gambit. In fact, at the two main international fairs dedicated to African art - 1:54 and AKAA - only one Dakar gallery is present, with Galerie Atiss participating at the latter. The local market is also basically nonexistent. In the old Court House, Cécile Fakhoury presents the work of the Senegalese artist Cheikh Ndiaye. Brise-Soleils des Indépendances, a reflection on Dakar's Hôtel Indépendance having "for a long time reigned in silent but important testimony of the national history, today engaged in an endless rehabilitation". At the Hotel Sokhamon, the gallery is showing three artists, one of which is Dalila Dalléas Bouzar. The talented painter born in Oran in 1974 is notably exhibiting here a series of self-portraits.

 

Cheikh Ndiaye. Brise-Soleils des Indépendances — © Galerie Cécile Fakhoury

 

Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, Hoor's dream (série) 2015-2018 

 

 

The current success of African creation only makes critics more demanding, leaving us to prefer the 2016 edition. Although the proximity between certain exhibited pieces and those by the most famous of creators is notable, the works themselves stand out. The young Moroccan artist Randa Maroufi - shown in 2015 at the Salon de Montrouge - is showing here a video focused on women's desire for emancipation and the freedom of speech surrounding questions of femininity and sexuality in contemporary Moroccan society. Another artist also captures the attention; young Algerian artist Amina Zoubir, whose installation MUSCICAPIDAE assembles vinyl sleeves, questioning "the musical imagination... and the creative abundance of the 1960s to the 1980s in Northern Africa", with nostalgia. A step into the past for a better future, you could say.

 

 

Amina Zoubir, MUSCICAPIDAE

 

The young Madagascan artist Rina Ralay-Ranaivo (b.1984), present at the Bamako Encounters in 2011, is showing a personal video work which is poetic and touching, linked to the death of her parents, Lettres aux Absents.

 

Rina Ralay-Ranaivo, Lettres aux Absents

 

Represented by the galleries Imane Farès and Blank Projects, the South African born in 1975, James Webb, captures the Jalal ad-din Muhammad Rumi poem The Two Insomnias, transcribed on soluble paper plunged into two glass bottles.

 

James Webb, I do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand worlds (The Two Insomnias) (2017)

 

 

Amongst the works which has peaked public interest is the exterior piece - the poetry and symbolism of the Filipino artist Marcos Lora-Read's work, blown in the wind, was certainly one of the most immortalised.

 

Marcos Lora-Read

 

 

In the "OFF" of the event: a nice surprise in the performative exhibition "maGma" created by the visual artist Sophie le Hire (SLH), and the "somatonaute" performer BÉA. The duo is offering a journey within the magnificent McCann company warehouse, mixing visual art and performance "through the exploration of bodily, spatial, and visual matters and feminine energy". The work uniting women, novices or not, aims to make female love visible; whilst the "discipline" is often more intense for the artist than for the public; the challenge of conveying emotion is taken up here.

 

Magma


 

 

TheMatter - above the rest

 

Still in the "OFF" of the Biennial, the most striking exhibition is yet to come. Organised by Thomas P. Cazeneuve and Bénédicte Samson, "The Matter" boasts a remarkable diversity and quality. As the "mythical" Senegalese artists such as Ablaye Thoissane and Djibathen Sambou are present, and the power of the photos from different eras realised by Sanlé Sory and Youri Lenquette match them, the works of Amadou Sanogo - at the heart of the space - and the (very) young artist Benjamin Biayenda will have made a mark on their audience. Born 1998 in Namibia, the latter surprises the public with the maturity of his work. His realist watercolours and oils portray the black woman through image: a reflection on identity, existence, and an analysis of the sociological evolution specific to Africa today. Collectors and gallerists have been throwing themselves at his work.

 

Benjamin Biayenda


Amadou Sanogo

 

 

At the Biennial's opening, the young French-Beninese artists Laeila Adjovi was awarded the most prestigious prize, the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor by the Senegalese president Macky Sall. Her work, Malaika Dotou Sankofa, realised alongside Loïc Hoquet, is a silver halide photography piece with documentary accents.

 

Laeila Adjovi

 

 

Text by Henri Robert