75 artists, 33 countries for DAK’ART

Seventy-five artists from 33 countries around the world are in Dakar, Senegal, for this year’s edition of the art biennale, Dak’Art.  The theme of this year’s outing ‘A New Humanity’ according to a statement by the organisers on their website, bears seals of two fathers of negritude. After “The city in the blue day” which […]

Seventy-five artists from 33 countries around the world are in Dakar, Senegal, for this year’s edition of the art biennale, Dak’Art. 

The theme of this year’s outing ‘A New Humanity’ according to a statement by the organisers on their website, bears seals of two fathers of negritude.

After “The city in the blue day” which refers to a poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor, the theme of the Biennale in 2018 bears the seal of another father of Negritude, Aimé Césaire who is borrowed expression “The hour is Red.” Extracted from his play “And the dogs were silent.” “The time Red” speak of emancipation, freedom and responsibility.

The organisers said, to ensure consistency in the line of the Biennale, the Artistic Director of the edition 2016 was renewed for 2018: Simon Njami. “This is to anticipate the organization of the Biennale to further streamline, in the long term, its procedures.

“Alongside Simon Njami, the Dak’Art has invited Marisol Rodriguez, Marianne Hultman, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung , Alya Sebti and Cosmin Costinas as guest curators. Each of them will curate a collective show with three to five selected artists,” it said.

The international exhibition will also renew the invitation of five international commissioners, as encounters and exchanges focus on, ‘African art and contemporary transformations of the intellectual and normative frameworks.’

The Biennale dedicated to each edition ‘Grand Léopold Sédar Senghor Price,’ is a reference distinction in the field of visual arts. The 2018 edition will consolidate the gains of the previous editions, especially on matters affecting the territorial network, the public / private partnership, communication and animation.

This thirteenth edition will include a major innovation with the opening of the Senegalese Pavilion which will offer a showcase of choice for all the artists of the host country. This pavilion placed under the tutelage of the curator and major visual artist Viyé Diba will make a rigorous selection of what Senegal is full of creative plastic potential.

To give this event a festive and popular dimension, and to encourage its appropriation by the populations, especially children, young people and women, a “Barak” will be installed in each commune of Dakar, in which residents will be invited to show what they define themselves as art.

Within the international exhibition and several other official sites, an awakening to art space will be created for children to introduce them to Africa’s contemporary art.

Rwanda and Tunisia will be honoured at the event for a demonstration of their contemporary artistic creativity.

Two hundred and fifty projects will be showcased at the Biennale’s Off events as it establishes itself as the essential rendezvous of contemporary African Art and beyond.  The exhibition which began on Thursday ends on June 2, 2018.