Art for art’s sake: Biennale even is a must
Lungi Morrison
Cape Town - Anyone trying to make sense of the alchemy beaming off the African Continent in the past five to eight years needs to do themselves a favour and visit the DaKart biennale before it closes on the 21st of this month.
A herculean task impeccably delivered by artists, curators, creative directors, and the host nation Senegal, it is unfortunate that this biennale runs for only one month.
The collective body of works exhibited, a vital piece of our puzzle unfolding, a reminder of who and why we are, foretold through seminal African institutions like DakArt.
Following a four-year hiatus given disruptions caused by the global pandemic, DakArt returns in full splendour.
A befitting setting Dakar Senegal serves as an encyclopaedia and repository of knowledge on both; post-colonial history and contributions to the deficit in African art history.
Dak’Art showcases a garland of stars; 59 artists representing 16 African nations and 12 from the Diaspora, a blend of stories from our rich continent and landmass steeped in cultural diversity, ancient and contemporary art awaits visitors.
As global interest and acquisition of African art continue to garner global attention, institutions and stakeholders across the continent can no longer shun the benefits of prioritising investments in the creative arts. The art market here is predicted to rise from US$13 billion in 2018 to US$15 billion by next year (Published by Statista Research Department, March 9, 2021).
The 14th edition of DakArt is themed Ī NDAFF forger - out of the fire, translated from the Serer language means to re-emerge from the fire.
It is a deliberate testament to Africa’s resurgence, emboldened via its creative economy and, the range of art genres exhibited at Ī NDAFF forger.
This much-anticipated edition celebrates all things African including female leadership, the secretary-general of the biennale, Madame Marieme BA, inviting a diverse group of female guest-curators; Greer Odile Valley, Lou Mo, Nana Oforiatta Ayim, and Syham Weigant, contributing their expertise and vantage points to the landscape of intersectionalities; race, gender, environment, and political economy (power).
A highly progressive Dak’Art Biennale leaves no stone unturned, fusing history with contemporary culture, and creative coordinates that spark memory and resonance.
Backed by the State of Senegal, DakArt Biennale offers the world its key to the city from May 19 till June 21 when the Palais du Justice and other exhibition venues officially open.
The national Government of Senegal supported the endeavour since its inception (contribution to the total budget evidence of its ongoing commitment, increasing significantly every edition - from approximately 36% in 2008 for instance to 75% since 2018).
Private sector sponsorship has also increased over the years, ensuring the host city’s success as the only Biennale in Africa since the Johannesburg edition of 1995.
A serene Palais de Justice courtyard is the epi-centre of Dak’Art.
Upon arrival audiences encounter the main exhibition statement by artistic director and curator in chief, El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, affirming the unprecedented moment for Africa and its Diaspora, stating: “Ī NDAFF#” rediscovers unknown powers, energies, and sciences, exhume riches and shape archives. Drawing on African sources and knowledge, revisiting forms of endogenous knowledge, and negotiating diverse representations of the world are postures to explore to forge new cognitions”.
A familiar design layout among Africans, the compound, a vernacular architectural edifice feels like ‘home’.
A meditative meander through the ground and mezzanine floors wrapped around a zen-like quadrant, with a lush garden below, open to the sunlight above which nurtures the trees and plants positioned at the heart of the Palais.
A distinctive artwork close to the entrance, the luminous fine art installation in bright yellow by Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai (showing simultaneously at both the Venice and Dakar Biennales), is exhibited against large pillars.
Nyamai’s iconic piece is among the most photographed artworks from Ī NDAFF forger. Another feast for the eyes and imagination is a gigantic tea cup on a saucer, and a teapot in pouring motion installed mid-air to achieve a 3-D effect as visitors approach.
Individual ceramic pieces made from different tones of clay earth pigment by Nigerian artist Ngozi Ezema, one strung one to another result in the artist's magical piece.
On the same floor, Installations by Mzwandile Buthelezi, Adji Dieye, Syowia Kyambi, Nthepe Tsekere Bopape (also known as Mo Laudi) Motho ke motho ka batho (A tribute to Mancoba) inform flow and discovery of the delicately curated number of exhibitions at the Palais de Justice.
South African, France-based artist Mo Laudi’s piece, ‘the Rest Painting series reference music notation, the note ‘rest’, is an interval of silence in pieces of music marked by symbols indicating the length of the pause. The paintings evoke the notion of rest as what Saidiya Hartman would call the silence of the archive but also ‘rest’ as an act of rebellion against the commodification of black bodies and resources’ (Mo Laudi Dak’Art 2022).
Another artist representing South Africa at the DakArt Biennale, is Sethembile Msezane who presents an audio-visual performance premised on ritual invoking the light ‘ukukhanya’, a process of divination, accessing, channelling, and celebrating the ‘light’, synonymous with Africa, our heritage and epistemology.
At its core, DakArt 2022, revisits and re-imagines Negritude as a 21st century construct.
The extensive array of exhibitions, talks/dialogue, performances, and historical museums open to the public, fosters new ideologies of ‘freedom’ - both the freedom of movement and the possibilities for co-creating new meaning and realities.
Artist's work and contributions spread across the Biennale programs include; symbolic ‘performance art’ to innovative plasticine installations addressing environmental degradation by Senegalese artist Fally Sene Sow.
Referencing his modalities, Fally states: “‘My work has been influenced by a recurring concern: why keep on painting when I see all these objects scattered around?”For an artist, any event, object or action is worth becoming a subject for painting.”
Sow worked on the 30sq metre apocalyptic installation for three years ahead of his DaKart 2022 awe-inspiring presentation.
Another cornerstone and contribution to African pedagogy from Dak’Art are the range of performance incantations.
‘ZILIN’ is an exhibition entitled #unsettled by Namibian performance artist Nashilongwe Mushaandja, curated by Greer Valley.
At the Musée des Civilization Noire De Dakar, Rwandan artist Dorcy Rugamba partners with artists including Nathalie Vairac, Malang Sonko, François Sauveur, Marc Soriano, and Michael Makembe to present a powerfully engaging exhibition entitled; ‘Le Reste Supreme’- Supreme Remnants.
A multi-dimensional, interactive performance staged inside pre-assembled wooden containers spread across 300 square metres, addressing as Franz Fanon did in ‘Black skin White Mask’, the ideology of Negritude.
Rugamba series of performance art exhibitions exhume contested narratives central to this; the museum, objectification of cultural assets, and symbols of African identity, specifically the African mask.
The shows point to the extent to which artists can become complicit in perpetuating a post-colonial guise where inequity prevails, as Dorcy adds, “the Supreme Remnants seeks to deconstruct the very framework of museums, by exposing the viewer to the ideological charge of objects immured”.
This idea is also evident with the proliferation of figurative portraiture or ‘black face’ artworks commanding top dollar in the global north.
The demand informs the incessant production of ‘blackened’ somewhat dehumanising depictions, faces, and bodies of African people under the guise of, ‘contemporary African art’.
Revisiting Negritude is fundamentally about being open to challenging one another and the status quo.
After all, this is the point of art, a subjective lever, and discipline to forge new cognitions, and address inequity; the inherent power dynamics of ‘access’, ‘value’, ‘supply, and demand’.
Morrison writes in her personal capacity. She serves as a non-executive director with ARTSPLIT – www.artsplit.com
Cape Times