The 15th edition of the Dak’Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale is set to captivate art lovers and enthusiasts with its theme, “The Wake,” exploring the intricate connections between art, society, climate, and also history in Dakar from May 16 to June 16, 2024.
Positioned as a call to action in the face of social and environmental crises, the biennial boldly asserts the role of artists as pioneers in crafting a new global narrative.
Featuring a carefully curated selection of 58 artists from Africa and its diaspora, Dak’Art 2024 promises a diverse showcase spanning drawing, virtual reality, sound, sculpture, as well as photography, contributing to this immersive journey with artists like Adel Adessemed, Sara Altantawi, and Hicham Berrada.
Artistic Director Salimata Diop, in a concept note, expresses the impossibility of defining art and emphasizes the experience it offers.
In addressing the impossible question of what art is, the only possible answer is surely the experience we have of it—an impulse, a music, a motion that neither begins nor ends with the work on display. Immerse yourself in the work and its melody. Let yourself be carried along in its wake. Understand and embrace the foam and the trace that it leaves behind, and savour the story of its birth and elaboration.
This is the invitation issued by the 2024 Dakar Biennial: to join and experience a journey through an Atlantis that artists have secretly repopulated. The theme of this fifteenth edition of the Dakar Biennial is part of a continuity, an unstoppable current that embraces a whole range of temporalities: the central idea being to link the past and the future by giving them equal importance. This concept is partly inspired by Professor Christina Sharpe’s influential work ‘In the Wake: On Blackness and Black Being’, in which she also examines the black condition and its literary, visual and artistic representations in relation to notions of exhumation, mourning and uprooting.
The heartbeat of Dakar Bienniale 2024 resonates through various venues across Dakar. Noteworthy exhibitions include “On s’arrêtera quand la Terre rugira (We will stop when the Earth roars),” curated by Kara Blackmore, Marynet J, and Cindy Olohou, addressing urgent ecological issues.
The Musée des Civilisations Noires hosts national pavilions, while the Maison de la Culture Douta Seck and the Galerie nationale d’art pay tribute to Anta Germaine Gaye and the late Mouhamadou N’doye. Kalidou Kassé curates a compelling show titled “Collectionneurs,” and a dedicated design section finds its place in the Ndary Lo space within the Old Courthouse, guided by the vision of designer Ousmane Mbaye.
Dak’Art 2024 also extends beyond traditional exhibitions, featuring bilingual panel discussions at the Musée des Civilisations Noires and the Ancien Palais de Justice Dakar, delving into the biennial’s theme. These discussions set the stage for participatory round tables and artist performances in the afternoon at the historic Old Courthouse.
As it unfolds, Dakar Bienniale emerges not merely as an exhibition but as a profound exploration of the intersection between creativity, societal challenges, and environmental consciousness, inviting all to engage in the dialogue of our shared global awakening.
