Dakar Biennale

The Biennale de Dakar as a project of cooperation and development
The study observes the international art system from Dak’Art, the Senegalese contemporary African art biennale; in particular it explores the relationship between visual arts, spatial dynamics, cultural policies and the market; it is based on the keywords cooperation, development, territory and representation. The research analyses the international phenomena of biennial exhibitions, the ones in Africa, the history of the Dakar biennale, contemporary art and its landscape, contemporary African art historiography, the network of Dak’Art and the way contemporary productions are structured as “projects”. It appears clearly that culture is more and more often structured as “projects”; contemporary African art is a brand for the import-export of cultural goods; the network is the central resource of a cultural event and the wider and the more fragmented this network is, the more difficult it is to satisfy it; the geography of cultural events is defined by its international links; cultural events generate landscapes, a combination and interrelation of natural and human factors. The contemporary art system observed from the biennial art exhibition of Dakar appears strongly influenced by the funding organizations, and closely related to cultural policies and to the market, even though it doesn’t necessarily imply the selling of artworks within a gallery.

Les biennales internationales sont le phénomène d’art mondain et mondial des années quatre-vingt-dix par excellence. Elles répondent bien au rêve global de tous les gouvernements qui veulent représenter le savoir de la planète entière et l’amener chez eux. Les gouvernements? Certes, encore bien avant d‘être des événements d’art, les biennales sont des événements politiques. Elles naissent d’une volonté nationale, elles sont essentiellement financées par les États (aussi bien locaux qu‘étrangers) et elles sont inaugurées par une foule de hauts fonctionnaires.

RESUMO: Eco das políticas culturais promovidas por Léopold Sédar Senghor entre os anos 1960 e 1980, a Bienal de Dacar (Senegal), também conhecida como Dak’art, abriu as portas de sua primeira edição em 1992, estabelecendo-se como um dos primeiros fóruns voltados a mapear os trânsitos do “artista africano”, segundo uma cartografia global das práticas contemporâneas. Ao longo deste texto, discutirei as políticas de visibilidade para a arte africana, elaboradas no contexto da Bienal de Dacar, e a posição dessa plataforma com relação aos espaços de circulação dessa produção, dentro e fora do continente. Para tanto, tomarei como base a análise usos da noção de “diáspora” como dispositivo curatorial em algumas de suas edições.
Palavras-chave: Bienal de Dacar. Diáspora africana. Globalização.

ABSTRACT: Echo of the cultural policies fostered by Léopold Sédar Senghor between the 1960s and 1980s, the Dakar Biennale (Senegal), also known as Dak’art, opened the doors of its first edition in 1992, establishing itself as one of the first forums to map the transits of the “African artist”, according to a global cartography of contemporary practices. Here, I will discuss the visibility policies for African art, elaborated in the context of the Dakar Biennial, and the position of this platform in relation to the spaces of circulation of this production, both in and outside the continent. To do so, I will take as a basis the analysis of the uses of the notion of “diaspora” as a curatorial framework in some of its editions.
Keywords: Dakar Biennial. African diaspora. Globalization

Art exhibitions have started transgressing from ‘white cube’ spaces to ‘alternative spaces’. Biennale, an event is aiming at bringing the art in conversations with the city and people. With the idea of making art more accessible to people, it scouts for spaces and tries to find a way to fit into the public realm and activate it. Art uses the biennale as a medium to communicate with the people by moving into the city fabric, by which it makes direct conversations with the city.

Further carrying the idea of biennale which entails happening progressively in the future in terms of expansions of the existing ones or emerging ones, it seems to happen more in a public realm like streets and open spaces and with the ideas of reusing the building infrastructure as an active generator for the Biennale. The biennale sets out as a tool of transformation of these diverse characters of buildings and spaces in the city. It is giving a new life back to these unused structures for temporary use. Art exhibitions happening in these existing buildings, holding the historical significance ties back to its history-making the biennale very contextual.

Biennale, happening in these diverse locations in the city creates a transformation pattern at the city level. This seems to be a way in which future exhibitions will take place, which is unbounded to the set of spaces. It is therefore important to see that if we are poised at this threshold, that we have these biennales happening and more likely to occur in the future, it is therefore relevant to understand biennales in the Indian context and specifically in terms of transformations and factors that inform these transformations.

In this sort of a context where art is moving into the public realm and alternate spaces, how transformations due to the biennale respond to the city?

Steinhart School of Culture, Education and Human Development Intensive Course

34 Stuyvesant St. Barney Building, NYU Steinhardt, ROOM 502

Contemporary Art in the Era of the Biennial 1972-2013
by Prof RoseLee Goldberg

This course examines the history of the art biennial in the context of contemporary art from 1972 through to the present, situating the work in its historical and social context. It explores how the format of the international biennial has become, over the past four decades, the main outlet for the production and presentation of contemporary visual art and performance, and how curatorial strategies of the biennial have shaped public understanding of this material. 

RoseLee Goldberg, Course Professor
roselee@performa-arts.org

Marc Arthur, Performa Archives and Research
Research Assistant
marc@performa-arts.org

Michael Negrete Ochoa, Teaching Assistant
michael@performa-arts.org

Dr Sozita Goudouna, Andrew Mellon Teaching Fellow
Sozita@performa-arts.org

Registration: NYU Steinhardt Office of Graduate Admissions
Joseph and Violet Pless Hall
82 Washington Square East, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003-6680
steinhardt.gradadmissions@nyu.edu 212-998-5030 | 212-995-4328 (fax)