Biennale Regard Benin 2012
Inventing the World: The Artist as Citizen
November 8, 2012–January 13, 2013
Opening:
- November 8, noon: The National Print Shop in Porto Novo
- November 9, 16h: Cotonou, down town shopwindows of the Ganhi area
- November 10, noon: Kulturforum – Togbin Beach and 18:30h, Centre Culturel ArtisttiK Africa Cotonou-Agla
- November 11, 17h: CFAO Motors Bénin
Artistic directors: Abdellah Karroum, Didier Houénoudé and Stephan Köhler
The committee of Art History Students of the University UAC Cotonou
Curatorial Advisors: Georges Adéagbo, Yuki Asai (Japan) and Ricardo Sardenberg (Brazil)
Executive Directors: Dominique Zinkpè and Ousmane Aledji
Scientific Advisor: Romuald Tchibozo
“Inventing the World” is the modest theme of the first official edition of the Biennale Regard Benin, which had informally premiered in June 2010 on the 50th Anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Benin. The Biennial Regard Benin breaks with the conventions of curatorial branding by renouncing the vertical structure of inviting a general commissioner with a top-down curated exhibition.
Purposely risking the label of dilettantism, the event will be unfolded by a local team of operators who will have occasional exchange with distant, yet close advisors. The noble sense of Lévi-Strauss’s term bricolage might be the most appropriate way to describe this new format. Based on the successful, innovative nature of this pilot event, participating members of a federation of a dozen independent art spaces and their activities founded the nonprofit association Biennale Regard Benin in March 2011, which organizes this edition with a balanced network of partners. Therefore the name of this event remains unchanged as Biennale Regard Benin, as decreed by the Minister of culture of Benin in May 2012.