Dak’Art 2014

May 9 – June 8, 2014

Central theme for Dak’Art 2014: “Producing the common”

The International Exhibition of African and African Diaspora artists is the main event of the Biennale Dak’Art. The selection is entrusted to an international jury that decides on the basis of portfolios presenting recent works and provided by the artists or their representatives.

Curators of the International Exhibition:
Elise Atangana, Abdelkader Damani, Smooth Ugochukwu Chukwudi Nzewi

Curatorial statement:
“All over the world biennial exhibitions multiply with the aim of creating a global image. Some might see it as a clear manifestation of globalization, a most exasperated expression, and a repetition of contemporary art exhibitions in a never ending quest for novelty. For others, including us, the multitude of art biennials is an attempt to find “globality” and a common desire to produce a feeling of a singular world (Tout-Monde) in each place, a term coined by Édouard Glissant. What Glissant calls the “Whole-World,” is “our universe that is ever changing yet remains the same, and the vision that we have of it.”
“Producing the common” is our central theme for Dak’Art 2014. With this theme, we seek to link politics and aesthetics in a vigorous and engaged way. Is the encounter of works of art in a specific place, the art exhibition, not an attempt to instantly produce the public space, which people seek through migrations and revolts?
Most contemporary artists see politics as the prism through which they receive and interpret existential reality. They engage reality in their works and consequently involve their work in reality. Aesthetics is shaped by a wealth of forms and approaches used by artists to make their work legible. Thus, if politics is a way of communicating in the public space, is art therefore the base?
Art, more than any other domain, creates a chain of relations between men and women, but also the interplay between humanity, nature and the Universe. Artists’ creation must possess the vital force in order to command the attention of audiences. Art should be able to take into account common aspirations, fears, hopes and daily struggles with the utmost sincerity. That is why we think of the exhibition as the “distribution of the sensible,” to draw from Jacques Rancière, and it is why we share his point of view of linking politics to art/aesthetics.
Our framework, “to produce the common”, is a conscious act of engaging what is shared by all, and to take into account what affects everyone, the “Whole-World”. For Dak’Art 2014, we are interested in new modes of address used by contemporary artists (from Africa and elsewhere) in thinking critically about art and the artistic process as a public vocation, and as part of a collective spirit.

Toward this goal, the exhibition is set according to three directions:

Acte 1: think every work of art as the permanence of a singularity, and the meeting point of the world and its history.

Acte 2: an artistic experiment and a laboratory of collective production laboratory where the artists are asked to create a collective work in a single space from a common story, and losing their individual identities. It is also a political act to commemorate the moment when Africa was taken out of Art History because of the anonymity of African art and artists.

Acte 3: after the end of art, the end of history, and the achievement of globalization, the world waits to see if art proves. We are still at the beginning of its discovery. The third act opens up possibilities.
A video and cinema timetable, as well as interventions in public spaces, complete this program for a biennial anchored in both reality and the imaginary. We hope this ensemble will provide a space and time to think about art, politics, and affirm that being together is the only horizon for human creation. ”

Elise Atangana, Abdelkader Damani, Smooth Ugochukwu Chukwudi Nzewi

Dak’Art into the Campus
Green Art

Artists: 

• Bob Verschueren
• François Méchain
• Nils-Udo
• Marie Zolamian
• Barthélémy Toguo
• Serigne Mbaye Camara
• Cheikh Diouf

Dak’Art Meetings

Dak’Art Meetings will reflect on the art professions. If in the past, artists were dealing directly with their client, the art market as it exists today introduced intermediaries in the transaction of art works: dealers, agents, art galleries, curators, critics, conservators, collectors, sponsors, etc.

Guests:

Yves Michaud, Malick NDIAYE, Laurent Jean pierre, Séverine Sofio, Lydie Diakhaté, Chris Spring, Dominique Berthet, Vangelis Athanassopoulos, Marie Noëlle Ryan, Jean Godefroy BIDIMA, Hélène Tissières, Frank Ugiomoh, Bernard Lafargue, Jean-Philippe AKA, Viyé DIBA, Cécile Fakhoury, Xavier Gbré, Mohammed Djehiche, Salimata DIOP, Touria El Glaoui, Sindika Dokolo, Jean-Loup PIVIN, Mohamadou SY Siré, Rodny Daniel, Pascale Obolo, Louisa Babari, Danda Jaroljmek

Panels:

May 10 :
 Opening conference : Yves Michaud, Village of the Biennale
 Panel 1 :
Curating exhibitions for contemporary art I
Curating exhibitions for contemporary art II
 Panel 2 : Art historian, art critic

May 11 :
 Panel 3 : Broker, agent, consultant
 Panel 4 : Artist and gallery manager

May 12 :
 Panel 5 : Contemporary art institutions: fairs, auction houses, museums, biennales
Panel 6 : Art dealers, buyers, collectors, sponsors

May 13:
 Panel 7 : Journals and Magazines of Contemporary Art I : in collaboration with AFRICADAA
 Panel 8 : Journals and Magazines of Contemporary Art II. In collaboration with AFRICADAA.