The 15th Biennale of Contemporary African Art, widely known as Dak’Art, is underway in Senegal, drawing artists, curators, and art enthusiasts from across the globe. This prestigious biennial event, held every two years, has become a cornerstone of Africa’s contemporary art scene. For 2024, the theme, The Wake – L’Éveil, delves deeply into the intersections of trauma, human experience, and environmental concerns, reflecting on the pressing challenges facing people and the planet.
One of the prominent voices shaping this year’s biennale is anthropologist and curator Kara Blackmore. With expertise in community-driven exhibition-making, Blackmore is part of an all-woman team responsible for artist selection and curatorial direction. She shared insights into her work at Dak’Art and the importance of creating spaces for healing during a historically challenging period.
A Focus on Healing Through Art
For Blackmore, this year’s theme offers an opportunity to address collective traumas and foster resilience. “Art has the power to create spaces for dialogue and healing,” she explained. As an associate curator, her role involves not just showcasing creative talent but also facilitating connections between artists and communities to explore shared experiences and solutions.
The biennale’s exhibitions reflect a strong emphasis on storytelling, highlighting how art can become a vessel for processing pain, remembering histories, and envisioning brighter futures. By curating works that resonate with these themes, Blackmore and her team aim to inspire critical reflection and hope.
A Platform for African Artists
Dak’Art has long been celebrated for elevating African voices in contemporary art. This year’s biennale continues that tradition, featuring an impressive lineup of artists from across the continent and its diaspora. From multimedia installations to environmental sculptures, the exhibits invite audiences to consider how art can navigate complex issues like climate change, displacement, and identity.
The curatorial team, comprising experienced professionals like Blackmore, has taken a collaborative approach to artist selection. Their shared goal is to showcase art that not only captures the spirit of the theme but also pushes boundaries in creative expression.
Why Dak’Art Matters
As one of Africa’s most significant art events, Dak’Art serves as a vital platform for cultural exchange and innovation. It brings together diverse perspectives, offering a space where the global art community can engage with the rich narratives emerging from Africa.
Beyond its role as an exhibition, the biennale is a call to action. With its focus on trauma, healing, and the planet, Dak’Art 2024 invites artists and audiences alike to reflect on how creativity can address the urgent challenges of our time.
The 15th Biennale of Contemporary African Art runs in Dakar, Senegal, through [insert closing date]. It’s a must-visit event for anyone passionate about the transformative power of art.
Why the Dakar Biennale is a Beacon for Contemporary African Art
The Dakar Biennale, or Dak’Art, stands as one of the most prestigious platforms for contemporary African art, celebrated globally for its ability to highlight the creativity and cultural richness of the continent. Since its official inception in 1992, the biennale has grown into a landmark event that draws artists, curators, academics, and cultural professionals from across the globe.
A Unique Space of Generosity and Inclusion
What sets Dak’Art apart is its spirit of openness and accessibility. This year’s edition, themed The Wake – L’Éveil, emphasizes inclusion by offering all exhibitions and events free to the public. It’s a rare model of generosity that democratizes access to art and positions the biennale as a communal celebration rather than an exclusive affair.
Celebrating Art Ecosystems and Heritage
The Dakar Biennale is more than just an exhibition; it’s a vital moment for the art ecosystem of Africa. It serves as a platform where the continent’s artistic heritage and contemporary innovation intersect, celebrating the diversity and dynamism of African cultures. Visitors from around the world flock to experience not only the art but also the palpable vitality of African creativity and its global diasporas.
Sculptures by Sokari Douglas Camp. Guy Peterson
A Singularly Funded Initiative
In a global climate where arts funding is often constrained, Dak’Art is unique. It remains the only government-funded biennale in Africa, a testament to Senegal’s deep commitment to the arts. This investment contrasts sharply with a landscape where international aid often fills the void left by limited national arts funding. The Senegalese government’s role in sustaining the biennale is a powerful statement about the importance of cultural sovereignty and support for creative expression.
Expanding the Boundaries of Pan-Africanism
This year’s biennale has taken Pan-Africanism to new heights by connecting artists from across the globe and fostering deeper relationships between creative practices and pressing global issues, particularly ecological crises. The result is a dynamic showcase of art that not only reflects the continent’s diverse voices but also contributes to urgent global conversations.
A Moment of Aliveness
For attendees, the Dakar Biennale is more than an event; it’s an experience of aliveness. It celebrates the creativity, resilience, and forward-thinking spirit of Africa and its diasporas. Dak’Art is a vital platform where art transcends borders, linking communities and sparking dialogue on themes that matter both locally and globally.
As one of the oldest and most respected art biennales in Africa, Dak’Art continues to affirm the continent’s place at the forefront of contemporary artistic expression and cultural discourse.
Agnès Brézéphin from Martinique
Exploring the Main Shows at Dak’Art 2024: A Journey Through Art and Ecology
The 15th Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar offers visitors an unforgettable experience, with its main exhibitions housed in the historic Old Palace of Justice. This coastal landmark has been transformed into a dynamic space that seamlessly blends art, architecture, and the themes of the biennale, making it the heart of this year’s event.
The Venue: Old Palace of Justice
The Old Palace of Justice, perched on Dakar’s coastal plateau, provides a striking backdrop for the biennale. This vast space is anchored by its grand courtyard, which has been repurposed as an open-air gallery showcasing monumental sculptural works. Highlights include pieces by:
- Sonia Elizabeth Barrett (Jamaica)
- Sokari Douglas Camp (Nigeria)
- Siwa Mgoboza (South Africa)
The sculptures embody a global conversation about resilience, identity, and ecological awareness, setting the tone for the exhibitions that unfold within the building.
The Flow of the Exhibition
Visitors are invited to follow a lyrical journey through the corridors of the former courthouse, now a labyrinth of art. The exhibition is divided into thematic chapters that mirror elements of nature and humanity’s impact on them:
- Water (Swimming in the Wake): Pieces that explore the fluidity of life and the symbolic role of water in our ecosystems and cultures.
- Land (Dive into the Forest): Works reflecting our relationship with nature and the grounding power of earth.
- Air (Float in the Clouds): Installations that evoke lightness, imagination, and the intangible.
- Fire (Burn): A stark portrayal of the destruction wrought by human activity on the environment.
These chapters are unified by the interplay of light and color, guiding audiences through the nearly 50 contemporary works on display. For the duration of the biennale, the Old Palace of Justice is transformed from a ruin into a vibrant, living gallery.
Behind the Themes: A Collaborative Vision
This year’s themes are the result of a collective curatorial process that aimed to break from traditional hierarchies. Instead of having a single artistic director, the biennale was shaped by a collaborative ethos among curators Salimata Diop, Cindy Olohou, Marynet Jeannerod, and Kara Blackmore.
The scenography—designed in partnership with architecture and design firms Clémence Farrell and Studio Abdou Diouf—blends seamlessly with the art, turning the venue into an immersive experience.
The themes also draw inspiration from Eaux Fortes (Strong Water), a collective of artists and curators whose work on ecological crises, climate catastrophe, and extractivism became a foundation for the biennale’s conceptual framework.
Why You Should Visit
Dak’Art 2024 is more than an art show—it’s a sensory journey and a call to action. By exploring the intersections of art, nature, and humanity, this year’s biennale provides an opportunity to reflect on our place in the world and the urgent need to care for it.
Whether you’re an art enthusiast or a curious traveler, the transformed Old Palace of Justice and its powerful exhibitions promise an experience of creativity, connection, and introspection.
We Will Stop When the Earth Roars: The Heart of Dak’Art 2024
At the core of this year’s Dakar Biennale lies the powerful exhibition We Will Stop When the Earth Roars. This pivotal showcase emerged from a gathering of women curators and artists who came together to explore the profound consequences of social and environmental violence. Among the key artists featured are Laeïla Adjovi, Beya Gille Gacha, and Cléophée R.F. Moser, whose works set the foundation for the exhibition.
From this starting point, the co-curators expanded the theme, inviting more artists to contribute their unique perspectives. The result is an emotionally charged and deeply reflective collection that balances rage with moments of tenderness, offering visitors a space to grapple with crises while also finding moments of reprieve.
Art as Repair
For curator Kara Blackmore, it was essential to include works that offer a human-scale perspective on the crises addressed in the exhibition. “Tender, intimate works are vital because they help build connections that can serve as a form of repair,” she explains.
Artists such as Manuela Lara, Louisa Marajo, Moufouli Bello, and Némo Camus bring this vision to life. Their pieces, alongside contributions from Wolff Architects, Fabiana-Ex-Souza, and Mouawad + Laurier, create opportunities for visitors to pause and breathe amidst the urgency of ecological collapse.
The exhibition is a delicate balance between confrontation and care, inviting audiences to reflect deeply while offering a space for healing and connection.
A Biennale as a Manifesto
This year’s Dakar Biennale positions itself as more than an exhibition; it’s a manifesto—a collective refusal to be silenced. The participating artists reject the traditional notion of art as a vehicle for a singular message. Instead, they present an emotive, sensory experience that demands engagement.
Visitors are not just passive observers but are drawn into the realities of extractivism, neocolonialism, waste, and consumption. Through this engagement, the audience becomes part of the conversation, unable to look away but also cared for as they confront these global crises.
A Material Manifesto
One of the standout pieces in this year’s biennale is the grand prize-winning installation by Agnès Brezephin from Martinique. Her work, Fil(s) de soi(e), features a body intricately filled with threads, buttons, and embroidered objects. This textured, layered piece encapsulates the exhibition’s ethos—a material relationship to crisis and repair. It’s not just a wake-up call but an exploration of the multifaceted approaches needed to address bodily and environmental harm.
Art That Resonates
Through We Will Stop When the Earth Roars, Dak’Art 2024 sends a resounding message: art can challenge, comfort, and inspire. The exhibition exemplifies how creativity can address global crises, offering a blueprint for connection and repair in a fractured world.
Visitors leave not only with a deeper understanding of the issues at hand but also with a sense of care and humanity that reminds us of the power of art to transform and heal.
Art as Resistance: Feminist Voices at Dak’Art 2024
The Dakar Biennale 2024 continues to push boundaries with powerful installations that confront historical legacies of violence while imagining new possibilities for liberation. Among the standout contributions are works by Haitian artist Gina Athena Ulysse and Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu, whose pieces anchor the biennale’s commitment to activist, feminist perspectives.
Gina Athena Ulysse: Confronting Legacies of Slavery
Haitian artist Gina Athena Ulysse’s installation, For Those Among Us Who Inherited Sacrifice, Rasanblaj!, weaves together cowries and calabashes against a backdrop of archival texts. This evocative piece serves as a medium for accountability, confronting the enduring legacy of transatlantic slavery.
Ulysse’s work is deeply rooted in a tradition of remembrance and reckoning, urging viewers to grapple with the history of sacrifice and the ongoing impact of systemic oppression. Her use of organic materials, paired with historical text, creates a visceral connection between the past and present.
Wangechi Mutu: A Confrontation with History
Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu’s A Palace in Pieces presents Mountain Mama, a striking work that references Kenya’s Mau Mau resistance movement. Installed in the former Supreme Court, the piece is complemented by a passage from Senegalese poet and statesman Léopold Senghor’s Prayer for Peace.
The installation features red soil meticulously sifted and spread across the floor, leading to the matriarchal statue of Mountain Mama. This deliberate path compels viewers to step into the space, inviting them to engage directly with the work and the history it evokes. The piece is at once an invitation and a confrontation, a powerful reflection on colonial legacies and the enduring strength of matriarchal figures.
Feminist Practices Across the Diaspora
These installations, along with others featured at Dak’Art 2024, are deeply rooted in feminist practices nurtured across geographies—from Martinique to Haiti, Kenya, and the diaspora, including the United States. Together, they reflect a shared insistence on addressing the violence of history while crafting narratives of resistance and liberation.
This curatorial approach brings an activist perspective to the biennale, showcasing art that not only responds to the thematic call but also challenges audiences to reckon with the world’s injustices. It is a bold proposition, requiring care infrastructures and a commitment to creating spaces where artists can thrive.
The Power of Creative Resistance
Curator Kara Blackmore, from the Urban Room at the School for the Creative and Cultural Industries at UCL, emphasizes the significance of these works:
“To bring this kind of activist perspective to curating and the creative process in a biennale is a brave proposition. One that we hope is realised through our care infrastructures and the willingness of artists to engage our thematic call with their brilliant responses.”
At Dak’Art 2024, feminist practices take center stage, offering audiences a sensory, intellectual, and emotional journey. Through these courageous works, the biennale affirms art’s ability to confront, resist, and imagine new futures.
This article is adapted from The Conversation and republished under a Creative Commons license.
