DAKAR, Senegal — For the creative and cultural elites of Senegal, the monthlong Dakar Biennale of Recent African Arts is a celebratory presen.
Each and every two years, loads of artists, curators and artwork fans from internationally descend at the West African capital to wait the development, which was once based in 1989 by way of the Senegalese executive and has over the many years turn into one of the crucial impressive showcases at the continent.
Pop-up exhibitions are held in loads of venues, from trendy five-star lodges to native artwork galleries. Roads are much more crowded than common, with site visitors jams stretching out for miles alongside the Corniche, the town’s picturesque seashore side road. Each and every evening, there are track concert events, model presentations, talks with artists and film screenings held towards the backdrop of palm timber and to the soundtrack of popping champagne bottles.
Nevertheless it wasn’t till this week that the native artisans within the Soumbedioune crafts marketplace, simply off the Corniche and on the doorstep at the Medina working-class community, learned what the Biennale was once.
For years, “we saw the OFF signs, but we didn’t know what was going on,” said Ndiouga Dia, a 48-year-old leatherworker from Soumbedioune, referring to a series of events organized in parallel to the official government program, scattered all over the city. “Only the artists knew among themselves what was going on.”
Craftsmanship is deeply rooted in the country’s culture. Senegal, like most African nations, has little capacity for industrial production, and traditionally much of its economy has relied on locally produced goods. For centuries, craftsmen played a central role in Senegalese social life, sculpting religious statues and ceremonial masks, sewing boubous (traditional colorful wide-sleeved robes), molding pottery and weaving baskets.
But these days, their role is in decline. As living costs rise, many Senegalese opt for cheaper, often Chinese products. And those that can afford it buy Western clothes and furniture to mark their social status.
So when two designers approached Dia, who is also the community leader of the Soumbedioune artisans, with a proposal for a joint exhibition, he didn’t hesitate for a second.
It felt good to be noticed and included, Dia said.
Designers Kemi Bassène and Khadim Ndiaye asked five artisans — a sculptor, a painter, a jeweler, a leatherworker and a upholsterer — to interpret the theme of “hippo.”
They chose the theme because it was easily recognizable across Africa, they said, bringing together people from different nations who live next to the water.
The exhibition, held in the central square of Soumbedioune, surrounded by artisanal boutiques and restaurants selling thieboudienne, the most famous Senegalese dish, has been a hit among locals. There are hippo earrings and a hippo necklace; a giant wooden sculpture of a sleeping hippo; and a hippo-shaped bag.
Papise Kanté, a 45-year-old sculptor who created two wooden hippo statues for the exhibition, said it allowed him to tap into a more creative part of his work, instead of just producing objects that he intended to sell.
“I have been sculpting since I was a young child,” said Kanté, who comes from a long line of sculptors. “Every artist wants to get better.”
Nevertheless it additionally gave his paintings popularity.
“It’s because of the Biennale that people know my work,” he said. If you participate in the Biennale, he added, “you are proud.”
Bassène, the curator, grew up in Medina, next to Soumbedioune, but is now based in Paris. He said he wanted to bridge the divide between arts and crafts.
“This is the first time in the history that artisans, especially those who are custodians of traditional craftsmanship, are invited to the Biennale,” Bassène mentioned. “For craftsmen in Africa, there is a natural progression towards the world of modern design.”
It was once “normal,” he mentioned, to incorporate artisans within the Biennale “if we wanted to try to decolonize a little.”
This week’s Biennale is being held as Senegal is present process profound political exchange, with the newly elected government charting a extra self-reliant and pan-African route.
Terminating past, the governing birthday celebration, PASTEF, fix a powerful victory in legislative elections. Its win granted President Bassirou Diomaye Faye a unclouded mandate to hold out motivated reforms promised all over the marketing campaign to support residing situations for habitual Senegalese — together with higher financial self-reliance, revamping the fishing trade, and making most virtue of herbal assets.
The theme of this week’s Biennale has been “The Wake,” alluding to the emancipation of the African continent from its extra dependence on former colonial powers.
The unused executive of Senegal has “a transformational agenda,” mentioned Bassène. “I think that what we have experienced politically will impact all the social sciences and all art.”
In the meantime, the Soumbedioune artisans have big plans. Dia, the community leader, said that they are planning a collaboration with a local school to manufacture backpacks for students.
His dream, he said, was to expand the production across the whole country so the Senegalese parents “do not have to buy Chinese products.”
“We have all the know-how,” he said. “We can produce more.”
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