#ndoyedouts

Full disclosure: what I’m going to show you is my own personal take on the Biennale, an event that I’ve had the privilege to attend four times, in 1996, 1998, 2000, during my Dakar years, and again in 2002, after I’d already moved back to the States. While this festival is international in scope, my account will naturally have a Senegalese slant. This is, after all, my second home. And by some astounding alchemy of fate and goodwill, of hospitality and great fortune, these are also my people.

I have so much to say, three languages in which to say it (creating a messy but delicious soup u kanja in my head), and only enough time each day to see, absorb, and throw a few quick dispatches into cyberspace. Later there will be time to extract the essence from each encounter, to analyze the work in depth and understand the source of its particular hold on me. For now, my job is to move with the current, to let go and allow the city to guide me where it will. I discovered long ago that Dakar loves me best when I approach her in this way, with open arms, not submissive but humble. Show me, I tell her. And wow, does she ever.

I left you in suspense last night, wondering whether all of the pieces—sent from Nigeria, Sudan, Ghana, Algeria, Ethiopia… and of course from Europe, where so many of these “African” artists live and work—would be released from Customs in time to make it onto the walls, and whether the walls themselves would be there to greet them. You will have guessed it: Simon Njami and his team managed to pull it off in time, and in grand style.

Here’s a taste of what was on offer at the International Exhibition this morning, housed in one of Senegal’s most fascinating sites—a real lieu de mémoire which we can only hope will be preserved and asked to serve its country once again—Le Palais de Justice, or Supreme Court, located at the very tip of Dakar in an area known as Cap Manuel.

Ndoye Douts (Senegal)

Aimé Ntakiyica (Burundi), A Family Affair (2016)

Each jar is labeled with a name and represents a member of his family, dating back to the 18th century. The jars are filled with colored beads.

Detail of a work by Lavar Munroe (Bahamas).