Dak'Art 96

One of the most important exhibitions of African art, the Biennial Festival of Conternporary African Art, opened its doors to the public in Dakar, Senegal, on 8 May 1996. The 'Pan-African Art Exhibition', as it is still called, was being staged for the third time although it almost failed to take place at all, having been postponed several times over the last four years. All those who participated - from the artists who exhibited to the directors of art galleries and cultural institions - were pleasantly surprised. The next edition of me Courier will include a more comprehensive account of the exhibition.

President Abdou Diouf of Senegal inaugurated the event at the Daniel Sorano National Theatre in the company of a number of VlPs, including BartoLomé Amat Armengol who represented the European Commission. The Commission was Dak'Art 96's main financial partner providing support to the tune of CFAF 200 million (ECU 300 000 approx). The Biennial Festival aims to be a showcase for African artists allowing them to break into the international plastic arts market. Hitherto, this has remained relatively closed to them despite the general recognition that Africa has a contribution to make to the art world in this area. Mr Ousmane Sow Huchard, chairman of the Festival's scientific board, stressed that success lay first in stimulating the art market in Africa itself. He gave the example of his own country which had voted the so-called '1 % law', which stipulated the proportion of works of art that should be used to decorate all new public buildings.

The Festival's main exhibition, at the Ifan Museum of African Arts, was devoted to major trends in African sculpture. 42 artists selected by an international panel took part and, despite some criticism, their choice was a judicious one. The same cannot be said, unfortunately, of the second major exhibition, at the National Art Gallery. This was devoted to contemporary Senegalese art and the skill involved in producing the exhibits was not of a consistently high standard.

There were also five individual exhibitions featuring artists chosen by internationally famous judges. These might be expected to have a dynamic effect in setting standards on the market. Zeribun Yempeta of Ethiopia offered a quite original style, working on a support of leather straps fastened to a trellis of fine strips of wood. He draws his inspiration from a combination of African design, Coptic and Greek influences, and ancient Egyptian art. Ethiopian painting was one of the major revelations of the 'Africa 95' exhibition in London last year and the Festival gave a further opportunity for such art to be displayed. Another display presented work by the Moroccan painter, Mohamed Kacimi, whose pictures have been hung in various exhibitions - although the term 'pictures' is not always appropriate to this artist's work. It is perhaps more fitting to say that he 'occupies space'. In Dakar, he covered three walls of a large room with 'rolling art'. His skill, particularly in monumental works, is to offer excitement and calm simultaneously, through the use of animated forms and soft, rhythmic harmonies. Ezrom Legae of South Africa, Moustapha Dime of Senegal and Pascale Martine Tayou of Cameroon were the three other artists granted individual exhibitions.

One of the trends which came to the fore at Dak'Art was the use of alternative media and recycled material. The latter, in a sense, is the man in the street's legacy to art. Initially, recycling was used predominantly in the informal sector to produce utilitarian objects. The 'Biennial Festival Village' was set aside for informal sculptors, and in an open area beside the Village, both inside a marquee and outdoors, one of the most individually striking exhibitions was presented. This combined a variety of artistic forms ranging from painting to video, not to mention Adeagbo's unusual montages, including 'African artists and AIDS'. This had already been exhibited in a number of countries and was staged by the Revue Noire team in parallel with its 'AIDS' issue.

The Festival included dozens of on-site exhibitions as well as all the 'fringe' presentations. The AIDS exhibition was one of the boldest but the display entitled 'Love' offered the greatest degree of unity and uniformity of design. Dak'Art 96 also made an attempt to integrate other forms of creativity such as dance, design and fashion. The latter two, for example, were presented at the Espace Vema, a fine metal structure where the creations of the Senegalese designer Claire Kane were in perfect harmony with the highly original furnishings. The European Union's prize for creativity, one of the Festival's four major prizes, was awarded to Vincent Namien, a designer from Cote d'lvoire.

Hege'Goueier