Dak’art 2006
By Anne-Katrien Denissen, ArchiAfrika
Ouvrons nos esprits… et nos cœurs. Let us keep both our minds… and our hearts open.
This is how Victor Emmanuel Cabrita, President of the Dak’art 2006 Orientation Committee starts the introduction of this year’s Biennal catalogue.
The year 2006 is a year of changes, the most important one probably being the opening to international expertise. The ‘biennale de Dakar’ keeps on developing and improving in a professional way. With the changes made this year, Dak’art should increasingly become a place for African artists to find an international audience.
Seen in this light, it is not strange to remark yet an other new element in the Dak’art Biennal. In addition to the four exhibitions on contemporary African art of Dak’art Inn at the Musée de la Place Soweto, Maison des Anciens Combattants, Galerie Nationale and the Maison de la Culture Douta Seck, the last mentioned also hosts an exhibition devoted entirely to African design. Fifteen designers from seven different African countries represent what is going on in this African field of activity. The conference ‘Réflexion sur le design en Afrique’, organized in collaboration with the ‘cité du design’ from Saint-Etienne (France) gave a broader perspective on the subject.
The contribution by Ivorian architect and designer, Issa Diabaté, made it even more clear that African design is a specific topic. With fascinating examples, he showed in his lecture how the African designer needs to provide answers for specific problems. The African designer needs to be a pioneer. If he isn’t, wouldn’t it be wiser to adjust already existing objects to their new environment and put them to use in an alternative way? Why keep on making new objects and images when there are already so many?
A designer has to improve an add something more to the existing format. But this is not all. One of the main characteristics of design, according to Marc Partouche of the Cité du Design, is that it is fed by other disciplines, like art, anthropology, sociology and philosophy. If it isn’t, than design is of no use. If not, designers become carpenters and welders and their metier will quickly disappear.
Is this not exactly what can be said of architecture? Gigantic cities like Kinshasa, Addis Ababa, and of course Dakar are ever growing metropoles, where new buildings seem to appear every minute. Functionality and sustainability are first demands that have to be met. In architecture too, Africa has its specific problems for which answers have to be found. But it is not a question of finding these answers and then starting to reproduce. The architect, like the designer, should continue to be a pioneer because he too can add something more. He can contribute to the quality of life of especially these huge cities. Because the architect who is designing out of philosophy, anthropology and with vision, isn’t he also making art?
The design shown at the Biennal is not always world-shaking. It is however inspired and sometimes even pioneering. But probably most important is: it’s there. Minds and hearts were opened to this new field of practice. African design is not anymore only seen as craftsmanship but as a form of art which deserves to be world-wide known and studied.
Let this in 2008 also apply to African architecture.
Source: 7th biennal of african contemporary art
‘Réflexions sur le design en Afrique’ by Wal Fadjri at www.allafrica.com
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