Honey in the coffee

Dakar is getting ready for its 11th Biennale, Dak'Art . Opening on Friday 9 May, the Biennale will close a month later, the 8 June. Curators for this edition are Elise Atangana, Abdelkader Damani and Smooth Ugochukwu Nzewi.  The first Biennale in Dakar was in 1992 and since then has been a platform for contemporary art presenting African artists and African Diaspora. PROGRAM (as 29/04/14) Thursday May 8 Opened only to journalists, partners and officials accredited with their badge. 16h- Press conference with the curators : Elise ATANGANA, Abdelkader DAMANI, Smooth Ugochukwu NZEWI. Friday May 9 10h: Official opening to Grand Theatre in the presence of the President of the Republic of Senegal. 16h: Opening of International Exhibition, Village de la Biennale. 19h: Welcome cocktail, Village de la Biennale. 19h30: Performances of artists (Olivier Fokoua, Ato Malinda, Bouchra Ouizguen). Saturday May 10 9h to 13h: Opening conference. Panel 1 : Curating ...

I recently had a lucky opportunity to visit Ellen Gallagher's exhibition AxME at the Tate Modern in London, before its ending. It is a great show, the very first major retrospective in the UK of this American artist, displayed through eleven rooms. The title, AxME is referring to they way black native American were pronouncing 'ask me' and also to the 'Acme Corporation' a fictional company featuring in the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon.  Her artistic world is soaked in an American culture but experienced through a personal family perspective and origin. Being of a biracial ethnicity (the father was born in US but his family was from Cape Verde and her mother was Irish), her imagery goes from wigs advertisement in vintage African American magazines and African diaspora to oceanography, science fictions and writings of Gertrude Stein (American writer and poet). I saw Callagher's work for the first time in Santiago de Compostela at the opening sh...