CURATORS: Christine EYENE, Nadira LAGGOUNE, Riason NAIDOO
THEME: " CONTEMPORARY CREATION AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS "
The tenth edition of the biennale is held in a particular context. Indeed, 2012 is an electoral year in Senegal as was 2000. This year also marks the twentieth birthday of the most former biennale of the African continent. DAK'ART is maintained as a key event in the international art calendar. The theme chosen for this edition is expected to examine through various angles the dialogue that contemporary artists maintain with a social environment which is in constant mutation. Throughout the world and especially in Africa, the moments of crises alternate with the periods of stability. Some countries come out of a period of financial crisis, while others, of a social dead end; the movement of the peoples has never been as determinant for the quest of new balances. In this quest, the culture is decisively one of the levers employed. The artists knew every time how to play a beautiful partition in the social mobilizations, the raising of the conscience of individuals and groups, whatever is their ranks or their social standings, to commit to individual or collective responsibilities.
Contemporary creation and social dynamics, is a field of investigation which academics, art critics and artists are invited to explore in the context of the meetings and exchanges of the edition 2012 of the Biennale.
Ousseynou Wade, general secretary of Dakar Biennale