Entitled The Words Create Images, the 5th edition of the BIC is inspired by the work of South African photographer George Hallett (1942-2020) and the role of African literature in image making processes. The theme also refers to an observation by Jacques Derrida, during his seminar Trace et archive, image et art(2002) on “the idea of ​​the word working as an image, beyond its discursive properties”.

This theme unfolds in Casablanca through word, text, sign, language, thought, discourse, be it orality, writing or code; transmission of customary, historical or contemporary stories; discursive spaces and margins of expression.

Three major exhibitions

The exhibitions will bring together multidisciplinary works including painting, photography, video, installation, performance, and digital art.

Three exhibitions held at the American Arts Center, SoArt Gallery and the BIC Project Space will structure the BIC and present the works of 17 artists until December 17:

• The American Arts Center : Brahim Benkirane (Morocco), Kyoo Choix (South Korea/France), Alessandra Ferrini (Italy/United Kingdom), Brandon Gercara (France), George Hallett (South Africa), Amira Hanafi (Egypt /United States), Emilia Izquierdo (Chile/United Kingdom), Elias Mendel (United Kingdom), Gideon Mendel (South Africa/United Kingdom), Ada Pinkston (United States) and Buhlebezwe Siwani (South Africa).

• SoArt Gallery : Aisha Jemila Daniels (United States), Lebohang Kganye (South Africa), Sharlene Khan (South Africa) and Alice Mann (South Africa).

• Bic Project Space : Khadija Tnana (Morocco) and Ziad Naitaddi (Morocco).

The BIC’s associated programme will consist in a collaboration with La Serre by l’Atelier de l’Observatoire (Morocco).

The artists were selected following a call for applications launched in 2019, as part of a curatorial research carried out from 2019 to 2022, and following portfolio reviews held in Casablanca and virtually in July and August 2022.

The 5th International Biennale of Casablanca is placed under the artistic direction of Christine Eyene (England/Cameroon), art historian and exhibition curator, in collaboration with three emerging curators: Selma Naguib (Morocco), Patrick Nzazi Kiama (Republic Democratic Party of Congo/France) and Juste Constant Onana Amougui (Cameroon).

A rich public program

In addition to the exhibitions, the Biennale will host a rich public program starting during the professional days from 17 to 20 November, at musée de la Fondation Abderrahman Slaoui and The American Arts Center with performances, discussions, and conversations between the BIC’s artists and curators, as well as interventions by Siham Weigant (Independent curator, Morocco / Co-curator, Dakar Biennale 2022), Pr. Joasia Krysa (Curator of the Helsinki Biennale 2023), Yann Mazéas (Director of the MO .CO. Esba, Montpellier), ART AFRICA (Cape Town), and many others.

Finally, after the 59th Venice Biennale and Documenta fifteen, the International Biennale of Casablanca is hosting SAISON 6 – Volume 2, an international residency programme for young artists who have graduated from MO.CO. Esba – Montpellier School of Fine Arts. Six laureates are invited to develop their work during one year over 3 residencies, organised on the occasion of biennales and major international exhibitions. The laureates are Marie Boutevin, Paul Dubois, Alyss Fleury, Pierre Peres(K.BLUM), Clémentine Poirier (BOBBY BRIM) and Gaétan Vaguelsy who will participate in several of the BIC’s activities and exhibit their work at the end of their time at Casablanca.

Organised by Maroc Premium Fondation, the 5th International Biennale of Casablanca is produced in partnership and collaboration with: IFITRY, Centre d’Art Contemporain Essaouira, BIC Project Space, FRAC Réunion, Institut français, Phileas – A fund for Contemporary Art, Liverpool John Moores University and The American Arts Center.

The second part of the International Biennale of Casablanca will take place from 1 June to 2 July 2023.

www.biennalecasablanca.org

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The 34th Bienal de São Paulo starts in February 2020 with Solo Shows and Performances

Characterized by joint effort and mutual leverage between the curatorial project and institutional activity, the 34th Bienal de São Paulo emphasizes the poetics of “relation.” To this end, it has adopted an innovative operational structure, which involves the holding of shows and actions presented at the Bienal Pavilion from February 2020, coupled with the articulation of a network of more than twenty São Paulo institutions. Once the 34th Bienal de Sāo Paulo’s Pavilion is completely occupied by the edition’s main show, opening in September 2020, these institutions will hold, in their own spaces, exhibitions that are part of the 34th Bienal.

Under the general curatorship of Jacopo Crivelli Visconti and a curatorial team consisting of Paulo Miyada (adjunct curator) plus Carla Zaccagnini, Francesco Stocchi and Ruth Estévez (guest curators), the 34th Bienal de São Paulo is titled Faz escuro mas eu canto [Though it’s dark, still I sing], a line from a poem by Brazilian writer Thiago de Mello (Barreirinha, 1926), and will be inaugurated by solo shows by artists Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Clara Ianni and Deana Lawson, as well as performances authored by Neo Muyanga, León Ferrari and Hélio Oiticica.

Performances and Solo Shows

As previously announced, the operation of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo is based on three different axes: space, time and depth. In time, it extends, beginning in February 2020 with three solo shows and three short-duration performative actions that will occupy certain areas of the Bienal Pavilion at different moments and introduce some of the themes that will be developed in the main exhibition – which will begin in September 2020, and will include the works featured in the solo shows. The artworks of the solo shows will thus reappear in the large group show, in new contexts but also bearing the meanings acquired in their previous showings. Were invited for the three solo shows artists from different lines of research and backgrounds, but similar in the sense of having prolific, complex and instigating productions: the Peruvian Ximena Garrido-Lecca (b. 1980, Lima), the Brazilian Clara Ianni (b. 1987, São Paulo, SP), and the North American Deana Lawson (b. 1979, Rochester, NY). Each of these shows will be accompanied by the presentation of one performance: by the South African Neo Muyanga (n. 1974, Soweto), the Argentine León Ferrari (1920–2013, Buenos Aires), and the Brazilian Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980, Rio de Janeiro).

Special attention is given to the expanded field of the African diaspora

“The Bienal is beginning with a series of shows and events that introduce part of the themes that will be considered in depth in the main show, starting in September,” explains Crivelli Visconti. “Brazil and Latin America are very well represented, both in terms of the artists’ nationalities as well as the subjects they deal with, which range from social and political issues to the recovery of ancestral knowledge. At the same time, special attention is given to the power and urgency of the production within the expanded field of the African diaspora. Generally speaking, the 34th Bienal wishes to shed light on productions that deserve more attention, such as contemporary indigenous art (Brazilian and from other parts of the world) or that produced in the Caribbean.”

Ximena Garrido-Lecca will open the shows of the Bienal

The first of the shows, to open in February 2020, is by Ximena Garrido-Lecca, who lives between Lima and Mexico City. Her research examines the turbulent history of Peru and explores the cultural impact of the neocolonial patterns that are transmitted through the processes of globalization. Her solo show will open concomitantly with the holding of the brand new performance A Maze in Grace, by Neo Muyanga, in which a large choir of voices will perform a new composition of his authorship, based on the song Amazing Grace, often sung as a hymn at rituals of trauma and public struggle or to create feelings of bonding at large political gatherings in different parts of Africa and the English-speaking world.

Artist Clara Ianni as the second solo show of the Bienal

The second solo show, to open in April 2020, is by Clara Ianni, whose artistic practice explores the relation between the perception of time, of history and of space in the current context of globalized capitalism. The opening of her exhibition will coincide with the performance Palabras Ajenas (1965–1969), by León Ferrari. Palabras Ajenas is a literary collage that appropriates quotations from historical figures to construct a dialogue on violence, war and power. This work has been partially read on two previous occasions (in 1968, at Arts Lab, London, and, in 1972, at Teatro Larrañaga, Buenos Aires) and completely, for the first time, in 2017, translated into English, at REDCAT, Los Angeles. This will be the first complete reading of the work in Brazil, and in Portuguese.

Artist Deana Lawson as the third solo show at the Bienal Pavilion

In July 2020, the third solo show at the Bienal Pavilion will open, with works by North American artist Deana Lawson, who produces intimate images of people and places, often blending spontaneous, staged and found photos. Attentive to the stereotypes of Western and African portraits and committed to extrapolating their limits, Lawson produced a new set of images in Salvador (BA), as part of her series of photos that portray, with an extremely personal approach, places marked by the strong presence of cultures deriving from the African diaspora.

For its part, rather than accompanying the opening of Lawson’s solo show, the last performance will kick off the large group show to be held in the Bienal Pavilion starting in September 2020: it is a performance authored by Hélio Oiticica, but never previously executed, entitled A ronda da morte [The Rhythm of Death]. The performance was conceived in 1979, when the artist returned to Brazil after living between London and New York for about ten years. It was created as a poetic and symbolic response to the optimism in Brazil following the decline of the dictatorship – a feeling the artist did not share, as he understood the many structural changes that could bring effective social justice were still lacking.

International Partnerships

Besides the previously announced network of about 25 partner institutions in the city of São Paulo, the 34th Bienal will be held in collaboration with renowned international institutions, which will coproduce and include in their program some of the solo shows and performances. The presentation by Neo Muyanga is a joint initiative with the Liverpool Biennial (England), while the solo shows will be held with the following partnerships: the exhibition by Ximena Garrido-Lecca is being co-produced with CCA Wattis, San Francisco (USA); the exhibition by Clara Ianni is being co-produced with the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos – CCA Lagos (Nigeria); and the exhibition by Deana Lawson is being co-produced with Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland). These exhibitions will be presented abroad in 2021, with the exception of the solo show of Deana Lawson, which will be on view at Kunsthalle Basel from March 27 to May 24, 2020.

“The Fundação Bienal has intensified its international work since 2016, with the creation of its International Advisory Board. The realization of the 34th Bienal – with the partnerships forged with institutions of the United States, Europe and Africa – is also part of this movement. Similarly, the experiment to be carried out with the next edition of the show, of presenting a number of smaller exhibitions leading up the main one, is the outcome of our desire to build an increasingly closer relation with Ibirapuera Park and to open the institution to the city. The Bienal belongs to everyone and we want the people of São Paulo to feel free to appropriate and experience the space and the event,” says José Olympio da Veiga Pereira, president of the Fundação Bienal.

Editorial Project

Within the search for an enriching plurality of viewpoints and positions that characterizes the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, the curatorship of the publications has been tasked to Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of The Showroom, London (England), an institution that now becomes a member of this edition’s network of partnerships. On the publications of the 34th Bienal, the themes dealt with in the exhibition will serve as a starting point for a broader reflection on contemporary culture and society. Thus, just as the artworks are first presented in an initial configuration and will then return to the project enriched with a new layer of meanings, following an innovative format, the publications will consist of a set of texts and images that will be presented, over the course of a year, in various formats (such as magazines, books, newspapers and digital platforms), to then be incorporated into the editorial products that will accompany the main exhibition. Going beyond a traditional format of merely reflecting the exhibition in an objective way, the set of publications will also seek to take advantage of the event’s open methodology, with the aim of emphasizing the impossibility of definitively crystallizing a process that is, in its essence, conceived in a way to allow for constant transformation.

34th Bienal de São Paulo – Faz escuro mas eu canto

[Though it’s dark, still I sing]

Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo, Ibirapuera Park

Free admission

Solo shows:
Ximena Garrido-Lecca / Neo Muyanga: February 8 through March 15, 2020
Clara Ianni / León Ferrari: April 25 through June 8, 2020
Deana Lawson: July 25 through August 23, 2020
Group show*: September 5 through December 6, 2020
*with performance by Hélio Oiticica during the opening

Curatorial team

General curator: Jacopo Crivelli Visconti
Adjunct curator: Paulo Miyada
Guest curators: Carla Zaccagnini, Francesco Stocchi and Ruth Estévez
Guest curator for publications: Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of The Showroom, London

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This 12th edition of the African Bienniale of Photography, created in 1994, marks the celebration of its 25th anniversary. They will be held in Bamako, from 30 November 2019 to 31 January 2020. Organized by the Ministry of Culture of Mali with the support of the French Institute, Rencontres de Bamako is the main event dedicated to contemporary photography and new images in Africa. On an international scale, Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako Encounters) are a platform for discovery, exchange and visibility, they are an essential place for African photographers to reveal themselves, a time for exchange with the Malian public and professionals from all over the world.

“Streams of Consciousness”: Theme of the 12th edition of the African Biennial of Photography

The pan-African exhibition, at the heart of the event, is the result of a selection of African photographers and videographers. It is in the framework of the general theme “Streams of Consciousness” and will bring together African artists from the continent and its diasporas. Streams of Consciousness refers to the first track of Abdullah Ibrahim and Max Roache’s eponymous album, Streams of Consciousness (1977). Like a soul to soul conversation, this piece recalls what William James called in his book The Principles of Psychology (1890), a person’s continuous stream of consciousness and conscious reactions to events.

By choosing this theme, it is a question of thinking of the work as an expression of an inner monologue, as a dialogue between artists, from artist to spectator or as the artist’s sensory reactions to external events. It is therefore a question of reflecting on the notion of representation from the artist’s point of view, which is expressed through a current of artistic thought. The aim is to “think in pictures”. The photographic work is conceived as the result of the conceptual and aesthetic associations of its author. The works selected for the pan-African exhibition will be those that explore through photographic practice this notion of “Streams of consciousness” as it is conceptualised in psychology and literature.

The focus will also be on the notion of dialogue between the continent and its diasporas, including the bridges that compose and animate the African universe. Africa has long ceased to be a geographical concept limited to its geographical space. Through the dynamics of photography, it is a question of giving rise to streams of consciousness that are born from and beyond the coasts of the African continent.

(Further information : Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung)

Curators

The 12th edition of Rencontres de Bamako – African Biennial of Photography will have as Artistic Director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, independent curator and founder of SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin, Germany), and co- curators Aziza Harmel, Astrid Sokona Lepoultier and Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh. Photographers Akinbode Akinbiyi and Seydou Camera will be the artistic advisors.

Individual artists

• Ibrahim Ahmed (Egypt/USA),
• Nirveda Alleck (Mauritius Island),
• Emmanuelle Andrianjafy (Madagascar),
• Roger Anis (Egypt),
• Yannick Anton (Canada),
• Afrane Akwasi Bediako (Ghana),
• Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon),
• Jodi Bieber (South Africa),
• Milena Scherezade Carranza Valcárcel (Peru),
• Cédrick-Isham (France),
• Nidhal Chamekh (Tunisia),
• Amsatou Diallo (Mali),
• Moustapha Diallo (Mali),
• Dickonet (Mali),
• Adji Fatou Amdy Dieye (Italy/Senegal),
• Fakhri El Ghezal (Tunisia),
• Badr El Hammami (Morocco),
• Yagazie Emezi (Nigeria),
• Theo Eshetu (Ethiopia/Italy/ Netherlands/ UK),
• Fototala King Massassy (Mali),
• Abrie Fourie (South Africa),
• Rahima Gambo (Nigeria),
• Eric Gyamfi (Ghana),
• Yasmina Hajji (France),
• Halima Haruna (Nigeria),
• Fanyana Hlabangane (South Africa),
• Renée Holleman (South Africa),
• Adama Jalloh (UK/Sierra Leone),
• Maxime Jean-Baptiste (France),
• Amina Ayman Kadous (Egypt),
• Mansour Ciss Kanakassy (Senegal),
• Mouna Karray (Tunisia),
• Godelive Kabena Kasangati (DR Congo),
• Bouchra Khalili (France/Morocco),
• Nicène Kossentini (Tunisia),
• Kitso Lynn Lelliott (Botswana/South Africa),
• Keli Safia Maksud (Kenya/Tanzania),
• Harun Morrison & Helen Walker (UK),
• Santiago Mostyn (Sweden/Trinidad/Zimbabwe),
• Khalil Nemmaoui (Morocco),
• Yvon Ngassam (Cameroon),
• Antoine Ngolke-do’o (Cameroon),
• Christian Nyampeta (The Netherlands/Rwanda),
• Abraham Oghobase (Nigeria),
• Adeola Olagunju (Nigeria),
• Léonard Pongo (Belgium),
• Nader Mohamed Saadallah (Egypt),
• Amadou Diadié Samassékou (Mali),
• Mara Sanchez Renero (Mexico),
• Ketaki Sheth (India),
• Buhlebezwe Siwani (South Africa),
• Selasi Awusi Sosu (Ghana),
• Mohamed Thara (Morocco),
• Dustine Thierry (Curaçao/The Netherlands),
• Boubakary Touré (France/Mali),
• Hamdia Traoré (Mali),
• Andrew Tshabangu (South Africa),
• Guy Woueté (Cameroon)

Groups

• Association des Femmes Photographes du Mali (AFPM) (Mali)
• Collectif Orchestre vide (France)
• Collective 220 (Algeria)
• Iliso Labantu Photography Collective (Afrique du Sud)
• Invisible Borders (Trans-Africa)
• Kamoinge (USA/Pan-Africa)
• Kolektif 2 Dimansyon (K2D) (Haiti)
• MFON: Women Photographers from the African Diaspora (Pan-Africa)
• The Otholith Group (Ghana/India/UK)

Special projects

• Felicia Abban (Ghana)
• Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigeria)
• Jihan El Tahri (Egypt)
• Armet Francis (Jamaica)
• Theaster Gates (USA)  
• Liz Johnson Artur (UK)
• Deborah Lewis (USA)
• Eustaquio Neves (Brazil)
  

Thematic exhibitions

• “Musow Ka Touma Sera” a group exhibition with women artists, organized by Fatima Bocoum, (Mali)
• “Dja Tigui: The host of My Shadow”, curated by Nakhana Diakite Prats (France/Senegal)
• “The Works of Tolu Odukoya 1945-2015”, curated by Uche James Iroha (Nigeria)
• “Legends of the Kasbah”, curated by Riason Naidoo (South Africa)
• “East of Bamako”, curated by Françoise Huguier (France)
• “Five photographers: A tribute to David Goldblatt”, curated by John Fleetwood (South Africa)

12th edition of Rencontres de Bamako – Bamako Encounters

African Biennial of Photography

From November 30, 2019 to January 31, 2020

Bamako, Mali

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