Dak'Art 2008by Carol Brown
Three South African artists walked away with major awards at this year's Dakar Biennale. They were Nkosikhhona Ngcobo, Johann Van der Schiff and Yoko 'Breeze' Loco. Three prizes for South Africans was a significant achievement as only six participated. The others SA participants were Sonya Rademeyer, and Arthi Puta Ruga and Nandipha Mtambo (both of whose work arrived too late for judging).
Aside from Van der Schiff, the prize-winning artists are relatively unknown on the South African art scene. Van der Schiff held his first one-person show last year at Bell-Roberts Gallery in Cape Town and also won a commission for outside Cape Town's AVA. His work for the Biennale comprised three punch balls with black and white faces with which viewers were invited to interact and release their energy. He says, 'I enjoy making works about viewer interaction. If you break down violence there is a certain point where one chooses to make the physical action and this point is of interest to my work'. His cash prize was awarded by the European Commission, and he also won the Zuloga Corporation Award which includes an invitation to show at the Beijing Olympics this year. This was a late invitation due to selectors being at the Biennale so hopefully it will happen and take some SA work to the Far East where contemporary art is currently booming.
Ngcobo won a cash prize for a video piece enetitled Praying for Peace. Loco is also a videographers and has produced documentary style videos for the SABC and exhibited internationally. The video on view called Biko's Children looked at how Steve Biko's legacy is remembered by young entrepreneurs. His prize, given by the Fondation Jean Paul Blanchere for emerging artists, consists of a trip to France and an exhibition of his work (together with 4 other prize winners).
Video was a prominent feature of this Biennale, confounding some expectations about African art. The video installations were among the most interesting and many artists worked in multi-media showing 3- and 2-D works which incorporated video.
The Dakar Biennale, despite being the most sustainable on the African continent and the only Biennale to concentrate on African artists, remains a contentious issue due to dissatisfaction on the part of previous South African participants who had several unfortunate incidents. There is no doubt that the Biennale is fraught with problems - these seem to stem mainly from funding which always arrives late or not at all. Some of the past events have seen the organisers unable to return works to the artists for unacceptable periods of time. Delays in getting tickets for artists and judges are constantly brought up. This year the quality of the show was also disappointing. I served as a jury member at the 2006 Biennale and that set a high standard, drawing a much larger and more cosmopolitan audience than this one.
I canvassed various people at the event and what was emphasized by everyone was the hospitality and charisma of the Senegalese, the beauty and elegance of the surroundings and the experience of being there. However all agreed that there were many problems to be addressed.
Bisi Silva, Head of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, expressed dissatisfaction with the curatorial process. She states that: 'By substituting professional artistic direction or a curatorial team with a Professor of German literature and language - who I am sure is well qualified in his field - demonstrates no evidence of experience in visual art practice as the "general curator" is an insult not only to the exhibiting artists but to professional and emerging African curators.'
The theme of this year's biennale 'Africa: Mirror' was appropriate. It encourages us to look at our failures and successes of the continent especially as most countries will attain 50 years of independence in 2010. Dak'Art needs to undergo a period of self-reflection, one that will hopefully help it to consolidate its enviable position as the largest and longest running platform for contemporary African art.�
Sonya Rademeyer felt that, 'Coming from an Anglophone country, the lack of translation from French to English I experienced was particularly problematic, and this should be addressed if participation is to be be more inclusive'. The fact that there was very little translation into other languages excluding many from discussions and debates was a cause for dissatisfaction among many of the attendees.
As usual however, despite all the hitches, Dak'Art has an important role to play on the continent. We are constantly aware that Africa is being represented by those who are not African and who live outside the continent so, if only for that reason, we need to throw our weight behind the Biennale which, in its 16 years of existence has proved that it can pull it off.
