One of Africa's biggest art shows is underway in Senegal and this year marks the first time a woman is the artistic director of the Dakar Biennale. Salimata Diop takes DW a tour of the highlights of the exhibition.
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00:00Now, one of Africa's biggest art shows is underway in Senegal,
00:04and this year marks the first time a woman is the artistic director of the Dakar Biennale.
00:10DW caught up with Salimata Diop, and she gave us a tour of the highlights of the exhibition.
00:17A lot of people tell me that this Biennale is very feminist as well,
00:26but I think the story is a little bit more complex than that.
00:34My work on this edition started with a collective of women, artists, activists, curators,
00:42Cindy Oluwu, Cara Blackmore, and Marinette Jay.
00:46And we were working on this project, the curator's exhibition,
00:50entitled, We Will Stop When the Earth Rolls.
00:54So we ended up with a women team,
00:58and I just found it very interesting how people were kind of shocked by the idea,
01:05or celebrating the idea.
01:08But what I find very interesting is that we had many men team,
01:14and that didn't raise any question.
01:18So this is a women's team, this is what we did.
01:22I hope we did a good job and we showed that women can do it.
01:26Here we are in the space of Majida Katari's installation.
01:34And she's an artist from Morocco,
01:38who, in her practice, explores different materials, including textiles, very often.
01:47And who has this capacity also to sublimate women,
01:53and who always kind of touches on myth and mythology.
02:00So here Majida chose to dive into the myth of Medusa,
02:08but to reverse the position of power.
02:11So instead of having women who are being transformed,
02:20and who undergo a metamorphosis,
02:23it's the reverse, and it becomes those who are in power,
02:29who undergo transformation, with a little bit of humor.
02:37And she's recreated the shield from the myth,
02:46but chose to make it with these little mirrors that women usually have in their handbags.
02:58It's actually the allegory of prudence.
03:01And this woman who has to be prudent,
03:04and who has to look back on their shoulder using the mirror,
03:08it's exactly what this installation is about.
03:12It's about the Me Too movement,
03:15and it's about the triumph of women who are behind us,
03:23throning in this space,
03:25and who represent, on the contrary to these men who have their faces all disformed,
03:35who represent the true power,
03:39which is wisdom and remaining calm in the face of history and the past.