The State has mobilized 1 billion 800 million CFA francs for the holding of the fifteenth edition of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar scheduled from November 7 to December 7, revealed the Minister of Youth, Sports and of Culture, Khady Diène Gaye.
“In fact, let me tell you that for this year, the State of Senegal has already mobilized 1 billion 800 million CFA. And the private sector, currently, based on the report communicated to me last night [lundi soir]contributed around 291 million FCFA,” she said in an interview with APS.
Khady Diène Gaye hopes that the private sector will increase its contribution “by the end of the biennial”.
Asked whether the State will maintain the subsidy of one billion CFA francs sequenced at the rate of 500 million per year granted to Dak’art by the former President of the Republic, Macky Sall, Ms. Gaye specifies that this amount “is not static”.
“The state subsidy is not a static subsidy. Everything will now depend on the content that we are going to give to the event, and also on the different activities that will be deployed and that will be carried out in the future,” she explained.
Khady Diène Gaye thinks that this subsidy can evolve and even increase, before noting that in the financial reports, “there is not yet a contribution from the city of Dakar” for Dak’art.
This year, underlines the minister, “an orientation has been given to be able to democratize this edition, so that the biennial is no longer perceived as an affair reserved for a certain elite, a luxury affair. That it is not, with regard to the Senegalese populations, an unimportant activity”.
The objective thus pursued is to ensure that, in two years, the emphasis is placed on “a democratization of the biennial, to allow the rest of the Senegalese population evolving outside of Dakar to appropriate it and create biennials at the regional level”.
This orientation, she says, will require some support. This explains, according to her, the provision of substantial financial resources.
Nearly 3,000 artists are invited to the 15th edition of the Dakar Contemporary African Art Biennial (Dak’art), whose official opening ceremony will be chaired Thursday by the Head of State, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, announced Tuesday the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Khady Diène Gaye.
“If I take the number of official artists that have been counted for the IN, we are expecting 129 who come to us from various countries, particularly Cape Verde, the United States [les deux pays invités d’honneur]but also from other African countries and the rest of the world,” said Ms. Gaye in an interview with APS.
According to her, if we add the artists scheduled to participate in the Off, “we can say that we are expecting around 3,000 artists”.
Khady Diène Gaye also points out that some of her counterparts, such as the ministers in charge of Culture of Guinea-Bissau and Mali, are also expected at Dak’art 2024.
She ensures that everything is ready for the effective start of the 15th edition of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art.
Preparations are going well, “practically all the works that were to be transported to Dakar have already been there for a few days,” she added.
“Overall, there is satisfaction. Some artists are already there. Currently, I am optimistic that it will be a very successful and very well democratized biennial,” confided the minister.
Khady Diène Gaye believes that the major innovation of the 2024 edition of Dak’art will be “the immersive and inclusive journey, which will allow a good number of visitors to be able to immerse themselves and also to carry out visits and have access at certain exhibitions”.
“This is the whole meaning, the whole point given the democratic character given to this Dakar biennial which is in its fifteenth edition,” she said.
Official exhibition sites ready
The Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture claims to have already visited the various sites where the official exhibitions are to be held. “They are already ready,” she reassured.
She notably went to the former Cap Manuel courthouse in Dakar, where several official exhibitions will take place, notably the “IN” section with its 58 selected artists.
The design section, which has not been in the running for several years, marks its return with curator Ousmane Mbaye and a tribute to the coaster artist Anta Germaine Gaye.
She said she also visited the Museum of Black Civilizations, where the official pavilions of the United States, Cape Verde and Senegal will be housed.
“I was also at the National Art Gallery, where an exhibition is planned in tribute to the late artist Mamadou Ndoye Dout’s. OFF exhibitions are planned in other regions, for example in Mbour (Saly), Ziguinchor, Saint-Louis, etc. Fashion will be present with a major fashion show prepared by stylist Colé Sow Ardo on November 23, to show the development of fashion,” she continued.
To make the event attractive, especially for children, Khady Diène Gaye emphasizes that a toddlers’ corner has been set up within the former Cap Manuel courthouse in order to introduce children to the works of art very early on. art and artistic creation.
Objective reasons linked in particular to the mobilization of resources and the procedures for transporting artists’ works are at the origin of the government’s decision to postpone the 15th Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar (Dak’art), a explained the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Khady Diène Gaye.
Dak’art 2024, initially scheduled for May 16 to June 16, will finally be held from November 7 to December 7, following the postponement decided by the authorities.
“When I took office, after having learned of the state of play on the procedures for transporting works which had not yet been initiated, the mobilization of public and private resources was not carried out, this bothered me pushed us to ask the highest authorities of this country to really grant their authorization to postpone this 15th Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar,” she declared.
Khady Diène Gaye made the revelation, 48 hours before the official opening of the event, scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m., at the Grand Théâtre national Doudou Ndiaye Coumba Rose in Dakar.
Among the other reasons leading to this postponement, she cited the non-confirmation, by certain artists, of their participation in the cultural event.
“I was able to realize that the procedures for transporting the works had not yet been initiated. This means that the work that needed to be done had not been done,” she explained.
She stressed that to avoid any uncertainty, the Ministry of Culture had to “ensure that all the right organizational conditions were met to be able to hold it”.
Khady Diène Gaye observed that currently, “the works have arrived safely and all conditions are met for their preservation. The guarantees of their safety are also all there”.
The minister believes that the biennial file is one of the first files she had to deal with upon taking office last April.
“Today, she concludes, everything is ready for the start, Thursday, of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar with several activities on the program.”
The United States and Cape Verde are the guest countries of honor for the 2024 edition of this cultural event.
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