Martinican graphic designer Agnès Brézéphin receives the Grand Prize at the Dakar Contemporary Art Biennale

The 15th Biennial of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, a major event on the artistic scene, opened Thursday in the presence of the Senegalese president, who awarded the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor to a Martinican artist, Agnès Brézéphin. She is the creator of a typographic font dedicated to the Creole alphabet and called “Coolie”.

Nearly 400,000 visitors are expected from November 7 to December 7 to discover the best of African and diaspora art through hundreds of cultural events in the “in” and “off” areas combining painting, sculpture, sound and musical installations, performances and debates.

“I would like to express all my satisfaction and the pleasure I feel at meeting the great family of culture today on the occasion of the official opening of the 15th edition of contemporary African art. For one month, Dakar and Senegal will be at the heart of an intense artistic influence”declared President Bassirou Diomaye Faye during a ceremony punctuated by musical and stage performances.

Under the artistic direction of Salimata Diop, art critic and exhibition curator, the biennial, created in 1992 and entitled this year “The Wake, l'éveil, le sillage, xàll wi” (“The wake” in ouolof) , highlights the United States and Cape Verde.

The artist Wangeshi Mutu, originally from Kenya and who lives and works in Brooklyn (United States), is the main witness of this edition. Her work explores themes of femininity, violence, consumerism and the gap between nature and culture.

58 artists from Africa and the diaspora were selected for the international exhibition, which will be discovered during a “immersive journey”and “emotional journey” where the visitor experience will be guided and deepened by sound and musical installations, according to the event brief.

Initially scheduled for May 16 to June 16, shortly after the presidential election, the Dakar Biennale was postponed amid rumors of a lack of funding.