Biennale Cultures in Africa

APT artist Kendel Geers is participating a symposium aiming to explore “biennale cultures"

Biennales are part of a global network that produces and disseminates contemporary art, as well as a platform for grappling with such issues as politics, race, identity, globalization, and postcolonialism. Since 1985, various African constituencies have organized biennales as a means to participate in the world dialogue on contemporary art and to nourish local imaginaries. The present symposium takes the 4th Biennale in Lubumbashi (Congo-Kinshasa) as a point of departure to explore “biennale cultures” from the original perspective of a group of artists who have developed an alternative platform to engage and re-author their postcolonial history. Why have biennales found so much more traction in the French-speakingcountries? And what is their impact on global artistic practice? As Terry Smith asks, “Who gets to say what counts as contemporary art?”