Interestingly, this year’s theme of the biennale, which is more often known as Dak’Art, revolves around the concept ‘Ĩ NDAFFA#’ drawn from I NDAFFAX – which means “to forge” in Serer language. Dandridge, the American curator Marie Vickles and the Nigerian contemporary visual artist and designer Ibe Ananaba. It is composed of the multidisciplinary artist Yrneh Gabon (Jamaica/USA), the Jamaican multi-dimensional artist and cultural producer Maxine Walters, the American multi-dimensional artist Michael Massenburg, the American painter and teacher June Edmonds, the American interdisciplinary artist and social entrepreneur Janet E. The idea, according to Ananaba, was “to unite and participate in an arm of the exhibition programmes for the 2022 Edition of the Dakar Biennale, which is titled ‘Le Marché International des Arts’ at The African Renaissance Monument (Monument De La African Renaissance).”Ī close-up on the KnitWork collective. The invitation, which was extended to the collective by the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and Communication, was an initiative of one of Senegal’s renowned artists Kalidou Kasse. I see a brighter tomorrow!”Īlongside his fellow members of the artist collective KnitWork, Ananaba was officially invited to participate in the biennial event, which officially opened in the Senegalese capital on Thursday, May 19 and ends on Wednesday, June 21. I see the ones to whom the future belongs. I see ‘the outsiders’ with some liberation vibes. “With music as a strong source of inspiration, I imagine a choral feel of people coming together to sing in one voice. “As an artist, I tend to view from a social observer’s lens in order to contribute to the conversation towards a resolution, hence the idea behind this piece- ‘Redemption Song’,” Ananaba says. The protests, tagged #EndSARS, paralysed economic activities in most Nigerian major cities, including the federal capital Abuja. That same year, Nigerian youths were up in arms over police brutality after a video of a man allegedly murdered by SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) went viral. The real-time murder of a 46-year-old black man George Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis by a 44-year-old white police officer left a stain on the collective conscience and sparked off global anti-racism protests, which rode on the crest of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. This is while he also acknowledges the impact of the external factors, which are “rooted in racial injustice.” In his opinion, it is the effects of what he identifies as both the external and internal factors that “continually heighten the black struggle.”įlashback to May 25, 2020.
Through it, the 1999 Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu painting graduate decries the inequalities and injustices in African societies despite their natural endowments. Talking about the work, which measures 88 x 62 inches, it is an acrylic on canvas installation work featuring suspended paintings and drawings, whose production year was written as 2021-2022. Obviously inspired by a similarly-titled timeless revolutionary anthem by the late Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley, the work-perhaps the more visible of Ibe Ananana’s two works at the 14th edition of the Dakar Biennale-no doubt arrests the viewers’ attention with its expressiveness. “Redemption Song,” as a title, expresses a lot more than even the artist could have hoped for through the work. In two works featuring at the Dakar Biennale – known as Dak’Art – Ibe Ananaba extends his messages of hope.