BAMAKO BIENNALE

A few impressions:

Walking through the PanAfrican exhibition is to get a feel for the diversity of expressions, experiences, peoples, and landscapes of the African continent. No one genre dominates.

Landscapes are no longer sublime . Deceptively banal, silently empty, Jo Ratcliffe’s landscapes document the aftermath of war. Her method is subtle and quiet: Black and white images of the grassy underbrush are in fact mine fields left over from the war in Angola.

Bruno Hadjih ( Algeria/ Terra Incognita) views of the Sahara refute the western fantasy of the Sahara as a no man’s land of rolling sand dunes. Instead his images, close up views of roads that vanish into a nondescript distance highlight man’s intervention in the landscape. With this intimate view point which plants the viewer squarely on the road the Sahara becomes a place where humanity and nature coexist.  It is also an economic reality. Indeed for centuries the Sahara has been the main “highway” between West Africa and the Middle East.

As noted in the previous post, the environmental picture is not good but it does make for striking images. Uzoma Anyanwu (Nigeria/ Log Jam) photograph of a log jam on Lagos ‘ waterway framed in the distance by the local highway is effective in creating a powerful link between a modern way of life and the destruction of natural resources.

Charles Okereke ( Nigeria/The Canal People) opts for a closer look at this environmental catastrophe and creates beautiful still lives with jewel tones.The deceptive beauty of the close up of a discarded Fanta can, plastic mug and flip flop floating in murky water provokes an uncomfortable ambivalence as one wavers between the seductiveness of the image and distaste with its subject.

Moving in closer to capture the character of particular groups of people whose way of life is threatened by the pollution of the lakes, Abdoulaye Barry ( Tchad/ Night fishermen) photographed fishermen as they fished at night. Glimpses of faces emerge out of a total darkness. Keen in recreating his experience of working at night, the photographs were installed in a totally dark room.

The photographs of Jehad Nge of the Turkana people in Kenya feel somewhat more contrived. Also set in a total darkness that threatens to engulf them – a reference to their precarious status as their livelihood is threatened by terrible droughts – the Turkana people emerge somber, even despondent yet the beauty of their colorful cotton wraps and beaded necklaces strike a vibrant and uplifting tone.

Frankly disturbing, Daniel Naude‘s portraits of farm animals in South Africa are powerful and strangely unforgettable. I found myself at first reluctant to look at them and like them. Did I really want to look at a monumental sheep or bull that stares out, unflinching? Frankly I am more used to seeing these animals in a herd and at a distance. To my surprise,  captivated by their solemn presence I found myself coming back to look at them. The scale of the animals has been manipulated so that their presence dominates the landscape yet there is something desolate about them. Forced to acknowledge them I came to ponder their place in the precarious balance between man’s needs and nature.

More poetic, fanciful and dreamy are Bakary Emmanuel Daou’s ( Mali/Notre monde est -il durable?) photographs of a world of shadows and reflective light. Children inhabit discarded fridges and the ubiquitous plastic bag has now taken large proportions and become a source of light. It is useful to know that fridges are not as ubiquitous in Mali as they are here; they are symbols of today’s consumer society. On the other hand small plastic bags are used for everything, and once discarded litter the streets and present a real problem.

The exhibition of the photographic collection of Sindika Dokolo curated by Simon Njamii is a wonderful compliment to the exhibitions of contemporary photography. Besides providing a context to the contemporary exhibitions the selection of photographs held some amazing photographs from the early 1900’s that were generally unknown from most of us visitors. Anonymous portraits of residents of Saint Louis in Senegal, these photographs capture women in their homes and exhibit a wonderful mix of European and local taste. These photographic portraits fit within a long standing tradition since the mid 19th century, which had been learned from the French colonizers. In addition to capturing the identity of the sitter, these portraits document the way people decorated their walls. They also tell much about the role of photography as a way of recording and acknowledging family and lineage and the importance of the latter to the sitter’s identity. The photographs within the photograph are framed with European frames and seem to imitate the European painted portrait.

This concludes some of the highlights of the Biennale. As I was reviewing the show one last time before leaving Bamako for Paris I wondered who would be selected for Paris Photo. Next week blog will address that question.