The Bamako Encounters opened with a formal ceremony which combined Malian music and traditional dances and formal speeches. This year’s big treat was the presence of France’s Cultural minister Frederic Mitterrand. A big fan of photography he highlighted African photography’s present status: No longer emerging it is now intergrated in the international cultural scene. Indeed, this year’s Paris Photo is highlighting African photography.

This African photography Biennale is a welcomed event in Bamako, the capital of Mali which has been suffering badly from a severe drop in tourism during the last two years. Following the kidnapping of French reporters in the Maghreb in 2009 , France declared  the region unsafe to visit. So what a relief for the Malians to see the flights from Paris full of potential buyers of all kinds of Malian goods. For sure we looked at photographs most of the time but we did shop or let’s just say it was impossible not to buy. Lots of insistent and desperate sellers of fabrics,necklaces, and other goodies.  This year there was a specially strong presence from the museum world. Of note Elsie McCabe, director of the Museum for African Art, Elisa LaGamma, curator of African Art at the Metropolitan Museum, Christa Clarke, curator of Arts of Africa and the Americas at the Newark museum, Sandra Phillips, Curator of Photography at the SFMOMA, and Karen Greenberg from the Tate Modern were all attentively studying the photographic displays, meeting artists and taking in Bamako’s cultural scene.

The Mali National Museum (The Musee National du Mali) is the main venue with a few other satellite spaces  scattered around Bamako. The museum and its park are a peaceful haven removed from a chaotic Bamako which is this year overrun by sheep in preparation of Mali’s biggest holiday ( Tabaski) when each family sacrifices a sheep. Can you imagine how many sheep that makes? It was quite a site!  In fact this museum, whose architecture was inspired by traditional Malian designs with a modernist twist is considered the best of West Africa. Beyond the main Pan African photographic exhibition,  photographic displays  are skillfully woven into the permanent exhibitions of ancient textiles and ritual objects and spill over into the beautifully landscaped national Park ( Parc National du Mali). The latter and a new quite elegant restaurant, which are the result of a joint venture between the government of Mali and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, are new additions to the previous 2009  Biennale. In fact it is so amazingly nice that one seems to forget that not 5 minutes away lies another Bamako: noisy, dusty, chaotic,and poor but also wonderfully colorful.

The curators, Michket Krifa and Laura Serani have chosen this year’s theme to be: ” For a sustainable world”. The good news is this year’s broad selection of artists, of which many are not the top names in the field, and more venues throughout Bamako with monographic showings. Of the most internationally well known only Pieter Hugo and David Goldblatt are included. This is a great opportunity for discoveries, discussions with artists and a greater understanding of African photographers’ concerns today.  But mostly it is a meeting place and an opportunity for artists to meet, to have their work reviewed and critiqued, to get challenged and to learn. Workshops are also set up with more established photographers. For instance artist Pieter Hugo taught a master class to local students. School tours are organized for local kids who rarely have an opportunity to see photographs first hand as printing is so expensive.

Less successful was the way the theme was handled. A bit disappointing from my western world perspective was the heavy documentary character of the selection. It appears that “reportage”, a literal form of addressing a subject was favored over more artistic strategies. I would have welcomed a less literal expression. While the theme spoke of sustainability, a majority of the photographs documented the destruction and the fragility of the African landscape and way of life. Few pointed forward to possible answers or avenues towards a more sustainable world.   So my first impression was one of confusion. Why this disconnection?

Further looking at the works and listening to the artists helped to identify in my view where the problem is. The title of the Biennale is in fact misleading and perhaps not well chosen.  Many of the photographers have felt compelled to document a vanishing world or/and the destruction of the African landscape in the hopes of waking up their communities and the greater world to their plight. Less concerned with art for arts sake, the urgency to document in the hopes of inciting change dominates. Following conversations with the artists I understood that they hoped their work would impact their local communities and government.  For instance, the compelling photographs of George Osidi who documents the terrible impact the oil drilling in the Nigerian Delta is having on the local community had a particular impact on a Ghanian photographer, Nii Obodai. While Obodai’s own work is poetic and ethereal and not all documentary – he had his own monographic exhibition at the Biennale- he felt strongly that Osidi’s images should be shown in Ghana to warn it of the potential environmental risks if it does not deal carefully with the drilling of its recently discovered offshore oil. Osidi’s work is compelling, strong, provocative. I particularly like the image of the masked Nigerian rebel, threatening for sure but also a reminder of the masking tradition in so many of West African ritual dances.

Kiripi Katembo photographed vignettes of life in Kinshasa ( Congo) reflected in huge puddles in the streets of the city. The puddles attract swarms of mosquitoes and with them malaria and typhoid fever.  He exposed these poetic and  disorienting images to the local population by hanging them in the streets of Kinshasa and noticed that several months later the city had actually taken measures to improve the conditions. I liked his story. At least his photographs had been seen by his community and had an impact ! One of the problems with African photography today  is that there is no local market or audience as of now. It is too expensive to print, there is no local collecting tradition ( including South Africa that has a substantial middle class) and the international community is almost the only one to see it, judge it and buy it.

Photos of the dumps in Accra, capital of Ghana, of electronic waste are perhaps the most disturbing pictures for us, proud owners of the latest electronic gadget. This is the dark side of Steve Job’s phenomenal achievement. I already knew of Pieter Hugo‘s series of portraits of youngsters working in the dumps which can be seen in Chelsea in New York City. Intense, determined, proud, and hard working these youngsters strive to keep their dignity against the backdrop of a devastated landscape. Inevitably victims but yet intent on surviving, they work hard to salvage parts that they can resell.  

While Hugo focuses on the individual,  Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo hones in on the actual electronic waste not letting his viewer forget the origins of this devastation: our modern world thirst for the latest computer.  The images are dramatic, dynamic, more art documentary. I can’t help thinking about the recycling market in Bamako where every scrap of metal from cars is recycled and transformed into kitchen utensils. Nothing is wasted.

There is much more to say and more artists that deserve attention. In addition the two more historical photographic exhibitions that were included in the Biennale are a real treat. Indeed a few photographs of the early part of the 20th century are absolutely captivating. All of that will be addressed in following posts. So keep reading !