New dates

Exhibition
08.12.2022 – 08.02.2023
Professional days
08.12.2022 – 16.12.2022

For accreditation:
accreditations@rencontres-bamako.net

The Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography announce their new dates, professional days, exhibition venues and conceptual chapters of its 13th edition.

Exhibition: 08.12.2022 – 08.02.2023
Professional days: 08.12.2022 – 16.12.2022

National Museum of Mali, African House of Photography, Bamako Railway Station, Bamako District Museum, Modibo Keita Memorial, French Institute of Mali, Medina Gallery, Ba Aminata Diallo Girls High School.

The 13th edition of the Bamako Encounters will be held from December 8, 2022 to February 8, 2023.

These new dates were communicated by Mr. Andogoly Guindo, Minister of Crafts, Culture, Hotel Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Mali, at the Press Conference to launch the preparations for the Biennial on September 19th at the National Museum of Mali, during which he recalled that “despite the difficult context, marked by multiple crises in Mali and all over the world, the Transitional Government wishes to maintain this major cultural event.”

In its 28 years of existence, and especially with this 13th edition, the Bamako Encounters has always been resilient and resistance while imagining and building a better world as its cornerstone. This spirit is reflected in General Delegate Cheick Diallo’s modeling
of the 2022 iteration of the festival.

The selected sites

The official exhibition will be presented at the: National Museum of Mali, African House of Photography, Bamako Railway Station, Bamako District Museum, Modibo Keita Memorial, French Institute of Mali, Galerie Medina and the Ba Aminata Diallo Girls High School.

Concept

Collaboratively conceived bythe curatorial team – Akinbode Akinbiyi (artist and independent curator), Meriem Berrada (Artistic Director, MACAAL, Marrakech), Tandazani Dhlakama (Assistant Curator, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town), and Liz Ikiriko (artist and Curator of Collections and Contemporary Engagement at Art Gallery of York University, Toronto) together with Artistic Director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung – this edition of the Biennale will once again facilitate a moment of encounter for artists from the African world.

Titled “Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono—On Multiplicity, Difference, Becoming and Heritage”, this edition is an invitation to reflect collectively on these multiplicities of being and differences, to go beyond the notion  to be unique and to embrace composite, layered and fragmented identities, as well as multiple, complex and non-linear understandings of space and time.

The Bamako Encounters will pay a powerful tribute to the spaces in between, to that which defies definition, to phases of transition, to being this and that or neither and both, to becoming, and to difference and divergence in all their shades. Accordingly, Amadou Hampâté Bâ’s statement (Aspects de la civilisation africaine, Éditions Présence Africaine, 1972) presiding over the manifestation, Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono, translates to, “the persons of the person are multiple in the person.”

We particularly invite you to read the concept of the next Bamako Encounters here.

The exhibition is conceived in five chapters referencing Aimé Césaire’s seminal poem “Unmaking and Remaking the Sun” and relating to the theme of this 13th edition and the artistic selection About seventy-five 75 artists from the African world will present their works.

Chapter 1
dwelling made of not knowing which way to turn
— On Land, Placeness and Spaceness —

Chapter 2
dwelling made of fan fingers
— On Multiplicities of Identities, Beings and Becomings —

Chapter 3
dwelling made of mustard seeds
— Of Living Cultures, Presences and Continuities of Heritages —

Chapter 4
dwelling made of fallen angel feathers
— On Dispersals, Connectedness and the Performativity
of Languages and Histories —

Chapter 5
dwelling made of rainstorms of the deluge
— Of Flows, Transitions and Supranaturality —

Roughly 75 artists from the African world have been invited to contribute to this edition’s multiplicity.

Selected artists

Babajide Adeniyi-Jones (Nigeria), Ixmucané Aguilar (Guatemala/Germany), Said Afifi (Morocco/ France), Baff Akoto (Ghana/UK), Ishola Akpo (Benin), Annie-Marie Akussah (Ghana), Hunguana Americo (Mozambique), Leo Asemota (Nigeria/UK), Jess Atieno (Kenya), Myriem Omar Awadi (La Reunion), Salih Basheer (Sudan), Shiraz Bayjoo (Mauritius/UK), Amina Benbouchta (Morocco), Hakim Benchekroun (Morocco), Maite Moseka Botembe (DRC), Rehema Chachage (Tanzania/Austria), Uiler Costa Santos (Brazil), Monica De Miranda (Angola/Portugal), Fatoumata Diabaté (Mali), Aicha Diallo (Mali), Amsatou Diallo (Mali), Nene Aïssatou Diallo (Guinea/USA), Anna Binta Diallo (Senegal/Canada), Mélissa Oummou Diallo (Guinea/France), Binta Diaw (Senegal/Italy), Adji Dieye (Senegal/Italy/ Switzerland), Imane Djamil (Morocco), Sènami Donoumassou (Benin), Abdessamad El Montassir (Morocco), Fairouz El Tom (Sudan/ Switzerland), Adama Delphine Fawundu (Sierra Leone/USA), Raisa Galofre (Colombia/Germany), Gherdai Hassell (Bermuda/UK/China), Sana Ginwalla (Zambia), Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo (South Africa), Letitia Huckaby (USA), Timothy Yanick Hunter (Jamaica/Canada), Anique Jordan (Trinidad/Canada), Gladys Kalichini (Zambia), Hamedine Kane (Senegal/Mauritius), Atiyyah Khan (South Africa), Gulshan Khan (South Africa), Seif Kousmate (Morocco), Mohammed Laouli (Morocco), Maya Louhichi (Tunisia/France), Mallory Lowe Mpoka (Cameroon/Canada), Nyawose Luvuyo Equiano (South Africa), Nourhan Maayouf (Egypt), Louisa Marajo (Martinique), Clarita Maria (Zambia), Billie McTernan (Ghana), Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien (Guadeloupe/ Ivory Coast), Arsène Mpiana Monkwe (DRC), Sethembile Msezane (South Africa), Ebti Nabag (Sudan/Canada), Elijah Ndoumbe (Cameroon/France), Lucia Nhamo (Zimbabwe), Samuel Nja Kwa (Cameroon/France), Nyancho NwaNri (Gambia/Nigeria), Adee Roberson (USA), Sofia Rodrigues (Angola/ Portugal), Fethi Sahraoui (Algeria), Muhammad Salah Abdul-Aziz (Sudan), Neville Starling (Zimbabwe/SA), Eve Tagny (Cameroon/Canada), René Tavares (São Tomé and Príncipe), Sackitey Tesa (Ghana), Helena Uambembe (Angola/ SA), David Uzochukwu (Nigeria/ Austria).

Retrospectives

Daoud Aoulad Syad (Morocco), Maria Magdalena Campos Pons (Cuba/ USA), Samuel Fosso (Cameroon), Joy Gregory (Jamaica/ UK), Jo Ractliffe (South Africa).

Public program and additional exhibitions

This 13th edition will present a rich public program, made up of artist talks, portfolio reviews, artistic performances, music, workshops and discursive events. A full overview of the public program as well as complementary exhibitions will be announced shortly.

Publication

The Biennale will be accompanied by a catalog in English and French, as well as an important reader in English and French, with essays by artistic director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and co-curators Akinbode Akinbiyi, Meriem Berrada, Tandazani Dhlakama and Liz Ikiriko, and with contributions from jamilah malika abu-bakare, Babajide Adeniyi-Jones, Joël Andrianomearisoa, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Nicola Brandt, Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou, francesca ekwuyasi, Nehal El-Hadi, Kẹ́mi Fátọba, Billy Fowo, Candice Jensen, Martha Kazungu & Temidayo Oyeniran, Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Liyou Libsekal, Tila Likunzi, Diane Lima, Morad Montazami, Beya Othmani, Katrin Peters-Klaphake, M. NourbeSe Philip, Anja Saleh, Suzana Sousa.

The books are designed, published and distributed by Archive Books (Dakar, Berlin and Milan).

About the Bamako Encounters

Founded in 1994, the Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography are organized by the Ministry of Culture of Mali and the Association Rencontre des Arts, with the support of the Institut Français, the Swiss Cooperation and the European Union in Mali.
The Biennale is the first and main international event dedicated to contemporary photography and lens-base media in Africa.

Internationally renowned, the Bamako Encounters is a platform for discoveries, exchanges, and visibility. It is an essential venue for
the revelation of African photographers and those of the Diaspora, a time of exchange with the Malian public and the professionals from around the world.

For press inquiries, please contact us via
communications@rencontres-bamako.com