Galerie le Manège, Dakar, Senegal
27 Feb 2013 - 30 Mar 2013
Cyclicités (Cyclicalities) is an exhibition with Steeve Bauras, Omar Victor Diop, Kapwani Kiwanga curated by On The Roof collective at the Galerie le Manège in Dakar.
Cyclicalities considers the past histories of the actual building of the Galerie du Manège in Dakar (Senegal). Despite the rectangular form of the space, its name evokes a carousel. Built in the late 19th century during the colonial period, it has been used alternately as a stable, a classroom and a storage area for instance, before being abandoned and finally recycled into a major exhibition venue for contemporary art in West Africa. Time passes and the centres of power and commerce shift and mutate in cycles that are described as such by historians or economists, as much as by philosophers, writers, artists and storytellers. Steeve Bauras and Kapwani Kiwanga, two artists currently based in Paris, have been invited to Dakar on a one-month creative residence in February 2013 and the photographer Omar Victor Diop lives and works here. Their dialogue in the space of
the Manège is the occasion for new artistic exchanges.
Steeve Bauras, born in 1982 in Martinique, takes as his source a very particular extract from the history of cinema (Shock Corridor, 1963, directed by Samuel Fuller) to underline a form of irrational and recurring intra-community racism.
Between conceptual and street art, his sculptural installation 3K includes a video, objects and performances all made in Dakar.
Kapwani Kiwanga, born in 1978 in Hamilton (Canada), prepares the first manifestation of her project titled Flowers for Africa. Based on extensive research in photographic archives, Kiwanga reconstitutes decorative bouquets present during the declarations of independence, or related official or private ceremonies, on the African continent.
Victor Omar Diop, born in 1980 in Dakar (Senegal), documents the modern and dynamic society that surrounds him—the architecture, fashion, textures—while revisiting the various histories of African photography. His project Architextures finds
new dimensions in the urban and natural fabric of Dakar.
On The Roof
On The Roof is a curatorial platform that currently groups Elise Atangana, Yves Chatap and Caroline Hancock. Following projections organised for the “off” programmes in Arles and Addis Abbeba, the “SYNCHRONICITY” exhibitions in Paris and London in 2011-2012 concentrated on art from the African continent and its diaspora with the equivalence principle as a central notion. “To Africanize Is To Civilize” (a title inspired by an artwork by Grace Ndiritu) is a programme of artists films and videos presented at the Silencio Club in Paris in November 2011.
