The 13th edition of the Bamako Encounters will be held from December 8, 2022 to February 8, 2023. This was announced by Mr. Andogoly Guindo, Minister of Crafts, who wants to “maintain this major cultural event, despite the difficult context, marked by multiple crises in Mali and all over the world”. It will take place at the National Museum of Mali, the African House of Photography, the Bamako Railway Station, the Bamako District Museum, the Modibo Keita Memorial, the French Institute of Mali, the Medina Gallery and the Ba Aminata Diallo Girls High School.

Collaboratively conceived by the 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.”

You can read the full 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 —

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.

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