The team of Bamako Encounters announces the artists who will be participating in the 13th edition of the singular photographic and lens-based art biennale on the African continent. Titled Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono — On Multiplicity, Difference, Becoming, and Heritage, this edition of Bamako Encounters will take place from October 20, 2022 to December 20, 2022, at various venues in Bamako, Mali.

Collaboratively conceived by General Director Cheick Diallo, Artistic Director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, and 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)—this edition of the biennale will once again facilitate a moment of encounter for artists from the African world.

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.”

Roughly 75 artistic positions from the African art world have been invited to contribute to this edition’s multiplicity. These are:

Ixmucané Aguilar (Guatemala/Germany), Said Afifi (Morocco/ France), Ishola Akpo (Benin), Annie-Marie Akussah (Ghana), Hunguana Americo (Mozambique), Leo Asemota (Nigeria/ UK), Jess Atieno (Kenya), Myriem Omar Awadi (La Reunion), Akoto Baff (Ghana/UK/Uganda), 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 (Cameroon/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 (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 Ractcliffe (South Africa), and Promo- Femme (Mali).

In addition to the main exhibition, the Bamako Encounters features a rich public program and film program. Founded in 1994, the biennale is organized by the Ministry of Handicraft, Culture, Hotel Industry and Tourism of Mali and the association Rencontres des Arts with the support of the Institut Français. Since its inception, the biennale has been the first and main international event dedicated to Afri- can photography and video on the continent, and remains an essential event for contemporary art worldwide.

rencontres-bamako.org