Bamako Encounters: Dates, Exhibition Venues and Conceptual Chapters for its 13th Edition

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 Exhibition 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.

Nene Aïssatou Diallo, not made at home III, 2018. Courtesy of the artist & Bamako Encounters

​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.”

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.

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.

For more information, please visit Bamako Encounters.