Recycling modernity : waste and the anthropology of artifacts in contemporary arfrican art

              TERRIÍORIES
"// Itíi! \- t>^(K><¡ fi)r iiolliiny; /.v ítlirfn's y^ood for
•süiiic/hítig. "
.Teaii Bamlrillard.
Man inakes machines in liis own ¡iriage.
Ever> creation carries wilhiii ¡I
something of its creator. Tlie perfectioii
of the ci'eation rcaffií'in.s tlie orpal07''s
wortli. Moderii sociíMv souglit for its
coiirinnalioii ¡ri an indusli'ial iiniverse
wliicli aiiiied to acliieve the extensión of
htiinanitv through tlie machine. The
inchistrial societv assigned a space to tlie
mytjiologv of the mechanical and the
autoniatic. In(hislrv initiales a cvcle of
reprodnction and the leplacement of
realitv. wliich also contains a destructive
im|)ulse. Consumption, as Bandrillard
stated, also implies the •'aimiliilation'' of
objects [1]. But the annihilation of an
oljject dees not mean the destruction of
its htnnan content. There is a certain
aesthctic idea in lliis anthiopological
persistence, for the machine always
seems to have an anthropomorphic
tendency which is not nulhfied by its
tiselessness.
Tlie anihi'opological parí of a
niarhhíe is associated with its fimetion.
htit is also a question of meaning. As in
art, the anthropological sense of
machinerv provides them with a field of
inactivitv. of a non-praclical sense from
wliich stems their beaiil\ and
spií-itnahtv. Sometliing of this idea could
he sensed in modern European arl. The
fascination for the objef troiiré. loi' dic
ready-made and for tlie machine as a
lorm and as a inodel. w as nol jnst the
response to an hiterest in renovating
stykís and artistic approaches. 1 wouhl
say ihal ¡t liad an inlerest in liiiituinising
moj'e emphatically llie artistic object.
Industrial realitv began to form a part of
Recycling
Moderai'^
Waste and the
Anthropolog)^ of Artlfacts
in Contemporary
Arfrican Art
EUGENIO VALDES
FIGUEROA
the artistic-aesthetic realitv within the
modernistic impulse to imite social and
aesthetic experience. The first step was
already taken in the mechanical world
with the discoverv of the aesthetic
content that can be found in
Man's i'elationshi]) \\\\\\ the
machine.
hi post-industrial society this
aesthetic content would be modified by
the arlificial acceleration of the life-cvcle
aiid death of objects. imniersed in a
synthesised existence bv the rhvihm of
consumerism, humankind in these
societies has few opportunities to
appreciate the spirittial valué of an
ephemeral objectualitv. Gonipared wilh
these societies, African cnllnres of todav
would appear chaotic and aberrant in
their persistent tendency to preserve
objects which have been made to be
disposable.
On the threshold of the 21st
centtu'v, African cities behave as ihough
tliev were a kind of inuseum for the
storage of ihe evidence of an outdated
niodernitv, which is onlv accessible to
the poslmodern worhl l)\' lhe imitation
of the old-fashioned.
The recvcling cultiue which is
generaled bv underdevelojinienl. Icnds
to extend lhe lih' of ohjecls. and lo iheir
use in wa\s i'oiui'ary to coiLsinner logic
and the preinature wearing out of ihings
common to developed societies. Tiiis
tendency uses artistic methodologies to
recycle the remains of induslrial
pi'oduclion -alier tliev lia\'e been used
and llien ihrown awa\- and Iransfer
ihein to the área of social lile, from
w liich they have been displaced.
rhe introductioii of this
inelhodologA' in Zimbabwe. for exani|)le,
entailed the use of a diflerein alliinde
wilh rcspecl lo local artistic Iradilioii. In
ihis country, sculplure in stone becaine a
forin of artistic expression whicii
alternated with the liturgical. fiinclional
and operative synibolic produclion of
the rest of the contiiienl. But inilike
these, stone sculplure was designed
according to a Western concept of the
artistic object as an independent entity,
using the criterion of the artist and as a
single work.
One of lhe niost inleresling
coiilribulions made by lhe stone
scidpture of Zimbabwe was precisely
lliat. the material used. In Zimbabwe
ihei'e was no slrong tradilion of
sculpture in slone, or even in wood as in
some other African regions. This made
even mor(> radical lhe strength of lhe
break which the use of metal in
sculpture entailed, as introducei.l by
some artists in recent years. The changa
in aesthetic altitudes l)rousln with it the
AT^-
CENIfOAtlANlKIOOE Atll MODfUNO
appearance of other implications. It
woiilcl be difficult to detennine if
Zimbabwe sciilptors begaii workiiig witli
recycled inelal iii a search l'or less
oi'tliodox siibjects, or if the material
itself provided a iiew í'iekl of sciil|)lural
meaniíigs. llowever, it is obvious that
wheii an artist like Paul Machowani
works 011 thc subject of the hiinter (see
liis work railziiiiba, a( the 1992
Ziiubabivc Hcrilage, aii aiiiiiial visual
arts exhibition orgauised by I he
Zimbabwe National Gallery). using an
assembly of metal sheets, the figure
acquires new implications. The
coincideiice of a traditioiial theine anci
an original iiiedium í'ornis part of the
classic conlradiction of iiiodei'ii África:
the developinent of a sui'\'ival culture at
the crossroads between the industrial
and the "priniitive". The scrap metal in
the works bv Machowani gives a spirit of
deprivation and jxívertv lo the liiunan
figure. If in ladziiiibd ihis concept is
expressed allegoricallv. in works sucli as
Refngees the allusion to tfie miserv and
suffering of the individual is more
literal. Another good example of this
realism is the work Thinking aboiil llir
Droiighl. bv .loseph Chañóla, wliich also
refers to the hviiig conditions of the
African people.
It is undeniable that together with
technical iimovations tliere have
appeared new thematic procedures,
more sti'ongly linked to the African
social realitv of the 20th centurv and
which shake the aesthetic standards
established bv sctilpture in stone.
Aloiigside realist themes, vvorkcd in the
style of Machowani or Joseplí Chaiiota, a
fantastic figuration has developed w liicli
takes advantage of the "inventive''
possibilities provided by assembling, as
can be seen in ihe works of Victor
Madzinia or the Hol Seal of Adam
Madebe. This last work is an example of
the direct appropriation and re-íinictionalisation
of an objecl. Madebe
uses a í'actorv-made metal cliair and
converts its seat hito a stove (eleclric?)
in a gesture which is charged with socio-political
implications.
We are faced by an art for which
inodernitv is as much a model as a
context which furnishes the
contemporary elements for tlie
construction of an aesthetic discourse. I
am referring to an art which recycles the
inodern in its niateriah'tv and the
the contrary, move withiii the "marché
and the gallery. reproducing the
networks of production and chculation
of African aesthetics in its doiible game
of aulheiuicitv and shani.
The work of the Beiiinese artist,
Romuald Hazoimié (Porto Novo), niade
with plástic kiiobs and things he has
found, iiiixed with craft objecls and
approaches, is a wav of repi'odiicing
ritual masks oii an artistic level while
violating all the coiuentions tlial woidd
make lliem useful withiii the ina"ic-
Mo f.doj^a (.Nigf'iin).
tradilional in its contení. This art
distances itself from the idea of a
"scliool" which was lield bv stone
sciilpting, l)ut its ino.st intere.stúig
difference is based on its search for
sources in social áreas, within a basically
urban cultural context. In Zimbabwe,
the most evident assimilation of the
modeiii in sloiie sculpture was to be
found in ihe ai'eas of teclini(|ue and
formal criteria, but its idea of aesthetic
creation as a self-sufficieiit activity
stemmed more from perceptive
ex|)ei-ience tlian from social experience.
The models of die art of recvcling, on
religious system. Ilazoiiiné recycles and
re-semanticises not oiily industrial
waste, bul also tradilional
niainifacluring togelher with ritual
iconography. Altliough his work (loes
not seem to have any parodie inteiit, the
fact is that he de-consecrates the object
in a modernistic sense, whereupon he is
only reproducing at an artistic level
wliat has already happened at "'marché"
le\('l. Il was the deniand for tile mask as
the syinbol of the African which
converted it into a commodity par
excellence. Anioiig so much merchandise
the mask is a fetish. Its \alut l'or ritual
use is supplanted bv iTs exchange valué,
its role as a tourist souvenir, Now de-consecraled
in the ''marché " dvnamics
and Tiiiiietl inlo llie arriiplvpe oí llie
Alrican, its sxiiiliüls were iiiodified l'or
the hiiver: ihe luask ijeeoines a í'etish.
hut (iiilv íor Western customers.
The niarkel has been converted
hilo ihe space wliere the tourist
svml)()iicallv satisfies his ilhisious. Tiie
tourist seeks ihc authentic African as a
re-affií'malioii oí the autiientic West, bv
meaos oí a process ol comparisoii -or
hetter still, through a svstem of position
and opposition relationships- , but also
through tile discoverv oí those niodern
aeslhetic paradigms which liave been
assimilaled bv (he Aí'rícan |)eopie.
Tile Iraditionai niask represents
tile real African in a "puré state, while
a mask ÍDV Hazouiné signiíies tiie
authenticity oí the modernist aestlietic,
superimposed oii the tradilionai [2].
Tile visual universe oí tiie African
artist is marked iiv tlie eclecticism of tlie
inarket, where the mask and tiie
souvenir coexist. It is a paradise of llie
shaiii authentic but also of the autiientic
sliani. Nol oniv ¡n the niarkets ijiil also
on the streets of Dakar. íor example, the
toiirisl is pestered liv veiidors offeriug
briel'cases made of beer and coca cola
cans. In 1992, these same briefcases
could be seen at the Encounler wit.h the
Olher exhibition. snpposedly organised
to criticise the iíiirocentric and elitisl
\is¡()ii oí the Kassel Dokuinenta. Wlio is
most deceived, the tourist wlio buys the '
case as a souvenir or the ciirator who
exhibits il as evidence of authenticity?
Something similar has happened
willi the leiidencv aiiiong iiiternalional
crilics to ¡udge the African lovs made of
wire as arlislic objects with
ethnographical valué, while al the same
time thev are boiight basicallv as
curiosities. These toys are nol produced
f'or artistic circles, and locally liillil all
the parameters of ci'aílwork, without
reference to the fact tliat thev are made
from malcriáis originaling lioni the
factories. The presenl success of (hese
toys may be related lo the inleraction of
certairi moclels of modernitv with
"tvpical" melhods of presentation and
use. The tovs are basecl on archetvpes
representing inodern lile (specificallv
meaiis of transport: cars. helicopters,
planes, motorbikes) in a process of
symbolic substitulion of tvpical producís
of technological development and urlian
.luguete de alambre.
visión. This same phenomenon has
alreadv been seen in the undertakers'
sculpture of Ghana, where the coffins
are made in the forní of planes or cars
which reler to the "user's" prof'ession ,
or a world of social aspirations and class
and status symbols. l^he toys also have
this childlike feeling, and, ironicallv, the
fantasies of the Eiiropeans aiul non-
African critics. It would seem that the
Western world has been called upon to
extend the majoritv of the invths of
marginal cultures by inserting them
within Western mythology itself, ranging
from the consuiner society lo the art
woi'ld.
In the streets of the city of Benin
the inoped is the means of transport |iar
excellence, and instead of petrol stations
there are Street vendors wlio carrv their
own cans which they constaiilK refiU.
These form part of a "landscape" in
which the African artist seeks his raw
malerials as uatiirallv as he would in a
forest. This is aii tirban landscajie in
which factorv-made consumer goods
abouiid. By resorting to these elcments
to construct art objects, the Sculptor
recuperates and re-uses worn out objects
which have been consumed aiid stam|jed
bv man. This is what stands out in the
sculptures pi'odticed liy the brothers
Théodore and Calixte Dakpogan, made
with assembled and soldered motorcycle
parls, and many of them with Yoruba or
Voodoo mvthological themes.
These arlists belong to a familv of
ironworkers allached lo the roval coui-t
and who niake objects íor Voodoo rites,
[•"or the curators of the "Anotlier
Gountry" exhibition. where soiiie of their
works were showii, this is "...a world
recoiistriicled from the jtink oí our
laughable niodern fetishes' [3], but
|)erha|)s for the Beninese the motorcyle
is not a fetish, at least not in the wav it
is for a European. Neither do these
"men-machines" refer to the idea of the
robot, which belongs to socielies which
face daily the growing autoinalion oí
prodiiction and the conflict between
human beings and machinery. At least,
what stands out in these works is the
liumnanised content of junk, which is
fused harmónica 11\' with the
antliromorpliic nal tire of sculpture. In a
wav, the Dakpogan brothers conduct
their own excavation into Benin s visual
and |)roductive worlds, since the
inotorcycle works both as a utilitarian
veiiicle and a status svmbol. It is an
accessory that society uses and lliat the
artist recycles so that it mav lie used
again. It is in this sense that the useless
can be useftil.
The Ugandan artist, .loliii Edward
Odoch-Aineiiv re-uses bells, pistons,
chaiiis an<l Upewriters. Elemenls laken
Peacp Park. 1985. Oukasie Towiisliip. Hrils.
SudálVica.
from (he world of transport and
comuumication. He depicts human
boings. hke the Dakpogán brothers, bul
his l'emale figures serve as symbols of
fertihty and the special place of women
in yVfrican society. 1( is an iniage of
wonien as nivlhical l)e¡ngs, linked to the
origiii and continuation of the species.
The relationship between this image of
women and the use of elementa from the
Peai-p Park. 1()85. Oukasii- Tdwnsliip. Brits.
Sudáfrica.
world of communication is reinforced by
the concept of the female as a key factor
of civilisation. "She is like a wheel in
whicli Man moves" says Odoch-Ameny,
"She is the transniission. [4]
Unlike the Dakpogán brothers,
Odoch-Ameny received no training in a
traditional faniily trade. He studied and
worked in North American and
European universities, and therefore his
approach to waste is miich more
conceptual. Diu-ing his higli scliool
studies he worked in niaciiine shops,
with motors and oki car parts. There, he
developed a anthropological concept of
machines, not only their content, but
also their form and design, which gave
him a link with the ideas of modernitv,
which proposed the machine as a symbol
of progress and human development.
The Nigerian artist Mo Edoga,
who took part in the fourth Kassel
Dokumenta, worked througliout the
event on the construction of works using
recvcled material. The exhibition of the
work as a process referred both to
industrial production and the re-production
of waste. Thus, waste is the
material and the subject of the work. In
this material, Mo Edoga seeks the
individual aura and also the social
significance. He tries to recupérate the
human that endures in garbage, and
]jroduce a metaphor on its accumulative
])rocess. For this reason, his spherical
installations give the impression that
tliev will continué to increase while his
towers will carrv on growing endlesslv.
The way in which Mo Edoga
conce]itualizes the anthropological
content of waste is by no means
removed from ecological bcliefs.
Although this artist does not aim to
produce a militant discotn-se on
environmental damage, he does
construct his aesthetic discourse with
elements extracted from the margins of
the ecosvsteni. to reflect on the logic of
the production and expansión of these
margins. With these elements he is abie
to make constructions which "order" the
chaolic world of garbage. This order
reproduces the order and rhythm of
industry which is parallel to the pace of
the growth of waste.
It is the visión of an artist who has
liad cióse contad with the Western
aesthetic traditioii: but his perception of
the anthropological also has to do with
his own African origin. Therefore, if Mo
Edoga (who presently lives hi Germany)
has observed that his prism raiiges
"from Da Vinci to Joseph Beuys," he
does not menlion the iiuportance to him
of coining from a society where "one can
eat with one's hands, symbol of absolule
human liberty." [5] To eat with one's
hands is also svniljolic of a societv where
the machine has still not replaced the
individual. In soine wavs, the work of
Mo Edoga con Id lie a warning about
machinery s invasive presence in the
post-industrial world.
Wlien an artist like Sokari Douglas
Camp (Nigerian, resident in London)
constructs her sculptures from scrap
iron, she is assuming a similar
perspective towards industrial \\aste. For
her, this waste does not denote niodern
decadence (the debris of a fetish), but
rather the permanence of the
anthropological aura of machine wastes.
Bv "portraving" the English through ibis
médium, Douglas Camp is ironically
superposing an Afi'icaii idioui and
world view upon the image of a
Westerner. [6] At the same time Sokari
Douglas imposes a contempory mentality
and a heterodox allilude as an
alternatives to the clichés of the senuine.
Like the malcriáis themselves, the
procedures can be tranferred from one
sphere to another, without loss of their
organic natures. For instance, the work
tliat Norman Catherine (South Al'rica)
began in the mid-1980s was inspired bv
the niethods used bv Aí'rican children to
mako tovs í'roiii wire. Usiiig tlie same
iiiaterials (metal, wire, empty cans, etc.)
Catherine made a series of "[lortraits of
typical characters representing the
repressive Soiuh African b\ireaiicracv.
This svstem inchides nol onlv whites,
bul also a seelor of blacks who took pan
in lile luai'liinerv of racist control and
repression. Tlie works are caricatures
Norman Oallierine (Siidál'rira). Boxs, l')8ü.
and poke fun openly at the people
holding power and at the middle-ievel
people who carry out the orders.
These sciilptures also retain
something of the |jlayful nature of the
production of wire toys. They seem
fragüe, and at the same time appear to
be made for handling. Generally
speaking, they are works on the
bordei'line of art, play and politics. For
oiie tliing, they recover and curich ihe
contents of marginality that wire toys
already possess; non-institutional
production, that recyles scrap.
Appropiiating the procedure, Catherine
recycles a language of the periphery. AU
this sharpens the protest inherent in his
work, since it has recourse to a
materialness wliich in a wav alreadv
belongs to a social context, and this
belonging is a part of the cultural
memorv of junk.
Norman Catherine's work has the
archaeological sense visible in the work
of other South African artists, sucli as
Willie Bester and Sue Williamson, who
recover an objectiuililv in w liicli an
ideological conlent and a historicial
circumstance endure. If we consider the
relation between the latest works by
Williamson with the domolition of
District 6, in Cape Town, or that of
Besler with the places wliere there were
confrontalions with the |)olice. wc will
note the marked interest of these artists
in underlining the temporal and spatial
signs of identity in artistic concerns.
This circmnstantial and contextual
factor can l)e seen in otlier cultm'al
phenomena arising froni the suburban
shuns of África, hi her book Resistance
Art in South África^ Sue Williamson
herself collects testimony of the
aesthetic-|)olitical activitv carried out in
Johaimesbiu-g in ihe midddle of 1985,
when the State of Eniergencv
interrupted garbage collection in the
city. Township vouths organised groups
to coUect the garbage in the street, to
clean up open spaces and make them
into parks, where they planted trees,
painted muráis and installed sculptures
made from items found amongst the
rubbish. The connotations of this
activity were expressed by a 15-year-old
Ijoy, quoted by Sue Williamson: "They
can kill us or ai'resl us, but they can
ncver take away the pride we feel in
caring foi' our environment. [7] The
construction of these "Peace Paiks", as
they were called, was quickly
interrupted by the pólice, who argued
that these places were used to hide
weapons caches. Thus the garbage
which had been turned into protest art
was returned to the rubbish heap,
fulfilling an ironic destiny.
On visiting the studio of the artist
Issa in Dakar, I could not lielp but think
about the chaotic and informal look that
sucli South African "Peace Parks " had.
Thei'e were mouutls of junk that looked
like installations, objels trouvés making
up sculptures, grafitti on the walls. flags
and photographs of revolutionary
leaders, as well as oil painting. The site
liad been used for meetings of the
Laboratoire Agit-art in the 1080s. This
was a group of intellectuals (painters,
poets, filminakers and otiiers), involved
in coüective and ephemeral artistic
jjroductions, mainly installations and
¡lerfonnances. From an aesthetic point
of view, thev were opposed to the Ecole
de Dakar, which. although [ilaying an
ini]M)rfaiit role in its day, had
degenerated into a a sort of academy
under the sway of President Senghor,
and a svmbol of the off'icial ideology of
Senegal.
Issa Sainb refused to take part in
the first Dakar Biennal, the 1992
Dakart, during the Abdou Diouf
presidency [8], which tells us something
of the qualitv of protest in his art. His
works today, like his attitude, continué
to evidence the spiril of Agit-art. His
opposition to the Ecole de Dakar was
not merely formal: it implied a different
way of understanding and assuming
modernity in art, not as a congeries of
visual schemata to be repeated, but as a
trend that acknowledges the possibilities
of social and political impact of the art
work.
The work of Issa Samb recycles
symbologies and emblems, along with
found materials. He concentrates not on
the original use of junk, but ratlier on its
political origin and its ideological use.
141
1«-
The constant use of political symbols
w ears them oiit aofl semantically
aniiihilates them, just as thc
consiiiii|)t¡on of factorv producís irial
wears oul ihc ohjí^cls ol' luoili'i'uilx. lu
tliis caíegory Issa Sanib iuchides the
African mask, bearing iu uiiiul tíie
pohtical use that Senghor s governrnenl
niade oí ihe "autheiitic and his
ideologv of oegritudc. llie aríist ])lays
with lliese disguises (ihese secoiid-hand
masks) whicli inake up rhetorical
formulas. Accordhig to Ima Ebong. for
artists hke Issa Samb and tlie other
members of the I^alíoratoire Agit-Art,
the mask and li'adilioiuil sculplure ai'e
iKil sinipK read\-iiiades. bul fragments
oí ¡(Icntilies which reach ihciii froin the
contingencies of historv, so as to
eritically re-orgaiiise the internal
dynauíics oi' Senegalese rnodern cidture
[9].
Tliis idea is a|jph(:able lo ihe
artists and cultural expressions that I
llave nientioned here. Theii- recvchng of
niodernity is iii many cases linked lo the
recycling of local tradition. Always with
the intent of renewing. The modern
appcars iu ihese work. eithei' as a niodel
which is a|jpropi-ialed. transfoi'uied and
re-ins(;r1ed lulo the AlVican cultural
framework, or as productive and
comnmnicative material reality, to which
it alindes through its remains. Scrap
bccoines proof of niodernity, and
pai'ado.xicaliv can be iised as raw
inalerial lo re-inodeniise local artistic
traditions. This is made evident iu the
áreas of African art which took
advantage of the experience of conlacl
with machinery. The artisls who enter
this mechanised imiverse niake a doublc
use of this proof of niodernity. First,
because lhe\ work wilh a melhodology
already used in the field of art; and
second because they use a substance
marked by modernisation. The fací ihal
these African artists work from scrap
lessens tfie contradiction which leaps to
the eye, between the industrial world
and the "priinitiveness" attriliuted to the
African conlineiil, In sliorl. lliese arlists
recvcle the marghial área of niodi'rnilv.
But, even so, this art gives rise to a
deconstruction of the t^'pical African, In
this sense, rubbish can fiinction with
respect YO artistic Iradilion -and upical
crali work- in ihe same wav ihat higli
technologx liuiclions wilhiii ihe \\ estern
painting and sculpting tradition: as a
means of renewai and criticism, wliich
introduces new languages and
produclion codes.
NOTES
[3]
Sce .lean líaudiilliird. El SialciiKi de /o.s-
Obji'lox (The SysIeiM of Olijeets). Siglo
N'ciiiiiiiiio PiibÜslicrs. Mcxiio. 1Q92.
A (•(iiii|iutpr rarved in wood by the artisl
Koffi Kmiakou, for e.xample, was a
coiiiiTii.ss¡oned work. The European or
Nortli Aniprican loiirist no longer wanls a
porlrail of liiriisclf aiid his faiiiib. bul
rathcr a display of the techuology that he
worships and which .sii-stains him.
(Aiilhor's lióle).
(ialalogiic of the Oiro País (Another
(ioiintrv) e.\hil>ition. .African Ranges.
Centro .Atlántico de Arte .VIodenio. Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria, 199.5, p. 67.
Siiilcdsi's. h...\liiliition: "Eneoiinter
with (he Other".
[-i] Qiioted by Paolo I?ian(-hi. .Tolin Edward
Oddch-.Aineiiy. In: Kiiiiiilfonim
liiIrriKilliiiKil. AJrikd-Iydlcini. \ . 122.
Berlin. .Vlay-.hily 199.5. pp. 296-297.
[•o] Quoted by Nadja Taskov-Kohier. Mo
Écloga, hi: Kiiiislfoniin liilprnnlioiuil.
Afrika-lyiileira. N. 122. Bci'lin. May-.luly,
1993. pp. 2.-H-2.-)6.
[6] .African artistic traditiiin already contains
e.xainples that lend a liistoiical eharaeter
(o that glarice towards the inetropolises. It
is enough to ineiitioii the polvehioniatic
\\(]o(len scnlplures knowns as "Colons,
which depiet the Ein'opean eolonisls. and
which can slill be fonnd todav froin
Northern Nigeria and Camerún to the
Ivory Coast (.Aiahoi's note).
[7] Sne NX'illiarnson. Hcxisldiirc Aii in Smilli
África. David l'liill¡|i pnliHsher (Ptv)
Ltd. r:a|)e Town i; .lohannesbnrg. 1989.
p. í!íi.
[8] It was Ahdon Diouf who in 1983 violentlv
inrned the artists out of the Village des
Arts, aii oíd colonial c|narter wlicrc ihey
lived and liad rheir stndios. and who also
closed in 1988 the Mnsée Dinaniii|ne. site
of the Firsl Festival ol Paii-African Arl in
1966. Said festival sel a direct precedent
l'oi' ihe Bienal of Dak-art. which Dionf
ti'ied to nianipnlate for political reasons in
his electoral cainpaign of 1992 (Aiithor s
note).
[9] See lina Eliong. ".Negiilnde: Between
Mask and Fiag — Senegalese Culi mal
Ideology and the Ecole de Dakar . In:
Catalogue of the e.^hibilioii África
Explores. 20th Centni'N African Ait. The
Centre for African .Art. New X ork and
Preslel. Munich. 1991. p. 208.