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Forget Venice! State art or privatization? Scouting out the 8th Biennial of Contemporary African Art in Dakar.
May 2008The state gives high priority to art. No longer to the degree it did under the first President of freshly decolonized Senegal, but still demonstratively. In his day, Leopold Sédar Senghor, the Paris-educated intellectual, poet, and philosopher of "negritude", had devoted 25 percent of the government budget to promoting culture. It is no longer possible to speak of such economic priority, but current President Abdoulaye Wade did not pass up the opportunity to personally open what is now the 8th "Dak’Art" biennial.
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To find out about the event, the current cultural context in Senegal, and a selection of artworks, please read the complete article by Sabine Vogel:
>> Forget Venice!
State Art or Privatization?
Scouting Out the 8th Dakar Biennial
Published in the Nafas Art Magazine section of Universes in Universe
Dak'Art 2008
8th Biennial of Contemporary African Art
9 May - 9 June 2008
Dakar, Senegal