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Corso di Dottorato di ricerca in Storia delle Arti ciclo XXXII Tesi di Ricerca “Why and how are we here?” The Presence and Representation of Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa Arts at the Venice Biennale from 1990 to 2017 SSD: L-ART/03 Coordinatore del Dottorato Prof. Pier Mario Vescovo Supervisore Prof.ssa Francesca Castellani Co-Supervisore Prof.ssa Nora Sternfeld Dottorando Amarildo V. Ajasse Matricola 964307 CONTENTS Abstract List of Figures INTRODUCTION More than Literature Gap Pretention: The relevance of an analysis of the sub-Saharan- African participation at the Venice Art Biennale PART I: THE RESEARCH FRAMES CHAPTER ONE The Research: Context and Main Frames…………………………………………1 1.1 The Venice Biennale as the public sphere of the global contemporary arts…..3 1.2 Focus on arts from sub-Saharan Africa why?...................................................12 1.3 The 1990 as a point of departure………………………………………………19 1.4 The exhibitions practices question and the postmodern theory……………….28 CHAPTER TWO. Theoretical and methodological apparatus………………………………………..39 2.1 Researching Venice Art Biennale……………………………………………..42 2.2 Mozambique as a preliminary case study……………………………………..59 2.3 Framing the research: The method…………………………………………….67 2.4 From the archival data to on site field work…………………………………..70 i PART II: EXHIBITIONS AS A FIELD WORK CHAPTER THREE. Contextualize the Presence and Representation of sub-Saharan Africa Contemporary Arts at the Venice Art Biennale from 1990 to 2017…………………………………………79 3.1 How it happened: from representation to participation……………………...............85 3.2 Outline the countries attendances………………………………………………….100 3.3 The individual actors behind the exhibitions: curators, artists and other agents……………………………………………………………………………150 3.4 Chronology of the group exhibition about art from sub-Saharan Africa at the venice biennale since 1990………………………………………………170 CHAPTER FOUR. Behind the Display: The Institutions and the Exhibitions……………………………..195 4.1 Institutions and the Venice Biennale: why it matters………………………………198 4.2 Venice biennale organizational transformations and the African participation…………………………………………………………………..205 4.3 The curators as institutional actors……………………………………………….. 215 4.4 The institutional structure of the exhibitions………………………………………222 CHAPTER FIVE. The patterns of the African National Pavilions (case studies)…………………………232 5.1 The Angola national pavilion……………………………………………………...237 5.2 The Kenya national pavilion………………………………………………………245 5.3 The Ivory Coast national pavilion…………………………………………………254 5.4 The South Africa national pavilion……………………………………………….261 5.5 The patterns of attendance of sub-Saharan African countries to the Venice Biennale since 1990…………………………………………………………..274 ii CONCLUSION Is the Venice Biennale just and art show: Lessons to the future…………………282 BIBLIOGRAPHY APENDIX Appendix A: Artists Attendances from 1990 to 2017. Appendix B: Chronology of the Countries attendance to La Biennale from 1990 to 2017. Appendix C: The Online Archive of the Contemporary African Arts at Venice Art Biennale. iii Abstract In recent decades, there has been an increased participation and presence of African contemporary arts in some of the world's most important events related to visual arts, either through the works of individual artists, or in the case of the Venice Art Biennale, through national pavilions. For example, at the 56th edition of the Venice biennale, in 2015, three of the five countries that participated in the show for the first time were from the African continent. However, very little research has been done to try to understand this phenomenon and analyze the curatorial strategies that are adopted in such exhibitions. In this context, by focused on the Venice art biennale, the purpose of the present research is not only to try to understand how African art exhibitions are curated, but also to identify what motivates African countries and artists to attend international art exhibitions outside the African continent. In order to capture the full picture of the phenomenon, the research was conducted by analysing the exhibitions realized from 1990 to 2019, and within the aforementioned time frame the investigation will focus on three types of exhibitions or participations case studies: 1) especial or collective exhibitions; 2) national pavilions; and 3) and Artists participation in the main exhibition. Through the comparison within and across the contexts of the three different types of art show venues represented by these case studies, we intend to identify the essential elements that characterize the exhibition of contemporary African art in the most important visual art event around the globe. iv List of Figures Figure 3.1 Letter from the Ghana government to La Biennale in 1997 Figure 3.2 Yinka Shonibare installation. Entitled “Vacation.” Photo from ASAC archive. Figure 3.3 Meschac Gaba installation entitled “Ginger Bar.” Dutch pavilion 3. Photo from ASAC archive. Figure 3.4 Malick Sidibé photos displayed at Corderie/Arsenale in 2007. At that edition, 52th, he was awarded with the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement prize. Photo from ASAC archive. Figure 3.5 Letter from La Biennale to the Ghana embassy in Italy. Photo of a document from ASAC archive. Figure 3.6 Okwui Enwezor portrait made during the installation of the 56th edition of La Biennale in 2015. Photo from ASAC archive. AU. Alessandra Chemollo. Figure 3.7 Mario Macilau photographic project/installation at Vatican pavilion during the 56th edition of La Biennale in 2015. Photo from ASAC archive. AU. Alessandra Chemollo. Figure 3.8 Jelili Atiku performance during the opening ceremony of the 57th edition of La Biennale in 2017. Photo from ASAC archive. AU. Andrea Avezzù. Figure 4.1 Exhibition topics 2015: Elaboration from the titles of the exhibitions within the national pavilions of the countries from sub-Saharan Africa. Figure 4.2 Exhibition topics 2017: Elaboration from the titles of the exhibitions within the national pavilions of the countries from sub-Saharan Africa. Figure 5.1 Installation within the Angolan pavilion at the 54th edition of La Biennale. Photo from ASAC archive. Figure 5.2 Paul Onditi Painting within the Kenya pavilion at the 57th edition of La Biennale. Photo from the pavilion website.(www.nationalpavilionkenya.com). Figure 5.3 Display of some paintings made by Paul Onditi Painting within the Kenya pavilion at the 57th edition of La Biennale. Photo from the pavilion website. (www.nationalpavilionkenya.com). Figure 5.4 Diaspora sculptures/installation made by Jems Robert Koko Bi within the Ivory Coast pavilion at the 57th edition of La Biennale. Photo from ASAC archive. Figure 5.5 Photo of raport of preparatory meeting 1997. v Figure 5.6 Photo of the entrance of the South African Pavilion at the 56th edition of La Biennale. Photo from ASAC archive. INTRODUCTION MORE THAN LITERATURE GAP PRETENTION: The relevance of an analysis of the sub-Saharan-African participation at the La Biennale. The Venice Art Biennale is the oldest most important art exhibition and has been unique, until now the government institutions are able to organize art shows in the representation of the Nations-states. Indeed, one of the main structural characteristics of La Biennale, is the fact that a significant part of the art show is organized though National Pavilions. However, it is important to mention that the permanent participation of those countries in the show started only after the 90’s. As I will discuss later on in the dissertation, one of the main factors that has influenced this changes is the emergence of postmodern theory. Considering the significance and importance of the Venice Biennale much research had been made in order to analyse the show. That research has adopted not only different focus and perspectives but also a multidisciplinary perspective that has reflected the fact that several disciplines has been interested in examining the show. However, most of those analyses had as focus the countries that in the presented dissertation I have labeled as the old participants to mean those countries that used to attend La Biennale when the only official location was the Giardini biennale. There is little research about the participation of sub-Saharan African countries in the Venice Biennale. vi So, there is a gap when it comes to the research that has focused the participation of countries from sub-Saharan Africa countries. However, more than covering a research gap one of the main commitments of this dissertation was the one to try to at same time conduct research that could be useful to understand in the overall structure of the Venice Biennale. That exigency became more relevant considering the fact that in accordance with the beginning of the start of the permanent participation of countries and artists from sub- Saharan Africa, in 1990, La Biennale, had realized several structural changes. And it was by having that commitment in mind that since the beginning of the present research that strategically I had chosen to have a multi-source of data. During the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2015, where I had the idea to conduct the research and observed in depth the participation of the countries and artists from sub- Saharan Africa. And I termed that phase as field work. After that I had collected the data on the archive of the venice biennale and then the successive step was to examine the literature about the Venice Biennale. I will describe in a more detailed manner how I conducted the present research later on in chapter 2. However, here one of my main concern, in order to articulated it is important to mention that in addition to the need to conduct a research could be relevant at same time to understand in the overall structure of the Venice Biennale, my main concern was to try to answer the following question: What was the most theoretically relevant perspective to conduct research about the sub-Saharan African participation to the Venice Biennale? My intuition was that by proceeding in that direction I could at same time not only examine African participation that was a relevant research gap and also contribute to improving the understanding of overall structure of the Venice Biennale.

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