For the first time, the artist Abdoulaye Konaté takes part in the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, from the 07th April to the 09th July 2023. Konaté is an artist who has been involved for quite a long time now in the international artistic scenario.
In 2004 he participated in Africa Remix, in 2005 at the exhibition at the Center Pompidou, in 2007 at Documenta 12 Kassel, he was present as a protagonist in all subsequent international exhibitions of African art, in 2010 had a retrospective anthological exhibition at the Dakar Biennale, in 2017 one of his monumental works was exhibited at the Arsenale in the 57th Venice Biennale. In 2020 Abdoulaye Konaté presents his monumental and site-specific installation Idéogrammes, signes, symboles et logos (Hommage à Youssouf Tata Cissé et Germaine Dieterlen) at Zeitz MOCAA’s BMW Atrium. In 2020 Konaté has been invited to participate in the exhibition “Global(e) Resistance” at Centre Pompidou, Paris, with one of his historical installations, dated 1995-1996. In 2021 Abdoulaye Konaté has his first solo exhibition in Japan, “The Diffusion of Infinite Things”, held in Standing Pine spaces in Nagoya.
In 2022 the most relevant African Biennale: Dak’Art Biennale, payed him tribute as “The Master”, with the exhibition: Hommage à Abdoulaye Konaté, l’étoffe d’un maître, Former Palais de Justice (Courthouse), Cap Manuel, Dakar.
The Biennale will explore its theme through four subtopics: Luminous Halo positions the spirit of Gwangju as a source of inspiration and model for resistance and solidarity; Ancestral Voices highlights transnational artistic approaches for engaging and interpreting traditions to question and challenge modernist ideas; Transient Sovereignty considers the ways in which post-colonial and de-colonial artistic thinking have developed in relation to issues such as migration and diaspora; and Planetary Times explores the potentials and limits of a “planetary vision” on ecological and environmental justice.
Credit: Abdoulaye Konaté, installation view at the 14th Gwangju Biennale. Courtesy the artist and Gwangju Biennale Foundation.
Photo: glimworkers
