The African Biennale : envisioning 'authentic' African contemporaneity

[摘要] This thesis aims to assess the extent to which the African curated exhibition,Dak'Art: Biennale de l'art africain contemporain , succeeds in subvertinghegemonic Western representations of African art as necessarily 'exotic' and'Other.' My investigation of the Dak'Art biennale in this thesis is informedand preceded by a study of evolutionist assumptions towards African art andthe continuing struggle for command over the African voice. I outline thetrajectory of African art from primitive artifact to artwork, highlighting theprejudices that have kept Africans from being valued as equals and uniqueartists in their own right. I then look at exhibiting techniques employed tomove beyond perceptions of the tribal, to subvert the exoticising tendency ofthe West and remedy the marginalised position of the larger African artisticcommunity.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University