For the 16th edition of the Dakar Biennale, the Steering Committee has selected Morad Montazami, Director of Zamân Books & Curating, to serve as Artistic Director. An art historian, publisher, and exhibition curator, Morad Montazami is entrusted with developing an original curatorial project that takes into account the specific mission and values of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art.

The 16th Dakar Biennale’s theme is “(Anti)fragility.” It brings together artists from the African continent and diasporas around the world, including island and archipelagic spaces. All seek to rethink our ways of living together, mutual support, coexistence, and cohabitation—not only among humans but also with the living world. For the Artistic Director, to be (anti)fragile is to adopt an attitude that transforms fragility into a strength—both expressive and artistic—by emphasizing social and communal bonds, particularly through co-creation.

Being (anti)fragile is the attitude of turning fragility into a strength (expressive and artistic) by valuing social and community bonds (co-creation). This concept comes from the thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who explains how to learn to live in an uncertain and chaotic world, even benefiting from difficult situations and shocks to emerge stronger and more resilient. In the artistic field, this idea becomes a source of inspiration and a testing ground. Artists use error, accident, or lack as starting points in a (co)creative process.

In an unstable and conflict-ridden world, they invent alternative systems often inspired by local know-how, develop survival strategies and gift-giving/counter-gift systems, build shelters, and adopt (post-)therapeutic approaches to art. Within this restorative dynamic, new communities of artists/craftspeople/researchers/citizens are created. Practices linked to urban and popular cultures, as well as designers, are called upon to play a central role.