According to its curator Lesley Lokko, the Biennale explores entrenched concepts such as climate, land rights, decolonization, and cultures. It challenges us to question how Africa’s history can be a radical tool for imagination and reminds us of Stephen Covey’s statement: “Live out of your imagination, not just your history.” The biennale’s title is probably the most ambitious question in years. It forces us to revisit all boundaries of the continent’s historical societies, explore the influence of imposed colonial borders on them, and examine the dual identities they gave birth to. We must consider how these identities can be instruments of creativity, and, more importantly, recognize that every African society has a unique point of view. This viewpoint yearns for cross-cultural collaboration as a powerful tool for imagination.
Africa is a continent of extensive cultural diversity. However, this diversity does not align with the national boundaries created by colonial powers. The partitioning of the continent was done with limited knowledge of its socio-cultural structures, using physical regional features and the quest for natural wealth to define boundaries. As a result, ethnic societies have had to endure the disappearance of their cultural structures, which are now overlapped by the borders of their new nations. Similar ethnic societies had to establish new cultural identities, and multiple ethnic societies were forced to form a new entity and negotiate a new identity. This is a foundational story of a complex history that resonates across the continent.
The friction from the duality of the African identity constantly raises questions about how art, design, and architecture are engaged. For example, what exactly is a national architecture that encompasses multiple ethnicities? What would be a modern reinvention of Yoruba architecture that fits within Nigeria, and how would it differ in translation from the Yorubas who are nationalities of the Republic of Benin? These questions offer multiple layers of resources that artists and designers have to interrogate, but they also present a rare opportunity for a radical process of creativity and knowledge-building through cross-cultural collaborations.
Collaboration between societies with historical cultural similarities and new national differences would be a novel tool for imagination and would offer new ways of seeing the future. This approach collapses the imposed borders on history and allows for ethnic and regional interaction across the continent.
Multiple installations at the Biennale gave voice to Africa’s constructed histories. Kere Architecture’s piece, titled “Counteract,” portrays the interior and exterior aspects of the urban landscapes of Burkina Faso. The exterior employs graphics to showcase the utilitarian nature of advertisements, shop names, and public information in the country. These elements are collaged together, but a boldly written message stands out on the installation wall: “Just because our history was intercepted by others, does not mean our future has to be.” It is a thought-provoking highlight of this installation, which celebrates West African architecture’s past, takes stock of what is present, and nudges towards a different approach. Artist Olalekan Jeyifous also created an installation at the biennale that features a room set up like the model “All-Africa Protoport (AAP).” This installation offers a glimpse into a potential future built on the constructed histories of indigenous African renewable technologies.
template that can be applied to other forms of art, design, and architecture as a means of promoting creativity.
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Finally, the biennale is a moment of reflection for artists and designers. It seeks ways through design to allow people to understand each other in such a diverse continent. Artists, designers, architects, researchers, and educators can build on this by intentionally curating cross-cultural collaborations in prospective projects. This acknowledges that everyone has a unique way of seeing the world, and for someone in Africa, it is a novel one due to the complex layers of history. When multiple viewpoints are purposely interrogated to give birth to something new, the results are powerful and distinctive ideas that the future of Africa deserves.
