Preamble

In a difficult social, economic and political context, citizens’ artistic projects never cease developing almost everywhere on the African continent (North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Africa, South Africa, Mediterranean).
Strengthened by their beliefs, artists and artists’ co-operatives occupy spaces and build centres so that their works can take on life. Often far from the rehabilitation of industrial wastelands, so often practised in Europe, North America and even in some Asian countries, certain African project bearers simply take over plots of ground and lay down a few stones; others set up tents or refurbish small houses or buildings. These buildings are very different in their forms and their functions as opposed to European, American or Asian experiences, but they all share the same base.

Definition

These new spaces of creation, experimentation, dialogue, discussion, meetings and diffusion are dedicated to new artistic, cultural or social practices. They represent real research and creation laboratories on the African continent for young creative artists, and facilitate and encourage the emergence of new artistic propositions and a new African creative movement, close to its public, more free and independent. These multidisciplinary centres offer indispensable aid to emerging contemporary creation.
Centres of life, these initiatives are close to local artists, and develop active relationships with communities and participation in the process of artistic creation, in training workshops, in debates. These new artistic approaches also come up against a multitude of questions, linked to urban development, education and co-operation, and participate in sustainable cultural development.
Their specific local environments make these cultural and artistic spaces, emerging from all corners of Africa, very special places.

Observation

These centres are often isolated and far from each other. Project bearers in Africa therefore know very little or nothing of the existence of similar experiences beyond their frontiers. They encounter the same difficulties, even if they are in different environments.
This new cultural set-up further encourages meetings between independent art centres springing up everywhere in the world, so that all project initiators can get to know each other and help each other.

Artfactories and African antenna

It is from this perspective that Artfactories, international resource platform for autonomous creative centres, wishes to encourage these encounters, these exchanges of know-how, in order to make projects more sustainable, so that everyone can learn from the experiences of others, and artists and their projects can circulate. In order to optimise its identification procedure, Artfactories has chosen to set up antenna in different regions of the world.
As far as Africa is concerned, Kà«r Thiossane, an art and multimedia centre in Dakar, Senegal, fulfils the role of the Artfactories antenna.
The Artfactories database - http://www.artfactories.net - today contains details on more than 170 cultural centres, deriving from citizens’ artistic projects throughout the world. Far from being exhaustive, this repertoire is enriched after each meeting, exchange, contact, and link. At the time of writing, fifteen experiences in Africa and in the Mediterranean basin are on the Artfactories’ website. The antenna Kà«r Thiossane aims to enrich and develop the Artfactories virtual resource centre from the centres of Africa and the Mediterranean area, with the idea of linking them up.

THE PROJECT

In the framework of the 6th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Dakar, "Dak’ART", in May 2004, Ker Thiossane, in collaboration with the Artfactories international resource office, is organising a seminar for the Emerging autonomous creative places on the African Continent (North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Africa, South Africa, the Mediterranean) from 11 to 14 May 2004.

During these four days of meetings and exchange, project bearers from different African and Mediterranean countries can get to know each other better, help each other, and share their know-how. This seminar will be the occasion to promote artistic projects based on a commitment to communities, and linked to the particular history of their territories.
In order to enrich and to enlarge the discussions, Artfactories is keen to invite project-bearers from other parts of the world.

Description of the seminar:

 Length: 4 days

 Date: 11 to 14 May 2004

 Place : Kà«r Thiossane, Dakar, Senegal

 Number of participants: about 30 project-bearers and five speakers (not including the Biennale)

 Programme:

1st day - 11 May 2004: Inventory of centres/situation of the local cultural and artistic scene in Dakar/visits to different projects with presentations.

The invited project bearers will be welcomed on the first day at Ker Thiossane, the Artfactories African antenna. Following a presentation of the project, the participants will visit various emerging centres and projects in the town of Dakar.

2nd and 3rd day - 12 and 13 May 2004: 6 Workshops/Discussions in three centres in Dakar.

Following the inventory of the local centres, two days of Workshops/Discussions will take place. Each project bearer can choose which workshops he or she wishes to attend, according to his or her needs. The rather intimate character of this period of exchange aims to enrich the speaking time of each person, the discussions, and to encourage a real reflection on problems encountered.

6 Workshops on the following themes (subject to modification):

These problems have been identified by the Artfactories African Antenna from needs expressed by different project bearers on the African continent.

 Setting up of network/circulation of artistic projects/information exchange/solidarity actions.
 Possibilities of financing and auto-financing for these centres.
 Ways of functioning and infrastructures specific to these African centres, in relation to local environments and their contexts.
 Making local African policy-makers aware of the importance of these spaces in local and global development of Africa.
 Artistic projects linked to society, territory, communities; exchanges emanating from examples.
 Reponses to the needs for artistic training: multimedia, technique, administrative.

4th day - 14 May 2004: public meeting at the Biennale.

The last day of this seminar will be the moment to observe the public visibility of the situation of these emerging centres and projects on the African continent. The co-ordination team of the seminar will seize the occasion of the Contemporary Art Biennale to organise a public meeting to discuss issues arising from these cultural and artistic centres emerging from the African and international artistic and cultural scene.

Resource tools

During this seminar and during the Biennale, Kà«r Thiossane will be the public resource point the on the question of these new cultural spaces, deriving from citizens’ artistic projects in different parts of the world: the Artfactories website on line, videos presenting projects and centres, documentation. All participants may leave their documentation there.
A Webmaster will be providing the Artfactories website live with discussions and meetings during the four days of this seminar.