Dak'Art 08 finally publishes artists' list

We were beginning to wonder if this year's biennale in Dakar, Senegal was going to take place due to the lack of information either from the officials or on the website. However, we all continued with our arrangements in the belief that it would and lo and behind there was some sign of life on their website about a week or 10 days ago, they changed the background to a bright green. Progress!! The theme of this edition draws on 'the metaphor of the mirror to examine, question a destiny and try to outline through Art, a future, that of an Africa more current than ever.' Hmmmm. And the list of 35 artists is a drastic step back from the 80 odd artists in 2006. The list also shows the names of some artists who have participated 2, 3 and some 4 times. Amean commmmon!!!!! I hope like our President for Life (a la Mugabe) we are not going to witness a new syndrome Artist for Life at Dak'Art. For regular visitors such as myself (I was invited 2 or 3 times oops visitor for life too) it would have been great to see new faces. And more drastic changes this year includes dropping the curatorial team. That is a BIG shame as it would have been the beginning of professionalising curatorial practice and encouraging debates on curating within the context of the biennale apart from emerging African curators the platform to organise such an event. Anyway at this stage we don't want to dig in too much without seeing what is on offer. So without much ado here is this year's list culled from www.dakart.org
Dak’Art 2008, 8 th edition of the Biennale of the contemporary African art, in Dakar, Senegal, from 9th of may until 9th of June 2008
35 artists selected for the International Exhibition

The official selection of 35 artists that are exhibiting at the 8th Biennale of African Contemporary Art was organized by the Selection Committee based on the application files directly received by the General Secretary of the Biennale. The Official exhibition of Dak’Art 2008 presents artists of 17 African countries and from the diaspora. Senegal (10), Cameroon (5), South Africa (4) and Egypt (3) are the most represented countries in the 2008 selection .

Bénin (1):
Pélagie GBAGUIDI
Burkina Faso (2):
Saidou DICKO
Justin KABRE (Kely)
Cameroon (5):
Blaise BANG
Angele Etoundi ESSAMBA
Achillekà KOMGUEM
Samuel NJA KWA
Guy Bertrand WOUETE LOTCHOUANG
Côte d’Ivoire (1):
Jems Robert KOKOBI
Egypt (3):
Fathi HASSAN
George Fikry IBRAHIMA
Amal EL KENAWY
Mali (1):
Mohamed KONATE
Morocco (1):
Zakaria RAMHANI
Nigeria (1):
Osarentin IGHILE
RD Congo (1):
Freddy TSIMBA
Senegal (10):
Soly CISSE
El Hadji Mansour CISS
Samba FAL
Abdoulaye Armin KANE
Amadou Kane SY dit Kan-Si"
Ndary LO
Ousmane NDIAYE dit Dago
Babacar NIANG
Ibrahima NIANG Piniang
Seydi SAMBA dit Pape Seydi
South Africa (4):
Nkosikhona BONGAMAHLUBI
Mntambo NANDIPHA
Sonya RADEMEYER
Patra RUGA ATHI
Togo (1):
Sokey EDORH
Tunisia (1):
Mourad GHARRACH
Diaspora (3):
Grace NDIRITU (Grande-Bretagne)
Gabriel PACHECO (USA)
Roberto Rico (Guadeloupe France)