Start the art biennale in a small country that essentially has no galleries or art schools – even formal shops that frame paintings and photographs, it doesn't seem like a dream.
But that's exactly what a group of five artists from Guinea and Bissau, with over 2 million people in West Africa, decided to do. Nu Barreto, visual and plastic art curator at Moac Biss, the country's first biennial, said they could no longer sit “with arms crossed and nothing” about what they saw as a tragic gap in their country's art infrastructure.
The Biennale is partly designed to create more opportunities in the outdoor artisan market or internationally funded venues such as the Centro Cultural Cultural Franco-Bissau-Guinense to create more opportunities for local artists who have few current ways to display their work. Starting on May 1st and running in the capital Bissau until May 31st, MOAC Biss features around 150 artists from 17 countries.
The event is designed to cover more disciplines than visual arts. “We know what the challenges are for writers, painters, artists, theatres and dancers. So we're starting with five,” Barrett said. The Biennale's vibrant opening night ended with a concert by Bissau Guinea band Furukununda, which had not performed live in 18 years. Welket Bungué is a performing arts and inspiring image curator known as the performance “Cathartic”.
The group was brought together by music coordinator Karyna Gomes. He joined the group on stage and sang to the theatres packed together as people sat in the aisle. The fact that the Biennale was even open is because it lost more than half of the government's turbulence in countries that the Portuguese and Brazilian governments had pledged to support. Later, nationwide blackouts in Spain and Portugal delayed the arrival of the theatre group.
Political instability and the irony of blackouts – the issue where coup-prone Guinea-Bissau is usually better known than its European counterparts, did not escape the organizers. “We're not the only ones who have the challenge,” said Antonio Spencer Embaro, curator of conferences and public policy. “It's important for the people here to understand this type of thinking, too. It means that everyone is having difficulties.”
In the Biennale's main visual arts space, two semi-expressionist Tabri by Guadeloupe artist Jean Mark Hunt is part of the first art to welcome visitors. They are part of Hunt's Jardin Creole series, a garden celebration where tradition is passed down, daily needs are met and overdose is discouraged. They are in stark contrast to previous use of the space as a Timber Mill factory.
Next to Hunt's work is the “Big Kaonbo” by Angolan artist Evan Krabber. This installation is made of bright yellow plastic jerrycans and painted with black oil paint that glows loudly. One side depicts a group of young people waiting for a visa application at the embassy. The other side shows the Statue of Liberty.
“In Angola, young people are trying to migrate a lot, and in the capital, outside the embassy, it's full of young people leaving the country and trying to get a visa in search of new opportunities,” said Craber, adding that his playful work aims to exploit the fun in serious issues and encourages young people to reflect their choices. “I don't think immigration is the answer. There are a lot of issues in America too.”
Both Claver and Hunt were in Guinea-Bissau for the first time. “Vienares has been a major encounter these days,” said Cesar Scofield Caldosau, an artist from Cape Verde who shows off the “blue uterus,” a collection of cyanotypes, photography, sound and video. “They play a major role in cultural exchange, and Guinea-Bissau is a very rich country in terms of culture and creativity, but that's not well known.”
Despite its small population, Guinea-Bissau has at least 33 ethnic groups, each with its own dance, its own way of singing and mourning, Embaro said. And, according to the World Bank, the average lifespan is only 64 people, and curators believe art could be a tool for development.
Culture and art “foster our souls,” Embaro said. “It's true that people have to work very hard to get what they feed their bodies, but what feeds our souls is the basis for all of us to be taller,” he said the curators hope that even if the event is over, the Biennale will be a living and breathing entity in the city. Construction is underway with factory compounds for the area that serve as a residential artist studio.
The space is also open to local designers who showcase furniture and lighting designs at the Biennale, such as Bissau-Guinean designers and painter Thyra Correia. The work is from her collection called Tchon, a Guinea-Bissau Creole word that means land but house in the Bissau Guinea context. Coreira works with local materials and local craftsmen to create designs.
Craft workers in Guinea-Bissau “all are there,” she said. “It is possible to make things in the most humble and purest way. I think this piece has a responsibility to show people that we are beautiful, modern, and we can produce here.”
Organizers deliberately scheduled MOAC Bis in their holiday years from the Dakar Biennale in Senegal. Osseinou Wade, a longtime director of the Dakar Biennale, attended the Bissau Biennale and said that the two events faced two different realities.
“They have a different relationship with the government,” he said. “The Dakar Biennale was a government initiative. This was an independence initiative in Bissau.” This year's Guinea-Bissau Biennale had no government funding from Guinea-Bissau. “This is important for the region of the continent to develop, as it is important not only in Guinea-Bissau, but also in the arts geography of the African continent,” Wade added.
He pointed out that Viennares can help break linguistic and cultural barriers. “We have to overthrow these borders and Africa can regularly gather in these spaces in all of its diversity,” he said.
