From 10 to 13 November 2011, the week after the Encounters of Bamako opens, the Paris Photo Fair will be celebrating its 15th anniversary at the Grand Palais. African photography from Bamako to Cape Town is in the spotlight this year. The Encounters of Bamako has been invited to join the 111 French and international galleries, along with publishers, specialist booksellers and specific exhibition projects.
As the leading event devoted to African photography, the Biennial, created in 1994 and organised by Mali in collaboration with the Institut Français, will be appearing at Paris Photo, as a reminder that it was the Encounters that brought African photography to the attention of professionals and public alike, with artists such as Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Samuel Fosso and Santu Mofokeng.
To mark the occasion, Biennal will be featuring a selection of young African photographers and video artists from its past editions.
This panorama of contemporary photography will enable the Parisian public to discover names the Biennial has nurtured and highlighted over the years, as it continues to do, first and foremost on the African continent.
The twelve artists presented at Paris Photo are Abdoulaye Barry (Chad), Mohamed Camara (Mali), Nestor Da (Burkina Faso), Fatoumata Diabaté (Mali), Husain and Hasan Essop (South Africa), Uche Okpa Iroha (Nigeria), Jehad Nga (Kenya/Libya), Nyani Quarmyne (Ghana), Arturo Bibang (Equatorial Guinea), Baudouin Mouanda (Republic of the Congo), Zanele Muholi (South Africa) and Nyaba Léon Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso). In L’Album des Rencontres, a commemoration of the significant role played by the Biennial in its promotion of African photography in the West since 1994, a quadreria will choose a selection of works held in the Fnac Collection, and famous or previously unseen works by Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Adama Kouyaté, Cornelius August, Hamadou Boloum, André Nonga Tassembédo, Samuel Fosso and Santu Mofokeng.
The Encounters of Bamako invited by Paris Photo 2011
A glimpse at the new generation of African artists
Curators: Michket Krifa and Laura Serani, the artistic directors of the Encounters of Bamako – African Photography Biennial.
