Export-Import

Export-Import

On the occasion of the 15th edition of the Dakar Biennale, Selebe Yoon is pleased to present "Export-Import", a collective exhibition with the artists Younes Baba-Ali, Mbaye Diop, and Hamedine Kane. "Import-export," a term widely used in international trade, suggests a dynamic exchange between two territories, a transcontinental transactional relationship often asymmetrical and unbalanced. Beyond economic globalization, the importation of cultures, customs, forms, and knowledge has occurred long before the liberalization of trade exchanges in this century, from the colonial era to the present, sometimes imperceptibly. The export of goods, as well as of oneself, continues to be perceived as a necessity to exist, even survive, in the global arena, both collectively and individually.

From maritime routes in oceans,aerial circuits, through industrial and urban environments, certain territories and their natural resources have become places of predation, economic speculation, and rivalry. By observing certain sports, leisure activities, or economic sectors, each artist reveals unexpected networks and invisible trajectories that conceal  mechanisms of subordination and dynamics of power. While their works are tied to historical narratives or contemporary events, they offer possibilities of revolt and spaces for reverie in the face of the unending dialectic of import-export.

Younes Baba-Ali conceived "Loft DKR" around pigeon racing, the art of training and racing carrier pigeons. A military spy or a messenger of love, adored by some but vilified by others, the carrier pigeon has accompanied humanity throughout its history, from peace to war through leisure, financial speculation, the delivery of illicit products, and colonization. Pigeon racing is a recreational activity originating from Belgian royalty, nowadays popular and booming in Senegal - while pigeons were once used as a means of communication between the metropolis and the colony, today they are real competitors and entertainers. It is from this history that Younes Baba-Ali imagines the development of this project in several locations: a few meters from Selebe Yoon, on the esplanade of the Dakar City Hall, "LOFT DKR - Gëstukaay bi (Laboratory)", an experimental pigeon loft designed with a new animal architecture, has been installed for several month. The data of the birds, equipped with a tracking chip, is collected by the artist (GPS coordinates and flight dynamics) and used as material to generate and create sound compositions during flight performances by the pigeons at the loft. Outside Selebe Yoon, flags featuring images of pigeons are positioned as banners on the gallery's façade. At the entrance of the building, in a spatialized journey, a sound resembling the rustling of seeds and whistling welcomes visitors: it is the call used by pigeon fanciers to summon their avian groups. An immersive video sensitively and experimentally conveys the experience and process of the project through the choreographed movements of birds, now transformed into sound and motion performers, using images captured during the breeding and training period at the dovecote. Another work from a different series is also presented in the exhibition. "Daily Wrestling" (2018) is dedicated to the national sport: Senegalese wrestling. Surrounded by mystical preparations, this sport also develops a connection with global capitalism through its entry into corporate sponsorship. In this scenario, athletes are not engaging in combat against other wrestlers, but rather with ordinary items in a struggle for survival.  Birds, shown as adept at crossing borders for long distances without obstruction, embody freedom in collective thought, while these wrestlers serve as a reminder of the challenges confronted by various other communities. 

Mbaye Diop, on the other hand, is particularly interested in a key activity in the global history of colonization that tried to establish itself in the Dakar territory with the arrival of French officials but without real success: tennis. He imagines the city of Dakar and its hybrid architecture - from traditional housing, colonial architecture, to the latest towers - as a perpetual match between different opponents. A quintessential and bourgeois European sport, tennis tries to fit into the Senegalese landscape through the construction of equipped courts to make Dakar more attractive. For the artist, this sport acts a a metaphor for the aggressive game led by States, palpable in the over-urbanization of the city In Mbaye Diop's paintings and drawings, the characters are portrayed in iconic public settings, holding the racket as an accessory that each person adapts to their liking. Younes Baba-Ali's wrestlers, the ball and the opponent remain unseen, alluding to the seemingly fictitious competition. It's as if the artist's characters were fighting against the city itself, its old colonial buildings, its precarious infrastructure and certain emblems of the informal economy. An interactive work, designed for the exhibition, invites the public to participate in a tennis match and confront an unclothed  man standing in a pose of anticipation. Using motion tracking technology, the black and white image of the player moves according to the opponent's strike. A playful game for the audience, this moving image resembles the ghostly shadow of the artist inserted within an environment of urban decay. As Olympism is on the agenda between Paris 2024 and the forthcoming Youth Olympic Games in Senegal in 2026, the artist questions the contrasts between the infrastructure of grandeur required by state games  and the collective sports practiced in the public spaces of Dakar.

In 2023, Hamedine Kane was contacted by ClientEarth, a legal expertise organization to document the repercussions of international fishing on the fishing community of Senegal. Artisanal fishing is confronted with the overwhelming rivalry of industrial fishing, overexploitation of resources, and environmental degradation. The artist traveled along the Senegalese coast to record the extraction and transformation processes of marine species, collecting testimonies from the different communities and recording the state of the Senegalese coast. At the  gallery, he decided to transform this legal documentation into an artistic proposal to lend a  voice to the ocean and its users. In collaboration with Boris Raux, one of the members of The School of Mutants, he designed a pontoon from fragments of wood from the pirogues recovered from the coastline. An open space for visitors like a walkway inviting contemplation, the pontoon integrates filmed sequences of the coastline and its inhabitants, inserted into red gasoline cans used for boats. These image devices present the ocean from different angles: the daily life of fishermen is juxtaposed with satellite images tracing maritime traffic of ships, followed by archive images, contemporary scenes of a shore deserted by its population, and an exhausted fishing industry. With a narrative and speculative voice, a sound work simultaneously embodies the voice of the ocean and its fishing communities, evoking endangered species, marine confrontations between boats, strategies developed to corrupt regulatory means, and migratory departures to Europe with these same pirogues. Around this installation, Kane presents paintings made from reclaimed materials: doors, window shutters, wood. These heterogeneous assemblages display written texts and evoke cabins and precarious structures reminiscent of his famous film "The Blue House," and the question of inhabiting the world in a situation of exile in transitional spaces.

In between poignant testimonials and humor, recreational space and position-taking, the three artists reveal the political complexity, economic burden, and social weight that exist in activities such as pigeon racing, wrestling, fishing, or tennis, as innocuous and harmless as they may seem. But they remind us above all, that faced with systems of power that are difficult to penetrate, there exists the incorruptible and active force of poetic possibility.

Notes:

Younes Baba-Ali’s project, "LOFT DKR - Gëstukaay bi (Laboratory)," is realised in partnership with L’Hotel de Ville de Dakar (the Dakar City Hall) with the support of Werktank, the Federation Wallonie Bruxelles and Wallonie Bruxelles International. A third episode, "LOFT DKR- Li jot a am (State of Affairs)", held at the Delegation Wallonie Bruxelles, is dedicated to archival work in collaboration with exhibition curator Aude Tournaye and the implementation of online mapping in collaboration with architect Carole Diop.

Mbaye Diop's work is produced with the support of the City of Nyon, Switzerland and the Region of Nyon, Switzerland. 

Image: 

Younes Baba-Ali, LOFT DKR #1, 2024, Digital print on fine art paper 300 gr with a black American box 

©Younes Baba-Ali, Courtesy Selebe Yoon, Dakar.

Text copyright: Selebe Yoon