With the Dakar exhibition project, I am continuing my exploration of images and urban spaces in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. My curiosity about Africa reflects a current interest in the fields of architecture and contemporary art on the African continent, which are driven by rapid urbanization and evolving dynamics created through new technologies that a young, connected population is adopting as their own. As I wished to frame my approach in a global worldview, Senegal seemed to me a rich source for reflection on the organization of public spaces, growing urbanization, and relations between the Senegalese and the Europeans, North Americans, and Asians living on their territory 60 years after independence, as well as their relationship to the environment.
On this land and within this culture, I explore the latent states of specific architectures, as well as nocturnal sports activities on the Corniche, a coveted urban coastline that separates the city from the Atlantic Ocean. In one projection, I bring together three locations that are in states of transition, of perpetual transformation and of becoming—namely, Dakar’s former courthouse, the pavilions of Dakar’s fairgrounds, and the new city of Diamniadio. In the other projection the camera mingles with the fluid movements of outdoor bodybuilding and workout sessions on the Corniche, this coastline, one of the few public spaces in Dakar. Through an implied consent that could be revoked at any time, we flow along with this constant movement of physical perfection; a steady stream of gestures and chance encounters, where individuals work out alone, yet together. On the one hand, this diptych should generate palpable energy through the flow of bodies in motion; on the other, it will create a sense of suspended energy (vast, empty architecture in a state of latent transformation) stemming from the choice of viewpoint and the ecology of living together.
2 HD Video : 23 minutes and 14 minutes with sound
