Dak'Art Biennale 2024 · 13 Nov - 8 Dec 2024
Regenerating the Living - a project-exhibition led by DyTAES at the Agora Pavilion, at the foot of the African Renaissance Monument. Four weeks of events at the crossroads of art, science and society.
YAAY DUND brings together art, science and society around agroecology in Senegal. The exhibition pairs Raphaël Belmin's photographs with a programme of roundtables, forum theatre, concerts, writing workshops and award ceremonies.
* "Yaay Dund" is a Wolof translation of the concept of nurturing mother.
Concept
Raphaël Belmin
Photographer and coordinator
Multidisciplinary researcher at CIRAD, based in Dakar. Ph.D. in agricultural economics. Author of several photo reports and of the Cirad-DyTAES exhibition "On the Paths of African Agroecology" shown at the Africa-France Summit and COP26.
Marie Thouvenot
Exhibition curator
Curator and author of the exhibition text. She places Raphaël Belmin's work in the lineage of Ansel Adams and Walker Evans - questioning the relationship between being and place to reveal the ethics of care at the heart of Senegalese food systems.
Myrtille Fakhreddine
Scenographer, museographer, architect
Designer of the ephemeral building and immersive scenography. A modular structure alternating between an immersive route and an event agora, surrounded by greened scaffolding, a roof made of recycled potato sacks, and a backdrop fresco for visual identity.
Lise Landrin
Feminist geographer, sociological preface
Post-doctoral researcher at GIUB, member of the ARTS consortium, author of the catalogue's sociological preface: "A dialogue between Art and Science" - ethics of care, alliance, renewed gaze.
Photography · Raphaël Belmin
Six images from the exhibited series. They belong to both the documentary and the artistic register.
Photographs: Raphaël Belmin, Yaay Dund series, 2024.
The photographic exhibition
The exhibition is organised in five series. They document the place of women in Senegalese food systems, from production to consumption.
130×87 cm. "I was on my motorcycle, I slipped, and this woman welcomed me into her home. While she was cooking, a ray of light came through the window. And there it was." Photographed in Kenya, August 2024.
Six portraits with austere staging in the natural setting of their environment. They evoke the presence of the photographer and his lens - without intrusion.
Portraits in immediate action - the ease of the figures, refined by the softness of the photographer's gaze.
Chiaroscuro series with sharper textures and considered graphic compositions. Behind the scenes of domestic care - granaries, kitchens - that fundamentally sustains the larger food-systems machine.
A cooking pot at the centre, meticulous hands all around, and heavy walls dominating beyond the frame - an oppressive setting. The only opening is where the photographer stands. The lens becomes a metaphor for light: hope through speech, speech through the image.
Sociological preface · Lise Landrin
Lise Landrin, feminist geographer in the ARTS consortium, wrote the catalogue's sociological preface. She places the exhibition in the lineage of ethics of care, the Sahelian tale and ecofeminisms.
The ethics of care
"Yaay Dund questions the possibilities of creating a harmonious relationship to the land and draws on women's practices in that regard. The ethics of care is the refusal of the strongest's narrative. It is the quest for a kind of society where we begin from our shared vulnerabilities to listen and care for the living in all its forms."
Alliance
"These photos do not expose still beings; rather, these photos expose us. Faced with these portraits, no one holds truth or authority, no relationship is forced. Far more than the work of a photographer, the work is born of the renewed gaze we bring to it."
Collective struggle
"Regenerating the living is a struggle that does not seek to transfer power: it is a daily and unarmed struggle aiming at the destruction of power itself. And this is probably where women - culturally and historically holders of care - have something precious to tell us."
From the preface by Lise Landrin, Yaay Dund catalogue.
Programme
From the opening night of 13 November to the photo-contest awards on 8 December, the programme mixes scientific roundtables, TV plateaus, concerts, forum theatre, writing workshops and audiovisual performances. Events organised by ARTS are highlighted.
ARTS contribution - 4 events
ARTS occupied the Agora Pavilion for three days: forum theatre, a roundtable, a film-debate and a writing workshop on feminist agroecology in Senegal. The "Les Gardiennes du Vivant" photo-contest awards ceremony, co-organised with DyTAES, took place on 8 December.
13
November
18h30
Major opening evening with official speeches and musical performances, celebrating the work of care for the living world carried out by women. 6 PM cocktail · 7 PM speeches · 7:30 PM inauguration · 8 PM concert.
Organiser · DyTAES
19
November
15h00
Joint anniversary celebration of CIRAD, ISRA and IRD. With Dr Moustapha Guèye (ISRA CEO), Jean-Paul Laclau (CIRAD general management), Claire Cerdan (CIRAD E&S head) and Pierre Morand (IRD Senegal).
Organiser · CIRAD · ISRA · IRD
20
November
18h00
Roundtable on climate change impact, featuring projects Biostar (bioenergy from crop residues) and CaSSECS (carbon sequestration by Sahelian pastoral systems).
Organiser · CIRAD · ISRA · IRD
21
November
15h00
Two roundtables: Agroecological Living Labs (One-CGIAR Agroecology Initiative - Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Senegal) and "One Health" approaches (Santés & Territoires project, Prézode initiative).
Organiser · CIRAD · ISRA · IRD
22
November
15h00
Integrated river management under climate change (3 PM) + Soil health: from diagnosis to agroecological-transition support (5 PM).
Organiser · CIRAD · ISRA · IRD
22
November
20h00
TV plateau on integrating agroecology into the revision of the LOASP (Agro-Silvo-Pastoral and Fisheries Orientation Law). Marking the DyTAES 5-year anniversary.
Organiser · DyTAES
23
November
20h00
Organiser · Stereo Africa 432
25
November
18h30
For the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Melokaan company presents INNA, a forum theatre piece on structural violence. Forum moderated by Lise Landrin (feminist geographer, trained in forum theatre).
Organiser · Projet ARTS
26
November
15h00
3 PM speech harvest · 5 PM tasting and sale of La Calebasse Verte products (Selbé Faye) · 6 PM roundtable moderated by Yunuça Gueye with Marie Thérèse Daba Sène, Laiti Ndiaye, Patrick Bottazzi, Lise Landrin · 8 PM "Jambaar of Agroecology" film-debate.
Organiser · Projet ARTS
27
November
15h00
3 PM performative counter-tour (readings, moving debate, gazes on the works) · 5 PM open writing workshop (automatic writing, poetic games, photo-elicitation) · 7 PM high-school students' testimonies produced through photo-elicitation.
Organiser · Projet ARTS
30
November
20h00
Concert with an all-female programme - Ghis (Love N Life), Naya, Ramatulaay.
Organiser · Sofar Sounds Dakar
1
December
17h30
"Harvest" in Serer, "resurrection" in Wolof - SAHAD travels through Afro, jazz, blues, folk and funk in a kaleidoscopic music.
Organiser · Stereo Africa 432
3
December
10h00
Organiser · ISRA BAME
4
December
10h00
Organiser · ISRA CNRF
4
December
17h00
The Safoods project studies the impacts of climate change on fruit and vegetable food systems - Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, Dakar, Ziguinchor.
Organiser · Projet Safoods
6
December
20h00
A play based on the Blue Forest tale. Jabanding, a Djinn-Human hybrid, must seek reconciliation after humans break a pact with the Spirits of Nature. Direction, composition and music by Sahad Sarr.
Organiser · TANGANA Prod
8
December
16h00
Awards ceremony of the national photo contest: Marie Bop (Grand Prize, 100,000 FCFA), Elimane Diao (Public's Choice, 60,000 FCFA), Yolenn Flaux (Young Photographer, 60,000 FCFA).
Organiser · Projet ARTS et DyTAES
8
December
20h00
The Afrikiyo choir a cappella with traditional folk songs, accompanied by an audiovisual piece co-created by Tommaso Tarquini and Tiziana Manfredi.
Organiser · Tommaso Tarquini
Scenography · Myrtille Fakhreddine
An ephemeral, modular building: by turns an immersive walking route for visitors and an agora event space. Fixed walls hold the large and small photographic formats; rolling walls reconfigure the space on demand for triptychs.
The building is wrapped in painted scaffolding, inside of which planters and gutters grow - a "living, vegetable skin". The roof, made of recycled potato sacks, dims the sun and ripples in the wind. A colourful fresco lines the back of the agora, marking each event with a shared visual identity.
Related pages
Photo contest
National photo contest co-organised by ARTS and DyTAES - dedicated page with winners, categories, partners and external gallery.
See the page →
Forum theatre
The play of the Bignona DyTAEL, built with Ka-Reng in direct continuity with the forum theatre methods deployed at Yaay Dund.
See the page →
Catalogue & partners
Organised by DyTAES with ARTS · AgroVoices · CIRAD · ISRA · IRD · Stereo Africa 432 · Sofar Sounds Dakar · Projet Safoods · TANGANA Prod · Tommaso Tarquini.
See the full programme →