Dakar Biennale, Dakar 8th Nov 2024
Map-lective's Revolutionary 'Braided Map' Awarded Sculpture Prize at Dakar Biennale
Dakar Biennale Sculpture Award given to Sonia E Barrett and the Map-lective for Jamaica/ UK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dakar, 8th Nov 2024 The 15th edition of the Dakar Biennale, a prominent event in the global art market calendar that aligns with the global trend of exploring environmental and social issues through art, runs from Nov 8th to December 07, 2024. The theme for this year is “The Wake, L'Éveil, Le Sillage”, under the direction of renowned art critic and curator Salimata Diop.
The Map-lective, led by Sonia E Barrett, is a group of black female mapmakers who create maps that challenge how we envision the world. By braiding and dreadlocking colonial maps to create an immersive aerial sculpture, we use black-and-brown community-based care-mongering practices (braiding) to counter war-mongering practices, for which the map is central. The map, often seen as a symbol of colonial control, has been used to take over and redefine land and identity. We have transformed this by braiding the map, using this technique as a way to challenge and break down some of the basic issues with traditional maps. 'Receiving this prestigious award is a significant recognition of our unique critique of mapmaking,' says Sonia E Barrett. "We challenge four key aspects of the colonial map".
Firstly, it has a tendency to privilege fixity. Things that are static in the environment, such as roads, mountains, and borders, are "on the map". However, everything most valuable about our environment is in movement: air, water, nutrients, and gasses. These become almost invisible on the map. We cannot attend to what we cannot see leading to climate change. Our new map takes the old and makes it tell of the movement of some of the most essential elements that are "off the Eurocentric map",
Secondly, colonial maps suggest total knowledge about space. There are no blank spaces, creating a sense that we are in control and all-knowing about the land. Our new map shows many gaps with its swirling organic movement instead of total "coverage.
Thirdly, the colonial map privileges the surfaces of landscapes and ignores all that goes on above and below the surface. Most of the environment is above or below the surface; only a tiny fraction of the space is on the surface. Our map takes the singular flat map and creates many surfaces that dip and rise above and below a single plane.
Fourthly, it challenges the idea of here and there that the colonial map shores up, a sense that square B2 is distinct and separate from square H4. This suggests human rights abuses can occur in B2, whilst we can enjoy human rights in H4. We can pollute B2 but enjoy a clean environment in H4.In the gridded space of the Palas de Justis, the map un-grids the separate spaces of the colonial map and combines them again and again in plaits, un-naming and un-separating
As a group, we are each empowered with time and space to explore a unique thesis of mapmaking. The sculpture holds space for us to gather and creates a platform for each member to speak, fostering a sense of community and shared purpose. Dr Pat Knoxolo enabled the first Maplective in the Map room of the Royal Geographical Society, London.
Map-lective members are: - London: Royal Geographic Society: Dr Pat Knoxolo, Dr Tia Monique, Ava Abeng Obafeyikemi Luther, Lea Bematol, Bea Tizzy - London: UCL Urban Room: Abiba Coulibaly, Lumiere Chieh, Adwoa Brown, Dijle Akdag, Toyin Bomedo - Berlin: alpha nova & galerie futura: Ikram, Kahbit Eobab, Abde, Laveria Mwa, Jane, Mel -
Dakar: Marie Therese, Fatou Kine Diange, Bintou Baudin Dieng.
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