Senegal

For its first-ever participation at Biennale Arte, Senegal chose to feature Franco-Senegalese artist Alioune Diagne. Born and trained in Senegal, Diagne has developed his unique technique of “unconscious signs”, small modules that cluster together to form a coherent figurative image. Socially engaged, he has been using this complex sign process to create dynamic paintings depicting daily life scenes in Senegal as well as the major world challenges, from ecology to gender equality, racism, and the notions of transmission and heritage.
The project, titled Bokk – Bounds, conceived together with curator Massamba Mbaye, is a response to the theme of Biennale Arte 2024, Foreigners Everywhere. In Wolof, Bokk means “what is shared”, “held in common”, as well as family ties.
A selection of paintings together forming a 4x12m puzzle-like display calls to unity and connection. Emerging from the works, hints at contemporary disasters stand in stark contrast to the joyful life scenes about the education of children, the legacy of traditions, and the sense of community.
At the centre of the piece, a traditional canoe wrapped in a Senegalese-made textile painted by the artist echoes humankind’s history marked by major migration waves, foreshadowing climate change’s future migratory phenomena.