Une constellation d’œuvres d’art disséminées dans la ville
/ A constellation of public artworks in Dakar
Sunu Jant / Our Sun
Little Sun and RAW Material Company are proud to present Suñu Jant (Our Sun), a constellation of public artworks in Dakar. The project features work by three established art spaces in Dakar that work at the intersection of art, sustainability, and social impact. Together, their installations imagine a climate just future for the city that honors Senegalese traditions, invests in community leaders and institutions, and centers joy and celebration.
Together with Little Sun, each artist collective considers how solar might serve as a foundation of this future. While the resulting artworks vary in form–from a mobile amphitheatre, to a revitalized community garden, to a workshop on textile design for young women–they each offer a vision for our world that is powered by the sun.
Featuring work by KENU LAB’Oratoire des Imaginaires, Ker Thiossane, and Yataal Art, Suñu Jant opens this autumn as part of Partcours 11, Dakar’s annual city-wide art festival.
The Artworks
The Artists
ABOUT KENU LAB’ORATOIRE DES IMAGINAIRES
Kenu – Lab’Oratoire des Imaginaires is an art center that experiments with new ways of working together to produce new forms of collective action, serve the community, and reveal the current potential of imaginaries. Rooted in the arts, culture, and orality, Kenu’s mission is to explore the imaginaries, social practices, and traditional knowledge of the community of Ouakam. Inspired by “research-action” methods, the Lab’Oratoire uses tools belonging as much to the social sciences and popular education as to the artistic world.
ABOUT KËR THIOSSANE
A cultural space for the artistic and civic imagination, Kër Thiossane has focused its activities since 2002 on art, new technology, and what they imply in society. In 2014, Kër Thiossane initiated the School of Commons, an open transdisciplinary research and experimentation space combining art, technology, urban ecology, economy, and neighborhood practice. Located in a former public park in a run-down area, the school revolves around the first fabrication lab in Dakar, Defko Ak Nëp (Do it with Others), a space for sharing digital manufacturing machines with the goal of making culture accessible and prioritizing the public good. The school also includes an artistic garden that received the Human City Design Award in 2020.
ABOUT YATAAL ART
Yataal Art, which means “Expanding Art” in Wolof, is an association for cultural, social, and artistic action that was founded in 2010 by Mamadou Boye Diallo. It supports projects that promote and preserve the historic district of the Medina in Dakar.
Yataal Art’s most acclaimed projects include The Open Air Museum, an ongoing initiative that welcomes artists from all over the world to paint frescoes on the deteriorated walls of homes, and “Dakar Brut,” a walking tour featuring artworks displayed in traditional houses. Yataal Art strives to strengthen accessibility to art for all, both through the diversity of content it offers and through its openness to the world and to exchanges it initiates.
Our Partner
ABOUT RAW MATERIAL COMPANY
RAW MATERIAL COMPANY is a center for art, knowledge and society. It is an initiative involved with curatorial practice, artistic education, residencies, knowledge production, and archiving of theory and criticism on art.
RAW works to foster appreciation and growth of artistic and intellectual creativity in Africa. The programme is trans-disciplinary and is equally informed by literature, film, architecture, politics, fashion, cuisine and diaspora.
RAW led the curation and local production of Suñu Jant.
