As Venice Architecture Biennale presents its 18th edition titled "The Laboratory of the Future", it centers on Africa as a place of exploration that will offer a template for solutions to the world. According to its curator Lesley Lokko, the Biennale explores entrenched concepts such as climate, land rights, decolonization, and cultures. It challenges us to question how Africa's history can be a radical tool for imagination and reminds us of Stephen Covey's statement: “Live out of your imagination, not just your history.” The biennale's title is probably the most ambitious question in years. It forces us to revisit all boundaries of the continent's historical societies, explore the influence of imposed colonial borders on them, and examine the dual identities they gave birth to. We must consider how these identities can be instruments of creativity, and, more importantly, recognize that every African society has a unique point of view. This viewpoint yearns for cross-cultural collaboration as a powerful tool for imagination.
Africa is a continent of extensive cultural diversity. However, this diversity does not align with the national boundaries created by colonial powers. The partitioning of the continent was done with limited knowledge of its socio-cultural structures, using physical regional features and the quest for natural wealth to define boundaries. As a result, ethnic societies have had to endure the disappearance of their cultural structures, which are now overlapped by the borders of their new nations. Similar ethnic societies had to establish new cultural identities, and multiple ethnic societies were forced to form a new entity and negotiate a new identity. This is a foundational story of a complex history that resonates across the continent.
The friction from the duality of the African identity constantly raises questions about how art, design, and architecture are engaged. For example, what exactly is a national architecture that encompasses multiple ethnicities? What would be a modern reinvention of Yoruba architecture that fits within Nigeria, and how would it differ in translation from the Yorubas who are nationalities of the Republic of Benin? These questions offer multiple layers of resources that artists and designers have to interrogate, but they also present a rare opportunity for a radical process of creativity and knowledge-building through cross-cultural collaborations.
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The Structure of a People: The South African Pavilion Explores Architectural Representations at the 2023 Venice Architecture BiennaleCollaboration between societies with historical cultural similarities and new national differences would be a novel tool for imagination and would offer new ways of seeing the future. This approach collapses the imposed borders on history and allows for ethnic and regional interaction across the continent.
Multiple installations at the Biennale gave voice to Africa's constructed histories. Kere Architecture's piece, titled "Counteract," portrays the interior and exterior aspects of the urban landscapes of Burkina Faso. The exterior employs graphics to showcase the utilitarian nature of advertisements, shop names, and public information in the country. These elements are collaged together, but a boldly written message stands out on the installation wall: "Just because our history was intercepted by others, does not mean our future has to be." It is a thought-provoking highlight of this installation, which celebrates West African architecture's past, takes stock of what is present, and nudges towards a different approach. Artist Olalekan Jeyifous also created an installation at the biennale that features a room set up like the model "All-Africa Protoport (AAP)." This installation offers a glimpse into a potential future built on the constructed histories of indigenous African renewable technologies.
The past will always be an important resource for imagination, but the way we interact with Africa's complex history can be different. By investigating the friction between the socio-cultural boundaries that once existed and the current colonial ones, we can examine the dichotomy between the shared cultural heritage across societies on the continent and their current societal identities. This friction lies at the heart of every African and is reflected in the multiple languages they speak, both cultural and colonial. It defines how we see the world, engage with it, and propose ideas for it. We can use this duality as points of friction to explore creativity, knowledge, art, design, and architecture across the continent's nationalities.
The idea of collaboration in the African art scene can be traced back to the Pan-African art movement of the early 20th century. This movement emerged in response to the colonial and post-colonial experiences of African people, with the aim of unifying African cultures and promoting a sense of shared identity, history, and creative expression. It paved the way for artists across the continent to make their mark on the global art scene and established art festivals that showcased the rich cultural heritage of its people. Notable examples include the inaugural World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, and the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977. While these festivals celebrated individual identities on a shared platform, they also served as a forerunner towards a collaboration that interrogates the multiple lenses of Africa’s diversity.
Music, for example, has been a prominent medium for exploring cross-cultural collaboration. Yamore, a song by Salif Keita featuring Cesária Évora, is an excellent example of this. Sung by the Malian singer-songwriter and Cape Verdean artist, the song is a soulful blend of language and culture that speaks about love. At different points in the song, the artists use their respective cultural and colonial languages as instinctive forms of self-expression, resulting in a melody that weaves together Cape Verdean, English, French, and Bambara. Through this linguistic diversity, the underlying message of love is conveyed effectively. The song serves as a template that can be applied to other forms of art, design, and architecture as a means of promoting creativity.
Finally, the biennale is a moment of reflection for artists and designers. It seeks ways through design to allow people to understand each other in such a diverse continent. Artists, designers, architects, researchers, and educators can build on this by intentionally curating cross-cultural collaborations in prospective projects. This acknowledges that everyone has a unique way of seeing the world, and for someone in Africa, it is a novel one due to the complex layers of history. When multiple viewpoints are purposely interrogated to give birth to something new, the results are powerful and distinctive ideas that the future of Africa deserves.
