In Many Voices Art Speaks: Narrating History in the Mirror of Its Own History

Grounding the account of Dak’Art on Exhibitions that showcased emergent African and Other non-western art productions, processes and styles, this article avers a history. Instrumental to impacting visibility for modern and contemporary African art in the international arena and the comprehensive contexts of African artistic modernity in the 20th century, these shows are grounds for feasible links of African history and art history. In the creation of storylines, fairs in the past did not only function as locations of display but conveyor-belts of repeats, reincarnations and recalibrations characteristic of African art and its histories in perpetual flux (Belting 2009:54). Dak’Art 2022 narrates the deft celebration of diversity, liberty and freedom of expression. This essay takes the works of three (3) artists to reflect art that speaks in many voices’ in African art and its history.

Indeed, Dak’Art 2022 constructs narratives of art modernism, modernity and contemporaneity that significantly make exhibitions active means in those narratives.