Conversation: Ma place est ici

Conversation: Samira Fall, Ina Thiam, Anne Bourrassé

Event date: February 21th, 2023 at 7 PM

"Ma place est ici " is a conversation on the careers of Senegalese artists with the participation of Ina Thiam, photographer and videographer and Samira Fall. After a month of residency at Selebe Yoon, curator Anne Bourrassé returns to the often asymmetrical encounters and journeys of contemporary artists. In the Wolof language, neither "he" nor "she" is pronounced, thus associating all genders. However, this unicity is divided in regards to the responsibilities of each person within Senegalese society. Through their works and testimonies, the speakers share their journeys and question the conditions of access to art, the (re)conciliation of the roles attributed by tradition and religion, and the place of their artistic identities and their work in the area.

Participants

Samira Fall

Her real name is Marième Absa Fall Coulibaly, Samira Fall (born in 1994 in Dakar) is a Senegalese slammer and author. Samira Fall holds a degree in communication as well as a diploma in cultural project management. She also obtained a diploma in MOAE (Music Organization, Administration and Recording) and is a graduate of C4AA (Center 4 artistic activism) in Accra, as a trainer in artistic activism. In 2014, she began her career in the field of slam, this art of oratory that combines words and rhythms and reveals to the public all its verve giving life to its poetry on stage in a different and free way. Her atypical texts, drunk with a bittersweet lyricism, depict her social, cultural and educational questionings and give a keen interest to gender issues. She participates in various multidisciplinary artistic residencies in France and Belgium among which, "KOCCSPEARE", "lecture A Hautes Voix", "Le chant du Corps", "LIBRES EN SLAM", "CREATIVITY IS LIFE" of Africalia. She has to her credit a collection of poems named Oxymoriques released in 2017 and a record in E.P format, entitled I.N.T.R.O released in 2020.

Ina Thiam

 Ina, Ndeye Fatou Thiam by her real name (born in 1984), is a photographic artist based in Dakar, Senegal.  In 2011, she joined Africulturban, an association dedicated to hip-hop and urban cultures, where she quickly specialized in recording techniques and received a crash course in audiovisual. In 2012, she participated in the Avignon Festival in France.  In 2013, Ina participates in a new version of the Hip Hop Akademy with the Senegalese filmmaker Fatou Kandé Senghor. In collaboration with Swiss journalist Margit Niederhuber, Ina publishes in February 2016 NETWORKING À DAKAR, about daily life in Dakar. She participates in group exhibitions in various venues, including the Henriette-Bathily Women's Museum as part of the 2016 Dakar Biennale, the Maison Communale de Gorée and the Maurice Gueye Cultural Center in Rufisque. Ina has participated in several artistic residencies, notably in Senegal during the Rencontres Internationales des Arts de Saint-Louis in 2014, in Morocco for the Marrakech Biennale in 2016, in Sweden in 2019 and in Canada in response to the invitation of the CLARK Center in 2019.

Anne Bourrassé

Anne Bourrassé (born in 1991, lives and works in Paris) is an independent curator and writer that works at the intersection of the visual arts and the humanities. She defines new exhibition formats of exhibitions conceived as experiences, frameworks for encounters and exchanges. Concerned by current societal issues, she defends a committed and inclusive approach to curating exhibitions. She is currently an independent curator and author, as well as a lecturer and artistic director of the Consulat Voltaire in Paris and of the of the Artists' Residency “La Folie Barbizon” (77). In 2019, she co-founded the association “Contemporaines” to fight against gender inequalities in contemporary art. She taught at the Sciences Po Paris research center in 2017. She graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Sciences Po Paris and studied at Cornell University, USA.

Photo credit: Claire Bourrassé