Spend a few days in Dakar watching African artists mend what is broken.
Dak'Art Biennale
The 16th Dakar Biennale runs from 19 November to 19 December. Its artistic director is art historian, publisher and curator Morad Montazami, and its theme is “(Anti)Fragility: Arts of Repair and Counter-Shock Strategies”. The main exhibition brings together artists from the African continent and its diasporas in three parts: the powers of the fragile, the arts of care and repair, and counter-shock strategies; around it, the city fills with independent OFF shows. The artist list for this edition is not yet published.
Installation view of Emo de Medeiros’s )U( (2018) at Dak’Art 2018 in Dakar’s former Palace of Justice; historical work, not the 2026 edition. · Report image rights
GOWOAH / Dakar A REASON TO GO
Multiple venues across Dakar2026.11.19 — 2026.12.19Art exhibitionsAdmission cost unconfirmed
FIND YOUR REASON
What draws you to this experience?
01
The theme: turning fragility into strength
This edition’s theme comes from Taleb’s idea of the antifragile: not avoiding shocks, but growing stronger through them. The curator divides the main exhibition into three parts: the powers of the fragile, the arts of care and repair, and counter-shock strategies.
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In the curatorial concept, artists treat cracks as openings, turn wounds into fabric for a new skin, and use recycling, mutual aid and short supply chains to find new ways of living together.
Art exhibitions
02
A past example: aluminium woven into mats
Ugandan artist Odur Ronald, winner of the 2024 revelation prize, took his mother’s way of weaving household textiles and swapped the yarn for aluminium, weaving mats and hanging aluminium copies of an African Union passport on copper wire.
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What looks like soft everyday fabric turns out, up close, to be metal, and the question of who gets to travel freely hangs in front of you. It is from the last edition, and it shows the kind of art this biennale brings.
Art exhibitions
03
OFF shows all over the city
Beyond the main exhibition, Dakar fills with independent OFF shows: artists, galleries and cultural spaces open their doors in their own neighbourhoods.
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Over the month, moving from the main show into small neighbourhood spaces, you see contemporary African art in every corner of one city.
Emo de Medeiros (Marcelrose) · CC BY-SA 4.0 Image source
Secretariat General of the Dakar Biennale
This edition’s artists, venues and prices are not yet announced (official site checked 27 September 2026); Odur Ronald in the text is a 2024 example and is labelled as such.
Pio Abad draws Benin bronzes taken to the British Museum beside everyday household objects; Gala Porras-Kim asks how restoration changes a museum piece.
About 100 Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman court treasures from the Louvre, set beside Singapore’s own collection to show how three empires shaped one another.
Singapore · Singapore
Visitors SGD 25 · free for Singapore residentsWhy Go
GOWOAH · 走哇！
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