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For immediate release Canadian artists help launch new media lab in Africa A group of seven Canadian artists and curators will participate in Dak’Art Lab, a special new media summit and exhibition series at the 2004 Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal from May 10 to June 10. For the first time a significant new media component — called The Dak’Art Lab — will be part of the month-long exhibition. “The Dak’Art Lab will provide these Canadian artists and curators with an opportunity to share their latest new media creations and theories with artists and visitors from Africa and across Europe,” says Sara Diamond, artistic director of Media and Visual Art and Director of Research for The Banff Centre. Diamond, who is president of the 2004 Dak’Art Biennale of African Art’s selection committee, is co-curating the new media summit and exhibition with African curator Sylviane Diop. “Canadian artists and curators who are attending include a number from the African diaspora and Canadian Aboriginal communities,” she adds. “While there are substantive differences in their experiences, I suspect there are also strong cultural and aesthetic bridges between these communities. Other Canadian artists are technology inventors—the practice of creating tools and techniques, especially in African fabric arts, will lead to exciting exchanges.” More than 20 artists from Africa and Europe as well as Canada, will present their work at Dak’Art Lab, which will focus on new media forms with connections to African culture. Curators and participants will also look at the capacities for African art centres to develop their own new media studios and exhibition facilities. The installations will have web versions of the artists’ work and include presentations and workshops. Portions of Dak’Art Lab will be webcast. Canadian new media participants include Joanna Berzowska (designer of electronic textiles and responsive clothing), Nina Czegledy (new media and video artist), Wayne Dunkley (photographer and online storyteller), Cheryl L’Hirondelle (multi/interdisciplinary artist of Metis/Cree descent), Candice Hopkins (curator, artist, and currently an Aboriginal curatorial resident at the Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery), and Camille Turner (media/performance artist) as well as Sara Diamond. Since 1992, the Dak’Art Biennial has served as a platform for contemporary art with cultural roots in Africa. Dak’Art Lab is part of an ongoing collaboration between Media and Visual Arts at The Banff Centre, and Dak’Art that started at a 2002 Banff conference called Bridges II. The conference attracted North American, European, and African arts, science, and culture leaders to Banff for a three-day symposium on technology, convergence, and communication. Since then, African artists and curators have participated in Banff Centre artists’ residencies, attended other Banff New Media Institute events, and worked together on new media research projects. For more information about Dak’Art visit www.dakart.org.Downloadable print-ready image of Dak’Art Lab artist Wayne Dunkley’s work. — 30 — Media Contact
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