Back-Ground

Exhibition project of Quarts e.V. at the Dak'Art 98 biennial in Dakar, Senegal in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Dakar and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Dakar

24 April to 30 April 1998 Quarts e.V. | Projekt - Back-Ground

The Dakar Biennial took place for the first time in 1990 and, alongside the Havana Biennale, has become one of the most important platforms for the contemporary art of Africa. In 1998, the latest trends of so-called "third world" countries in Asia and Latin America were also being focussed on Africa's current art. In the supporting program of the Biennale also exhibitions of European and North American artists with a personal connection to the African continent were represented.

Pauline Disson

Sabel Guisse

Quarts e.V. from Berlin-Schöneberg was invited to the fourth Dak'Art 98 biennial with the "Back-Ground" exhibition project. The project presented European artists who have lived and worked in Africa, and artists from different African countries who lived in Germany. "Back-Ground" - in the form of a counter-narrative - addressed the experiences and influences on the artists in each other's cultural world.

Quarts e.V. | Projekt - Back-Ground - Anna von Halem

Anna von Halem

The exhibition was shown in the rooms of the Goethe Institute and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. It was the only exhibition with the participation of German artists at the Biennale Dak'Art 98.

Quarts e.V. | Projekt - Back-Ground - Elvira Bach

Elvira Bach - Siebdrucke

16 artists from Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Nigeria and Senegal, most of whom live in Berlin, were represented with paintings, sculptures and installations: Elvira Bach, Amadou Moussa Diallo, Mammadou Diakhaté, Pauline Disonn, Helen Efe Doghor-Hötter, Christine Gersch, Abdoulaye Guissé, Sabel Guissé, Peter Gustavus, Isabella Kustusch-Niang, Jannis Markopoulus, Helga Ntephe, Anne Ochmann, Barbara Quandt and Birgit Schumacher and Uwe Jonas (T-set).

Quarts e.V. | Projekt - Back-Ground - Abdoulaye Guissé

Helen Efe Doghor-Hötter (Nigeria)

Some of them were already present at previous biennials. So Mamadou Diakhaté at the first biennale 1990, Elvira Bach and Amadou Diallo 1992, as well as Christine Gersch and Anne Ochmann 1996.

Peter Gustavus

Parallel to the exhibition in Dakar, Quarts e.V. presented further works by the participating artists in the Schauräumen of the Dreispitz-Passage at Friedrichstraße 130 in Berlin-Mitte.

Christine Gersch

After the return of the works to Germany, the works were shown in an exhibition at the Ministry of Economics in Berlin in June 1998 for four weeks.

Eric Fakambi

Back-Ground was supported by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Dakar, the Goethe-Institut Dakar, the GASAG Berlin, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Senegal, the Lufthansa Cargo, the Geophysics Berlin and the Forum Café in Berlin-Schöneberg.