Johannesburg Biennale (1995)

Johannesburg Biennale opened in 1995 to marked South Africa’s first year of democracy. The first edition entitled “Africus” was organized by Lorna Ferguson and Christopher Till who invited curators from many countries to develop their exhibitions with the obligation to include local artists. This resulted in a surprising variety of contemporary art offered by 80 countries presenting more than 250 artworks. It was difficult for the public to grasp the biennial as a totality, because the installations seemed to lack internal integrity. Two years later, the second edition, “Trade Routes: History and Geography”, opened both in Johannesburg and Cape Town, under the artistic direction of Okwui Enwezor. Unlike the first edition organized around national pavilions, this event featured a series of different exhibitions developed by six international curators. The result was a smaller biennial that presents works by nearly 150 artists from 35 countries. However, the local press protested that the content of the exhibition was inaccessible to the public due to a lack of explanatory aids.

Harare Biennale (2004)

Harare Biennale was a short lived biennial rebranded and renamed after two editions of the Zimbabwe Heritage Biennale. That biennial was sponsored by Mobil, the oil giant company, and offered several awards for artistic excellence and dedication to the development of contemporary art in Zimbabwe. Hosted in the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the Harare Biennale featured nearly 25 local artists whose works represented interesting art styles. It offered a neat review of contemporary art including visual art, sculpture, and textile, in Zimbabwe. The event was organized around exhibitions where artists, art critics, curators, and writers come together to determine the future of the art world. However, the biennial vanished after one edition due to lack of sponsorship.

Luanda Triennale (2006)

Luanda Triennale was an initiative of the Angolan artist and curator Fernando Alvim which questioned the mechanism by which culture in Africa has been promoted. It was built as a cultural platform that analyzed the aesthetic changes of society in response to its most political and social environment. The first edition aimed to revive many areas of Luanda abandoned during the civil war by inviting artists to reshape the city. The triennial allowed a new generation of artists independent from the political ideologies of Angolan recent history to experiment with different media, and express themselves on a more global art scene. In 2010, the second edition was directed by Fernando Alvim and curated by Simon Njami under the theme “Emotional Geography: Art and Effects”. The event featured nearly 200 projects exhibited in different locations, and covered contemporary art, theatre, dance, performance, music, film, and architecture. The triennial is organized by Sindika Dokolo Foundation and is suspended for now.

Cape Africa Platform (2007)

Cape Africa Platform (CAPE) was an initiative launched in Cape Town, South Africa, that sought to fill the void left by Johannesburg Biennale with a platform for contemporary African art. CAPE aimed to culturally connect South Africa, the continent and the diaspora by creating an innovative contemporary art event. It included exhibitions, conferences on contemporary African art, curators’ development program, art awareness activities, and publications. CAPE aimed to empower local youth with a sense of creative identity rooted in Africa, while opening the local art scene to Africa and throughout the diaspora. For instance, CAPE 07 featured an artist-led program involving many artists and art exhibitions, theatrical productions, film screenings, multimedia workshops, and performances in diverse Cape Town locations. In contrast, CAPE 09 organized around the theme “Convergence” consisted of several independent projects, some of which were produced by young curators from CAPE’s curatorial program. While CAPE has been framed as a remedial response to the issues that doomed the Johannesburg Biennale, the platform has not survived its second edition.

Sources: Contemporary African Art Since 1980, Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, Damiani, 2009