M78 Laboratoire AGIT’art

Memory of the Future? (1984)

The radical art collective known as Laboratoire AGIT’art was founded in Dakar, Senegal, in 1974 by the artists Issa Samb (1944–2017), Ass M’Bengue (b. 1959) and El Hadji Sy (b. 1954), the filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty (1945–98) and the playwright Youssoufa Dione in order to highlight the contradictions of the Négritude philosophy (see M7) prevailing over the country’s vibrant cultural policies.

Although the most popular forms of Senegalese artistic expression had traditionally been music, dance and performance, when the country’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor (one of the founders of Négritude), came to power in 1960, he had established an École de Dakar – loosely based on the École de Paris – to spearhead the development of an African style in painting, sculpture and the decorative arts. By the 1970s, however, the younger generation of cultural provocateurs who called themselves Laboratoire AGIT’art decided, in the spirit of Pan-Africanism (M39), to rebel against the constraints of this cultural status quo – which they believed to be too Western – and to attempt to restore Senegalese art to its rightful owners: the people. They staged street performances and experimental situations, constructed installations and paintings, and managed workshops that were politically and communally focused, in order to challenge Senghor’s state-run arts programme.

In 1981, the less culturally enlightened President Abdou Diouf came to power in Senegal, and set about reversing Senghor’s arts policies, reducing spending and shutting down cultural centres. AGIT’art’s activities were regarded with increasing suspicion by the authorities, and in 1983 the group were evicted from the squatted Village des Arts, in Dakar. A year later, in September 1984, the group wrote a manifesto (in French) commemorating the event.

Laboratoire AGIT’art continue to operate today under the leadership of Issa Samb. At the time of writing the group were once again facing eviction from their premises, this time at the hands of property developers.

* * *

Dakar, an interesting African metropolis? Without a doubt! Brain and practically the lung of Senegal? Definitely!

But a filthy city! And pretty disorderly in many ways. Still, an angel passes by whispering to whomever will listen:

‘And the crisis? And …’

To the unobservant witness, the streets of the capital offer a spectacle at once nonchalant, extravagant and even suspiciously insouciant. He may become jaded from seemingly jumbled reality seen through a slightly deforming prism.

In this regard, it is not really about denouncing as there are situations when not doing so can even be appropriate. Just as not choosing constitutes in many ways a kind of choice. And it should be made clear, first and foremost, that the vehemence of the lines to follow is hardly polemical. Better yet, it is about an invitation to reflect. And again in a cool way!

To say that times have changed today is to put it mildly (our tongue having tripped over the word ‘truism’). The difficulty lies rather in the articulation of discourse, in its order. And this is no easy feat if the order of discourse is literally disorderly. From this perspective, methodological caution requires adequately taking into account the dialectical relationship between order and disorder and properly grasping the subtle nuances that exist between order and disorder and the disorder of order.

By the way, it was a year ago to this day that the forces of order invaded the Village des Arts to evict the artists.

Today we can say, ‘That was only yesterday, of course!’ and add, ‘No comment!’ What is crucial here is to remember what happened especially given the importance that memory holds for us.

Furthermore, we have chosen to not allow some important cultural incidents to slumber in the past, that is to say, in the present. History – and this is neither our fault nor anybody else’s perhaps – is increasingly written in the present.

For the record, let us remind those who may not recall that the Village des Arts was located at 126 Avenue A. Peytavin, facing the Atlantic Ocean.

This may make you dream! Or else, to put it more eloquently, be cause for reverie!

But beware! Let’s not mix things up.

It’s tempting and at the same time it might not work. One main point: the Village was above all a framework that provided the conditions for creation to take shape, not a structure that intervened or was orchestrated.

Its existence was, at the very least, an achievement. And fortunately, the artists didn’t die. Creatively suffered from its closure but didn’t vanish.

DAKAR bears witness.

If one must speak again of Senegal, it would be to acknowledge that appearing and being make strange bedfellows there. Don’t expect an angel to whisper anything about bazin cloth, embroidery or double Tabaski.

We remain convinced that in the end we know little of Being: we must above all listen to it.

Because listening to it is a measure of communicability and therefore an invitation to levelheadedness.

The need for such a precondition is clear if we envision DAKAR/1984 to be replete with myriad and versatile signs and reference points beckoning.

Indeed, besides the filth, DAKAR is also a city of madness and mendicancy. An ideal witness, the blind deaf-mute knows what he’s talking about when questioned on the issue.

All of this means that the parameters of the crisis must be slightly modified somehow in order to identify and define some new phenomena relating to our global society.

In short, better analysis is needed to distinguish between that which is destabilised from the outside and that which is destabilised from within.

Even if it is true that nothing great is ever done without passion, we remain ‘calm’ enough not to conflate out remarks with the visceral scream of an impassioned partisan of accelerated history: ‘In this country, who doesn’t get the hell out?’ We’d rather rephrase the question in other terms by asking ourselves: ‘What is lasting in all this?’ Isn’t our situation complex because it’s so cultural?

This reminds us of another interlocutor, deaf-mute but not blind. With a gesture which needn’t be described here, he let us know how he had the impression that Senegal was undergoing ‘cultural depreciation’ after more than two decades of real artistic expression.

And our witness added roughly this: ‘The question may be to ask ourselves when the milk will turn sour …’ Nonetheless, one must recognise that the survival of the country is in part a question related to the cultural factor (but for how much longer?).

Serious problems of ambivalence, here and elsewhere! To go as far as to call for the transformation of values is a mere step that we’ll happily take. Out of necessity and urgently! And also in vehement opposition to the status quo.

If only because present history has the unfortunate habit of happening in the present. And that Machiavellianism goes hand in hand with a lack of confidence, in both good times and bad!

Once again not long ago, we warned that the troops’ assault on artistic creation would have serious consequences. That could entail cutting back on culture. We should therefore consider the relevance of a culture held hostage.

And without passion in order not to so swiftly lump together imagination and carceral environment.

Silence, we’re shooting! The name of the film: ‘Wake-up Call’. But wait! Did we do a run-through? A … Never mind! (It doesn’t matter.)

Cut!

In the play ‘Has the Milk Gone Sour?’ the acting perspective shifted, both implicitly and explicitly. Hence the new connections between orality and mime, on the one hand; between the order of acting and theatrical discourse, on the other.

On the contrary, we don’t underestimate the influence of Eugen Fink’s book ‘Acting as Representation of the World’. He shows us how acting is an object worthy of philosophical enquiry as is the case for most of the humanities. In fact, acting actually has mythical origins. And this remained to be seen.

This leads us, more or less, to the subject of the effectiveness of artistic training. Borrowing from J.R. (not the one from Dallas), we agree that artistic education is an ideal means of developing intuition, invention and creation.

It must focus on the creative process rather than the faithfulness of the copy. And again to paraphrase Joël de Rosnay, varied and modern forms of expression exist in this regard to promote a rebalancing of man. They can effectively contribute to his recentring and reunification.

Let us mention in passing that the President of the Republic is extremely concerned about national culture.

The cultural development plan is in preparation. A naysayer would call it stagnating. No problem!

We say that it will come in time. In this regard, we remind you that a sculpture was recently the subject of debate. That isn’t bad in and of itself since the daily ‘SOLEIL’ picked up on it.

The sculpture was damaged following some incidents. Because Islam ‘would prohibit representation’. Iconoclasm, you know?!!

However, the future plan makes this a motive for arrest. What is a socialised cultural object? How much importance will be given to the live model in the plan? Won’t it envision installing any monumental sculptures in the Cité?

So many questions to be discussed. Taking care to reflect before speaking: at the very least!

We are wondering nonetheless why the Galerie Nationale, located on Avenue Albert Sarraut, remains closed after an investment of a hundred million and following the one and only exhibition on the occasion of its inauguration by the President of the Republic.

Senegal is certainly a land of coincidences and a country of paradoxes. Concomitant to this current discourse, which is far from a discourse in the order of discourse, a ‘spiral theatre’ experiment is taking place in the actual country.

In the latest news, a performance in Grand-Yoff was interrupted by children throwing rocks. The reason: the adults took all the good seats in the free theatre instead of letting their offspring sit in front while they sat behind.

The moral: it will hurt somewhere!

Last but not least, the almost certain appointment of ‘administrators’ and not ‘cultural figures’ to high-level positions in the arts clearly appears to indicate a will to establish the all-out administration of the cultural sector. We hope we’re wrong. And it’s good that we continue to have hope and confidence in a country that has hardly any left.

To the spoilsports, and what’s more, the sworn enemies of prejudice who would riposte that there are the risks of becoming totalitarian, we reply a bit disillusioned ¿Quién sabe?

At any rate, something is amiss in this ‘SUNUGAL’.

Something is also emerging.

Wishing to arrive at this bitter assessment we have missed the opportunity to speak of theatre. But anyway, theatre is created. It is said and not said. Besides, what can we do? That’s the question!

And then, ‘Quiet, we’re sinking’!!!

Dakar, 26 September, 1984

Issa Samb, Ass M’Bengue, El Hadji Sy