The open call for applications for the 2024-2025 cycle of Black Rock Senegal are now open until January 15, 2024.
Located in the capital and largest city in Senegal, Black Rock is in Yoff Virage, approximately twenty minutes northwest of the city-center at the westernmost edge of the continent. As the city sits on the westernmost point of continental Africa, surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, the project takes its name from the shoreline which is blanketed in black, volcanic rocks.
Senegal is widely known for its mbalax music, a fusion of traditional percussive instrumentation with a wide variety of international dance music influences. In addition to its long standing musical history, Senegal has a strong history and community within the plastic arts which incorporate both traditional and contemporary influences and promote collaborative, cross-disciplinary practices. Starting in 2002, the Biennial of Contemporary African Art, DAK’ART has further established the city’s vital presence within the international art landscape.
One of the most unique elements of the program is the opportunity to engage with Dakar and its surrounding areas. Dakar is well known for its abundance of fresh seafood which is brought into the city daily by local fishermen. Senegalese cuisine is reflective of the nation’s primary influences and is marked by its fusion of North African, French, and traditional Wolof elements. The predominant religion in Senegal is Islam, although there is also a Christian presence in Dakar.
Application Portals can be opened here .
All applications must be submitted before 11:59 PM (EST) on January 15, 2024.
ABOUT BLACK ROCK SENEGAL:
Black Rock Senegal came out of a direct need to engage Africa in a much more personal way. I discovered Dakar on a layover in 1997, back when Air Afrique was the sole provider of flights from the west to Nigeria. It was my first visit to Africa and I was immediately enraptured by Senegalese language, food, art, culture, and tradition.
After years of exploring the continent’s many cultures and countries I had a personal desire to create a workspace in West Africa. As an Artist who works in the west I desired a space of renewal to explore new ideas and to create work outside of a western context—to create work within the context of my own lineage. Black Rock stands as the direct answer to my desire to have an uncontested relationship with Africa, the filling in of a large void that I share with many African Americans. With this project I wanted to explore my own personal relationship with Africa while inviting artists to do the same and to galvanize the growing artistic and creative energies that exist in Africa in an increasing measure with the addition of diverse, international, creative possibility.
– Kehinde Wiley, 2019
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