Niger coup upends country’s Venice Biennale plans

Two driving forces behind Niger’s debut exhibition on the Venice Biennale are stated to be protected after a army junta toppled the nation’s democratically elected authorities and positioned its president beneath home arrest. Nonetheless, it stays “extremely unsure” whether or not the figures will characterize the West African nation on the Biennale subsequent yr, in accordance with an Italian army officer.

Souleymane Ibrahim, who heads Niger’s Company for the Promotion of Cultural Enterprises and Industries, is commissioner of Niger’s ongoing Archifusion exhibition, which opened on the Venice Structure Biennale in Might and runs to November. He visited Venice within the spring to unveil the exhibition with Mohamed Hamid, Niger’s minister of tradition, tourism and crafts on the time. Each figures are allies of Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s democratically-elected President who was deposed in a coup on 26 July.

Boris Brollo, who curated the structure exhibition, wrote on Fb on Saturday that he was frightened about Souleymane’s security. “For days now we have had no information from […] Souleymane Ibrahim,” he wrote.

Talking with The Artwork Newspaper, Brollo says that Souleymane, who had referred to as him shortly after the coup to say he was protected, had stopped responding to his emails.

Nonetheless, Brollo acquired affirmation on 9 August from Gianluca Cinque, a senior officer within the North Atlantic Treaty Group (Nato) and Italy’s joint multinational civil-military cooperation unit, that each Souleymane and Hamid have been protected. The officer had been posted in Niger till final yr.

“I contacted Souleymane and he advised me that he’s wholesome and properly, and that his household is okay,” Clinque tells The Artwork Newspaper. He provides that Souleymane is at the moment dwelling in Niger and Hamid is predicated in Paris.

Niger’s prime minister, Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, has additionally relocated to Paris, in accordance with experiences, after turning into stranded in Europe whereas visiting Rome for a convention on migration when the coup was launched.

Created for the Palazzina Libeccio on the Venetian island of San Servolo, the Archifusion exhibition celebrates the assembly level between conventional African structure and Western expertise, with dozens of works showcasing the so-called brique magique, a standard Nigerien brick produced from rammed earth that has been modified to enhance its thermal capability. Brollo stated that Cinque helped get the exhibition off the bottom by placing Nigerien officers in contact with Italian counterparts.

Plans had been underway for a second Niger exhibition at subsequent yr’s Artwork Biennale that will have been commissioned by Souleymane, Brollo says. Nonetheless, the curator predicted that Niger wouldn’t be capable to take part within the Biennale earlier than the political standoff had been resolved.

Cinque says that there was “an enormous query mark” hanging over Souleymane’s participation even when Niger is admitted subsequent yr, including that the official, who’s the brother of the ex-minister of defence, has “shut blood ties” with Bazoum.

The army junta has held Bazoum hostage within the presidential palace since grabbing energy and arrested quite a few key allies, together with 4 ministers, a former minister and the chief of the ruling PNDS celebration. Habibatou Gologo, Amnesty Worldwide’s deputy regional director for West and Central Africa, tells The Artwork Newspaper that her organisation was “nonetheless monitoring” developments to find out how many individuals had been arrested.

Having defied a 6 August deadline issued by the Financial Neighborhood of West African State (ECOWAS) to reinstate Bazoum, coup plotters introduced the formation of a brand new authorities on 10 August. Guichen Aghaichata, a 28-year-old member of the Niger scouts, has been named as the brand new minister of crafts and tourism.

ECOWAS stated on 10 August it had ordered the deployment of a regional standby power to Niger to revive constitutional order. The junta’s leaders have stated they are going to kill Bazoum if neighbouring nations try a army intervention.

The Biennale had not responded to a request for an announcement by the point of publication.