Invitation to Triangle of Art

YOU ARE INVITED TO TRAVEL: On the occasion of DakArtOff BIENNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART

From May 29 to June 7, 2004, Plexus International will stage, at the Municipality of the Medina in Dakar, the Second Art Festival "Le Triangle de l'Art", within the DakArtOff section of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, on the occasion of the UNESCO 2004 International Year Commemorating the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition.

"EROSIONS SHOWS" is an Art Call to stop the dramatic sea erosion of the Door of No Return of the House of the Slaves, UNESCO World Heritage site and sanctuary of the African Diaspora, in the island Goree, off Dakar, as symbol of the erosion of the memory of humankind, world heritage, ecological and cultural diversities, local knowledge, biodiversity, civil liberties, human rights, wellbeing and biodiversity in the living planet, and, day after day, of our freedom and peace. By revitalising the ecology of memory, it will be possible to 'read' and interpret the erosion from a multi-perspective "holistic" vision.

All artists are invited to participate with all art forms to express their own interpretation on the multiplex meaning of "erosion". You may also participate virtually by emailing your art contribution s.dernini@tiscali.it or by mailing it: Plexus International, c/o Assane MBaye, Rue 17 angle 8, Medina-Dakar, Senegal.

Since 1988, the Door of No Return of the House of the Slaves in Goree became for Plexus International the historical portal for the repatriation of art and memory, back into the community, from where to continue the voyage of art for freedom. Since more 20 years, Plexus International is traveling offbeat, on board of a metaphoric art slaves boat, escaped in 1986 - in order to survive - from the art community of the Lower East Side of New York, as the symbol of the struggle of the artists working in the community.

LE VOYAGE CONTINUES...IN ORDER TO SURVIVE

Plexus International born in 1982, in New York, and has realized numerous cross-cultural experimental art projects, "art co-operas" involving on some occasions hundreds of artists and scientists, mainly in New York, Rome, Dakar, Sardinia, Amsterdam, Atlanta, and Australia, linking the notion of "art" - as a community resource for a sustainable development - to the concept of "well being" - which is a human right of all.

One of Plexus leitmotifs or songlines is the voyage of art through universal mythology, using metaphores as multi-dimensional vehicle for travelling around the world against any form of contemporary slavery.

EROSIONS, as a travelling show, will be performed in May, in Australia, by Culture Lab International with a ritual theatrical event, from its new production center in the Snake Valley, north of Melburne, to present the Triangle de l'Art di Dakar as an international collaborative travelling project and to invite all artists to start a cultural mapping of the global erosion: from the sea erosion at the Door of No Return in Goree to the erosion of the biological and cultural diversity of the Corpus Australis: symbolically from the Muru Durabin (Pathway to the River) ancient ceremonial festival ground, within the Unesco Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage area, at the Nort-West corner of Sydney. A place of rare beauty, probably the largest area of ancient rock art near any city in the world, is a sacred site of aboriginal inter-tribal ceremony and celebration.

The Second Triangle of Art Festival, against the today art world market slavery and globalization process, creating new forms of slavery, has the aim to highlight the role of the artist in the community as a keeper of a living archive against cultural, social and economic black out to resist the time-space erosion of our history. We can begin a global cultural historical mapping for future generations and create a culture pattern of cross border weaving.

As opening act of the EROSIONS SHOWS, at the Door of No Return in Goree, Sandro Dernini and Kre MBaye will perform a ritual ceremony, under the theatrical direction of Willem Brugman, to measure the current sea erosion from the last measure taken on June 9, 2002, on the occasion of the First Triangle of Art Festival.

All artworks will be exhibited at the Municipality Hall of the Medina of Dakar and posted on the web http://www.connettivo.net/