ArtBakery

History

ArtBakery is founded in 2002 after the artist Goddy Leye moves back to Cameroon from the Netherlands. The centre is part of the Rijksakademie International Network (RAIN), a network of artists who support contemporary cultural practices in their countries of origin. RAIN supports ArtBakery and its first project Bessengue City.

Activities

Bessengue City

Bessengue City is a project designed and coordinated by Goddy Leye and organised in Bessengue Douala in October 2002. The project involved the artists James Beckett, Goddy Leye, Hartanto, Jesus Palomino and the local community and it was produced with the support of Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten of Amsterdam and by the programme R.A.I.N. Rain Artists’ Initiative Network. James Beckett produces in the neighbourhood of Bessengue an experimental radio, with a range of one kilometre and the collaboration of a group of young people which made interviews and recordings. The radio was called Radio Bessengue City, or Dikalo la Bessengue (the messenger of Bessengue) becomes, as one listener said, “the radio of the people by the people”. File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 33.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 32.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 09.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 08.jpg

Jesus Palomino creates a shelter using locally available materials. File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 40.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 31.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 41.jpg Goddy Leye takes pictures of twenty smiling people from the neighbourhood and makes some digital manipulation. The portraits are printed and arranged in random groups and positioned as posters in the estate. Produced from the same footage, the 6-minute video called Bouquet de Sourires (Bouquet of Smiles), is shown in the neighbourhood. File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 17.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 06.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 07.jpg File:Bessengue City Douala Sandrine Dole 05.jpg Hartanto builds the website of the project and he connects one person from Bessengue with another from Bandung. The messages, written in French (Bessengue) and Indonesian (Bandung), are scanned and sent with their translation in both directions. News on everyday life and the local environment are exchanged on a daily basis.

Exit Tour

Exit Tour - Douala, Cotonou, Lomé, Accra, Ouagadougou, Bamako, Dakar is a collaborative artistic project organised in 2006. In occasion of Dak'art 2006, seven artists (Ginette Daleu, Justine Gaga, Dunja Herzog, Lucfosther Diop, Achillekà Komguem, Alioum Moussa and Goddy Leye) departed from Douala and reached Dakar using only public transportation. During the three-months journey, the artists visited galleries, artists and participated to workshops in Cotonou, Lomé, Accra, Ouagadougou, Bamako, Dakar.

Other activities

• Poetry Festival 3v, 2009.

References

References

1. [http://www.powerofculture.nl/uk/specials/rain/artbakery.html ArtBakery] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-07-24 on "The Power of Culture"].)
2. "R-A-I-N".
3. Scene, Unseen Art. (2011-02-24). "Unseen Art Scene: Journey from Douala to Dak'Art 2006".
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuO8MKtPMS8 A video on the Poetry Festival 3v], 2009