N’Goné Fall (born 1967) is a Senegalese curator, editor, cultural consultant and academic. She has been appointed General Commissioner of “Season Africa 2020”, a French initiative to view the world from an African perspective. From 1994 to 2001, she edited Revue Noire, an African contemporary art magazine. She has served as a consultant to governments on cultural policies and has curated cultural exhibitions in Africa, Europe and the United States.
Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1967, N’Goné Fall studied architecture under Paul Virillo (1932–2013) at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, graduating when she was 26. She did not however pursue a career in architecture as in 1992 she met the art critic Jean-Loup Pivin (born 1951) who persuaded her to join his African-oriented Revue Noire. She became its editorial director from 1994 to 2001, covering African artists on the international scene. In 2001, together with Pivin she published Anthologie de l’art africain du XX siècle, subsequently translated into English as An anthology of African art: the twentieth century.
As an independent curator and educator, she was assistant professor for the Cultural Industries Master programme at the Senghor University in Alexandria, Egypt (2007–2011). More recently she has lectured at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in South Africa (2017) and at the Abdou Moumouni University in the Niger (2018). Among the exhibitions she has curated are the Bamako Photography Encounters (2001) and the Dakar Contemporary Art Biennial (2002). In 2016, she participated in the Danish project “When things fall apart” at the Trapholt Museum in Kolding.
Kunlé Adeyemi is an architect, professor and development researcher whose works are internationally recognized for innovation and originality. He is the founder and principal of NLÉ – an architecture, design and urbanism practice founded in 2010, for innovating cities and communities. Adeyemi’s notable works include ‘Makoko Floating School’, a groundbreaking, prototype floating structure once located in the lagoon heart of Lagos, Nigeria. Makoko Floating School has since evolved into ‘Makoko Floating System (MFSTM)’ – a simple, prefabricated, building solution for developments on water – now deployed in 5 countries across 3 continents.
This acclaimed project is part of NLÉ’s extensive body of work - the ‘African Water Cities’ - which explores the intersections of rapid urbanization and climate change. Other projects include A Prelude to The Shed in New York, USA, the Black Rhino Academy in Karatu, Tanzania and the Serpentine Summer House at the Royal Kensington Gardens in London, UK. Alongside his professional practice with multiple prestigious awards, Adeyemi is an international speaker and thought leader. He is one of UNDP’s Africa in Development Supergroup. Adeyemi is currently an Adjunct Visiting Professor at the University of Lagos, following appointments in various institutions including Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia Universities, where he leads academic research in architecture and urban solutions that are closer to societal, environmental and economic needs
A curator and writer based in Paris, Kathryn Weir is currently the artistic director of the Madre museum of contemporary art Donnaregina in Naples. Her practice engages with critical thinking on technology, race, class, gender and political ecology in the context of exhibition making. Previously director of multidisciplinary programs at the Centre Pompidou, she created ‘Cosmopolis’ there in 2015 as a platform for research-based, socially engaged and collaborative art practices. Conceived to construct bridges between new forms of creative experimentation and critical vocabularies across reconfigured histories and geographies, the platform encompasses activities ranging from residencies to exhibitions and programs. She also created the annual festival ‘MOVE: performance, dance, moving image’ at the Centre Pompidou in 2017. From 2006 until 2014, she was director of the Australian Cinémathèque and chief curator of international art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane and was one of the curators of the 5th, 6th and 7th Asia Pacific Triennials of Contemporary Art. Weir’s other curatorial projects include ‘Collective Body’ (at Dhaka Art Summit 2020), ‘Sublime, Passages to the Infinite’ (2014-2015), ‘21st Century: Art in the first decade’ (2010-2011), ‘Small Acts’ (2009), ‘The Leisure Class’ (2007-2008), ‘Hong Kong, Shanghai: Cinema Cities’ (2007), ‘Kiss of the Beast’ (2005-2006) and ‘The Nature Machine: Contemporary Art, Nature and Technology’ (2004-2005). Her publications include Modern Ruin (QAGOMA, 2008), The View From Elsewhere (Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, 2009), Sculpture is Everything (QAGOMA, 2012), and Gorilla (with Ted Gott, Reaktion Books, 2013). Other writings address the works of contemporary artists including Cabello/Carceller, Inci Eviner, Shilpa Gupta, Clarisse Hahn, Romuald Hazoumè, Ho Tzu Nyen, Runa Islam, MadeIn, Aernout Mik and Lee Mingwei.
