Dakar's Partcours Festival Maps the Creative Pulse of Senegal's Capital

Dakar, Senegal's vibrant capital, hosts Partcours, a decade-old itinerant festival that maps the city's creative scene across neighborhoods from November to December. Founded by Italian ceramist Mauro Petroni, who has lived in Dakar since 1983, Partcours offers a marathon of daily vernissages, video mapping, architectural walks, performances, and parties over three weeks. The festival visits Plateau, Medina, Fann, Mermoz, and even remote banlieues like Keur Massar and Rufisque, showcasing galleries, boutiques, and artisan workshops. Petroni also organizes the OFF section of the Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art, which has grown from 50 to 350 venues in twenty years. The 2022 Biennale runs from May 19 to June 21. Dakar's art scene benefits from cultural institutes (Institut Français, Goethe-Institut, Instituto Cervantes, Italian Cultural Institute), a young population (median age 18), and events like the Dakar Music Expo and Fashion Week. Petroni's own ceramics studio in Les Almadies hosts exhibitions like "Miroirs," which juxtaposes his work with traditional African pieces to reflect on cultural appropriation and restitution. The festival, while not heavily promoted, attracts cultural tourists and offers affordable art shopping. Petroni emphasizes the importance of discovering the city through its neighborhoods and people, describing his forty-year journey in Senegal as one of "libertà" (freedom).