SHRINES
Issa Samb was born into the Lebou community, known as people of the water and sanctuary keepers. Rooted in Dakar, he was raised in the Ouakam neighbourhood, from which he drew his artistic pseudonym, Joe Ouakam. For many years his home and courtyard, known as La Cour, in Dakar’s city centre, was a crossroads for artistic and political thought and community organising.
Samb’s practice encompassed painting, collage, assemblage, sculpture, performance and writing. He was a co-founder of the Laboratoire Agit’Art collective, with the filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty and others. The group espoused a grassroots, autonomous conception that was at odds with the cultural politics of Léopold Sédar Senghor and the Négritude 58 1945, Dakar, Senegal - 2017, Dakar 1945 – 2017 Dakar, Senegal movement, and privileged the act of rassemblement, or gathering.
For Samb, artworks must be felt and touched by the people. He would often destroy his works and re-create them, as a means of transformation and revival. His presence in the Biennale Arte 2026 is articulated in installations inspired by his courtyard, with costumes, suspended objects, assemblages, notes and sketches. A video contribution by Adrienne Edwards documents a visit to La Cour. The film Cap Vers l’Est, by Ican Ramageli, finds Samb wandering – always in search of the liminal space, the threshold where the living meets the dead.
—Marie Helene Pereira
