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Curatorial Vision and Intellectual Legacy
Kouoh viewed herself as part of a“ second generation” of curators who built on the foundational advocacy of pioneers like Okwui Enwezor and Olu Oguibe. Yet, unlike many of her predecessors whose major exhibitions took place in Western institutions, she rooted her work firmly on the continent.“ It is important to engage with the ideas and issues that concern our region here first— and to share them with the world only secondarily.”
Her curatorial vision emphasized critical artistic practices, social context, and the dismantling of what she called the“ first-and-only syndrome”— the notion that African success stories must always be marked as exceptional rather than systemic. Kouoh championed Pan-Africanism as an ideological force— not bound to geography but reflective of global African consciousness.“ What is important is the power of your ideas, your creativity, your talent. Anyone can speak three, four, or five languages. We are global citizens.”
She was explaining better her ideas in 2016 to Artforum executive editor Lloyd Wisestating:” IN SENEGAL TODAY, there is an emerging consciousness that is rooted in part in the’ 70s, which was Samb’ s generation. They were influenced by the liberation movements that followed World War II, when the defeat of France awoke a lot of Africans to their political situation. This was the time of Léopold Sédar Senghor and the Pan-Africanist idea of Négritude. There was real work being done toward constructing an African reality, a modern reality, a contemporary reality.
Flashmag! Issue 161 June 2025
This was different from— how can I put it?— a current prevailing intellectual, literary, and artistic preoccupation with promoting Africa internationally and showing what Africans are capable of; Samb and Laboratoire Agit’ Art never felt like they had to define themselves or justify themselves to anyone, or show themselves to the so-called order, the order always being Western, European, French, and so on.
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