Yacouba Konaté

Yacouba Konaté is a curator, writer and art critic. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris. He is currently vice-president of the Scientific Council of the Academy of Sciences, Arts, African Cultures and Diasporas in Abidjan and president of honour of the International Association of Art Critics in Paris, as well as the director of the Rotonde des Arts Contemporains in Abidjan. Until 2021, he served as director of the Market for African Performing Arts of Abidjan.  

He is also a consultant in cultural development and has been the artistic advisor for several projects of the Jean-Paul Blachère Foundation. He was Fulbright Professor at Standford University (1998) and taught at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris (2004-2008), as well as Laval University in Canada (2007). He was also a Carter Fellow at the University of Florida, Gainesville (2007). Former director of cabinet at the Ivorian Ministry of Culture and Francophony (2000), he also directed the National Higher Institute of Arts and Cultural Action in Abidjan. He was the general curator of the African Contemporary Art Biennale Dak’Art in 2006 and curated the Ivorian contribution to the Venice Biennale in 2013 and 2015. 

Konaté has published widely on African culture and politics, amongst which, Alpha Blondy : Reggae et société en Afrique Noire (1987), Christian Lattier : Le sculpteur aux mains nues (1993), La biennale de Dakar. Pour une esthétique de la création contemporaine africaine (2009) and more recently Voilà pourquoi… Contes de Bamôrô Traoré de Kong (2019).