THE UNITED STATES PARTICIPATION IN DAK'ART 2004 THE BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART DAKAR, SENEGAL MAY 7 - JUNE 7, 2004 New York, April 8, 2004 - Artists David Hammons, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and Pamela Z will represent the United States at Dak'Art 2004, the sixth Biennale of Contemporary African Art, which will be held from May 7 through June 7, 2004 in Dakar, Senegal. Entitled 3X3: Three Artists/Three Projects, this exhibition is curated by Salah M. Hassan, Chair of the Department of History of Art and Acting Director of the Africana Studies and Research Center, and Cheryl Finley, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History and Visual Culture in the Africana Studies and Research Center, both at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. At the invitation of the curators, the 3X3 artists will realize interventions in different venues throughout the city of Dakar, thus working beyond the typical "white cube" approach to presentation. The projects will be both site specific and performance based. Although the selected artists work in diverse media and genres, they share a conceptualist approach to art making, and are all at the forefront of art production with the use of technology. The 3x3 project for Dak'Art 2004 will be a presentation of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, and will be presented as part of the Dak'Art Off and International Representations program.

Known as the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dak'Art has proven itself as a major platform for contemporary art with cultural roots in Africa worldwide. First inaugurated in 1992, the Biennale functions under the patronage of Senegal's Ministry of Culture, and is organized by the Secrétariat Général de la Biennale de Dakar. The Secrétariat is supported by a government-appointed council, known as Conseil Scientifique, made up of independent art specialists. Such official support stands in contrast to what has happened to many artistic forums in the continent since the independence era, to which the destiny of the now defunct Johannesburg Biennale stands as a stark example. Dak'Art's unified and anti-essentialist vision makes it possible to present together artists from the northern and southern nations of the continent, as well as artists of African descent in the diaspora. This vision places Africa as a global and historical presence rather than a mere geographic entity, and shows, moreover, that contemporary Africa and the African diaspora exist in intersections of north and south manifestations, and are hardly bound by nationalistic, geographic, or racial boundaries.