A blue note is a musical notation used for expressive purposes, initially in jazz and blues but later adopted by popular music at large, created to account for the non-standard pitches sung or played by musicians. In this talk, Simon Njami asks – what is that blue note that we can bring into contemporaneity? Simon discusses his conception of education as a form of awareness and criticality, and the importance of alternatives to the classical education system for young people. He also ponders the role of art and curatorial practice as modes of sharing and creative expression in a local yet global context, among others.

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, writer and art critic. Njami was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of “Revue Noire“ a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art. He has served as artistic director of the Bamako photography biennale for ten years. He co-curated the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and curated the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008. He has served for ten years (2000/2010) as cultural advisor for the AFAA the cultural branch of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (today Institut Français) in their cultural cooperation policy. He was member of numerous art and photography juries (10 years at Worldpress). Njami has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art and photography, including Africa Remix (2004-2007) and The Divine Comedy (Frankfurt, Savanna, Washington DC, 2014/15) African Metropolis (MAXXI, Rome, 2018) and two Editions of the Dak’Art Biennale (2016/2018). He was member of the scientific boards of numerous museums and a Visiting Professor at UCSD (University of San Diego California). He has directed the Pan African master classes in photography (2008/2019), project that he conceived with the Goethe Institut and he is the advisor of AtWork educational format that he co-created with Moleskine Foundation in 2012 and continues to conduct it until the present moment. He is also currently setting up the permanent collection of contemporary art for the Memorial Acte museum in Guadeloupe. Njami has published seven books, including essays and novels.

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