My research focuses on the “Future” as an historical construction implicating relations of knowledge and power, and the place occupied by Africa in this construction. I want to go back in time to understand the role of colonization in shaping the visions of the future that were to develop in the West, and how these conceptions are still prevalent today. As part of a curatorial approach to this research, I present the work of researchers, artists, and architects who take a critical look at history and imagine alternatives scenarios for the future. Having curated the exhibition UFA, Université des Futurs Africains [University of African Futures] at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes in 2021, I would now like to develop a new aspect of this research by focusing on architecture. I am interested in projects that were to be developed in the middle of the twentieth century, using the African continent as a laboratory for architectural and urban research and innovation. I am also interested in African initiatives aimed at giving Africans back control over their vision of housing, technology, and economic and social organization through architecture.

Oulimata Gueye is a Senegalese and French critic and curator. She has created and co-organized numerous international multidisciplinary art events. Her curatorial approach is based on research at the intersection of digital and scientific cultures, contemporary art, popular culture, literature, and political ethics. She has a longstanding interest and commitment to the uses of digital technologies in Africa and within its diasporas. She studied the intersections between fiction, science, and technology that allow for the development of critical analysis and the imagination of alternative histories. She is currently in charge of the Art postgraduate program at the École nationale des Beaux Arts de Lyon (Ensba Lyon).