Conjugations – Beyond the Gate – Africa Design School
On November 22, as part of Conjugations, the public program of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo – which brings together institutions from around the world to collectively connect, explore, and celebrate humanity – the activity Beyond the Gates, organized by Africa Design School, will take place. The event will be held from 1 pm to 3 pm at the Invocations space, at the second floor.
Africa Design School’s participation will include the workshop Reimagining the Slave Route: An Interactive Exploration, followed by a virtual reality presentation titled A Virtual Restitution of the Royal Treasures in King Behanzin’s Palace in Abomey, led by artist Tondji. The program concludes with a conversation on Afro-Brazilian heritage and the ways contemporary design reinterprets this shared cultural history through a decolonial perspective. The discussion will feature artist Laeïla Adjovi, Dr. Paola Barreto from the Federal University of Salvador da Bahia, Tymelia Zanife, and Adenile Soglo.
Mahoutondji “T0ndji” Kinmagbo is a new media artist exploring the intersection between African heritage and technology. Through immersive storytelling, digital experimentation, and speculative projects, his work reinvents traditions and challenges dominant colonial narratives. By blending ancestral knowledge with contemporary digital tools, he creates visual and sonic worlds that preserve cultural histories while opening new pathways for imagining the future. His practice invites audiences to reflect on identity, memory, and the cultural transformations shaping the African experience in the digital age. Rooted in both innovation and heritage, Mahoutondji’s artistic vision positions him as a leading voice in redefining how technology can serve as a medium for cultural resilience and re-imagination.
Laeïla Adjovi is a Beninese and French storyteller. She grew up in Gabon and South Africa, studied in France, lived in India and New-Caledonia, before working as a radio reporter for the BBC from Dakar, Senegal. As a reporter and photojournalist, she covered West and Central Africa, while developing a visual craft rooted in the practice of film photography. Writer, photographer and visual artist, she navigates between creative documentary and fine art photography. Her favorite themes revolve around African religious practices, multilayered identities, mobility, migrations and borders. In May 2018, her project ‘Malaïka Dotou Sankofa’, in collaboration with Loïc Hoquet, won the Grand prize of the Dakar contemporary art biennial. Since late 2018, she has been working on a book ( texts and photography) and a radio documentary, The roads of Yemoja, about a West African deity whose rites travelled across the Atlantic during the slave trade. This field research took place in Nigeria, Benin and Cuba.
Paola Barreto is an artist, researcher, and assistant professor at the Institute of Humanities, Arts and Sciences Professor Milton Santos at UFBA, where she has coordinated the Balaio Fantasma Research Group since 2017. She completed postdoctoral studies in Art History at UFRB (2022) and at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin (2023), and holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Poetics from UFRJ (2016), with a CAPES PDSE visiting scholarship at the Berlin University of the Arts (2014–2015). She has been a permanent member of PPGAV-EBA-UFBA since 2022 and of the ProfArtes-IHAC Professional Master’s Program since 2018. For the 2025–2026 term, she coordinates ProfArtes. Her teaching, research, and outreach activities focus on critical revisions of the history of modern technologies, drawing from film studies, surveillance studies, and the arts. She has participated in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, Transmediale Berlin, Live Performers Meeting Rome, MAM-SP, and the Ouidah Biennale, among others.
Tymélia Zanifé is an entrepreneur, designer, and interior architect based in Cotonou, Benin. She is the founder and director of Olu Studio Design, an interior architecture and design studio she first launched in Paris before establishing it in Cotonou and, more recently, Lagos. Since 2020, she has developed projects that combine creativity, functionality, and sustainability, while promoting a contemporary and craft-centered approach to design. In parallel, since 2024 she has been the co-founder and technical director of Queens of Pots, an artisanal pottery and ceramics company that highlights the craftsmanship of Beninese women potters and supports their empowerment through entrepreneurship and training. Committed to the development of the creative sector in West Africa, Tymélia places design at the heart of innovation and sustainable development.
Adenile Soglo is a Beninese curator and contemporary art consultant, known for founding Borna Soglo Gallery in 2021. He is dedicated to providing a platform for innovative artists, working both in Benin and internationally in cities such as Paris and London. Soglo is also the co-founder of Onolab and leads the creative collective Le Club des Fada.
Africa Design School was founded in 2019 through a collaboration between the Sèmè City Development Agency and the École de Design Nantes Atlantique (EDNA). The initiative emerged in response to the growing need for highly skilled design professionals in Africa—particularly in Benin. Since its founding, Africa Design School has established itself as a leading institution on the continent, offering high-level training and educating new generations of designers. Its mission is to contribute to the region’s economic development by training qualified and creative professionals capable of meeting the needs of companies and organizations across various sectors.
Service
Conjugations – Beyond the Gate – Africa Design School
36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice
Nov 22, 2025
Sat, 1 pm
Invocations space, 2nd floor
Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion
Ibirapuera Park, Gate 3
Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/n
São Paulo, Brazil
free admission