Paper short abstract:

This conference paper will review the ways that Djenné’s architecture and masons have been exhibited in the past, and it will propose a way forward in effectively communicating the nature of building-craft knowledge to a public audience.

Paper long abstract:

Since Djenné was added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1988, this West African town has become the focus of numerous academic studies, travel books, popular magazine and newspaper articles, and museum exhibitions hosted in North America, Europe and Asia. The literature and exhibitions have focussed narrowly (and almost exclusively) on the material form and aesthetics of the town's mud architecture and on related issues of tangible heritage and conservation. By contrast, my own research has endeavoured to bring focus to the much-underrepresented community of resident mud masons who design, build and sustain this living heritage.

In attempt to communicate my findings to a broader audience, I co-produced a documentary film (2007) and curated an exhibition and hosted an accompanying public lecture series on the art of mud building for the Royal Institute of British Architects in London (2010). Presently, I am preparing a new exhibition for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC (2013) that will concentrate on the masons' everyday work, life and problem-solving strategies. A core aim of the forthcoming exhibition is to challenge the still-prevalent archetype of the 'creative genius' working and cogitating in isolation, and to convey the important message that creativity, innovation and problem-solving occur in a complex and interactive field of tools, materials, bodies and social subjects.

This conference paper will review the ways that Djenné's architecture and masons have been exhibited in the past, and it will propose a way forward in effectively communicating the nature of building-craft knowledge to a public audience.