Senegal: Oulimata Gueye, a curator specializing in digital technologies and arts

Senegalese critic Oulimata Gueye is a visual arts curator specializing in the impact of digital technologies in Africa and on diasporas.

As a cultural activist, Oulimata Gueye brings together science, digital technologies, contemporary arts, and popular cultures. She began her career in 1998 as head of artist residencies at Batofar (now Bateau Phare), a performance venue she co-founded.

In 2000, she joined Bank of Africa, where she was in charge of external communications for fifteen years. At the same time, she co-directed the artistic side of the Infamous Carousel Festival from 2003 to 2011, while also curating the Xamxam platform, a technology training and academic support agency.

Since 2010, she has taken a particular interest in the impact of digital technologies on urban cultures and artistic practices in Africa. She curated several artistic events, including the Afropixel Festival (2017-2018) on the theme of “Non-Aligned Digital Utopias.” From 2017 to 2018, she was also curator of “Afrocyberfeminism,” a series of performances and meetings organized by the cultural space La Gaité Lyrique on contemporary issues raised by digital technologies in relation to Africa and its diasporas.

From 2017 to 2019, she also co-curated the “Digital Imaginaries” project, an event that brought together artists and social science researchers around the theme of digital imaginaries in Africa. The aim was to explore how they can influence the present in Africa and affect future visions for the continent.

Oulimata Gueye graduated in 1998 with a Master’s degree in Cultural Management and Contemporary Art in Africa from Paris 8 University and a Master’s degree in Arts and Language from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in 2012. She was director of the postgraduate art program at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Lyon from 2021 to 2025.