Simon Njami

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, art critic and novelist. Njami was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art. He served as artistic director of the first Johannesburg art fair in 2008, the Bamako photography biennale for ten years, and the Dak’Art Biennale (2016/2018). He occupied different functions at the World Press photo award. He co-curated the first African pavilion at the 52 nd Venice Biennale in 2007. He is the president of the Clermont-Ferrand Textile Biennale (FITE). Member and spokesperson of the Finding Committee of Documenta 16. He has led creative thinking masterclasses in Ithra, wrote the text for the Qasr Kuzma Palace book in Jeddah and directed a mentor program for the artists in residence in Ryad. Author of the Salah Elmur introduction. Njami was curator of the 2020 Abu Dhabi art fair and co-curator of the Sao Paulo Biennale 2002.

Njami has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art and photography, including Africa Remix (2004/2007) and the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008. The Divine Comedy (2014), at the MMK (Museum fur Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt, SCAD, Savannah (2014) and The Smithsonian in Washington DC (2015). Xenopolis (Berlin 2015), After Eden, The Artur Walther Collection, (Maison Rouge, Paris, 2015), Afriques Capitales (Paris, Lille 2017), Metropolis (Maxxi, Rome, 2018), I is another (Galleria Nazionale, Rome 2018), Aujourd’hui (National Museum of Cameroon, 2019), The Studio (Kampala Biennale 2019) This space between us (Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas 2020), Materia Prima (San Gimignano, 2021), A collective Diary (Tunis 2022), Charades (Marrakech 2022). Njami is the chief-curator of the international annual exhibition Something Else, at the Salah Adin Citadel in Cairo (2023). He curated Awakenings Abu Dhabi Louvres (2024) Il Sole Nero, Naples (2025) He was member of the scientific boards of numerous museums and institutions, and a Visiting Professor at UCSD (University of San Diego California 1991/93).

In 1998, he created the Pan African master classes in photography, with the Goethe Institute and directed it for over 12 years. He was part of the scientific team and set up the collection of contemporary art for the Memorial ACTe museum in Guadeloupe. He is member of the Curatorial team of the future Modern Art Museum in Benin. He created and is leading the critical thinking workshop AtWork, conceived with the Moleskine Foundation. He published and edited numerous books among which two biographies, James Baldwin and Leopold Sédar Senghor, and four novels. His latest publication is Stories Histories, the story of Revue noire (2021). His last novel La Mécanique des souvenirs (JC Lattès) came out in November 2024. Njami studied literature, law, and philosophy at the Sorbonne University in Paris.