Alibeta & KENU Lab

Alibeta is a Senegalese multidisciplinary artist based in Ouakam, Dakar. He embodies a holistic vision where artistic creation, socio-cultural research and social entrepreneurship meet. His work revolves mainly around two complementary structures that he runs with a motley crew of artists.

Through his activities as filmmaker, musician, director and curator, Alibeta continues to explore the possibilities of a creative economy rooted in community realities and values, while opening up perspectives for dialogue with the world.

KENU, the LAB'Oratoire des imaginaires, was born out of artist Alibeta's “Nun waa Kam” (We, those of Kam) project. Opened in early 2020, this space was born out of a reflection on the means of action available to artists and populations to produce social change themselves within their communities.

Based in Ouakam and rooted in the arts, culture and oral traditions, KENU is a place for exploring the various imaginary worlds, social practices and traditional knowledge present in Ouakam society.

Using artistic tools (photography, video, design, etc.), methods derived from the human sciences (action research, mapping, surveys, etc.) and inspired by popular education (forum theater, etc.), KENU documents, makes visible and produces with communities new ways of organizing themselves and acting on social structures to meet the environmental, social, cultural, economic and political challenges of the present.

In 2024, the collective launched the Daanu Artist HUB, which represents the entrepreneurial side of Kenu Lab's approach. A true incubator for cultural projects, this hub offers artists and entrepreneurs the space and resources necessary to bring their initiatives to fruition, anchored in an endogenous economy and offering production and distribution services. This integrated approach, where theory and practice feed off each other, offers an alternative development model where culture is valued as a multifaceted resource and driver of social transformation. Through his activities as a filmmaker, musician, director, and curator, Alibeta continues to explore the possibilities of a creative economy rooted in the realities and values ​​of the community, while opening up perspectives for dialogue with the world.