The SUD Salon Urbain de Douala was announced during the Ars&Urbis International Symposium organised in Douala in 2005 by doual'art; the Ars&Urbis focussed on the relationship between art and urban transformations and it was created as a preparatory research gathering for the SUD. At the end of 2005 is established in Rotterdam the iStrike Foundation, which will contribute to the start-up of the SUD and its first edition as a European office of doual'art. doual'art and iStrike Foundation organize together in 2007 the Ars&Urbis International Workshop, an event to produce and collect documentation about Douala and its cultural scene, which will be published in the book Douala in Translation. A View of the City and its Creative Transformative Potentials. The first edition of the SUD Salon Urbain de Douala takes place as planned in December 2007 with the support among others of Arts Collaboratory, Mondriaan Foundation and the Prince Claus Fund. In 2008 the theme of water is chosen for the SUD Salon Urbain de Douala 2010. Meanwhile, a series of projects are developed within the frame of Liquid Projects. In 2009 takes place the Ars&Urbis Curatorial Meeting, at the end of which Simon Njami is announced as new artistic director of the SUD 2010. In December 2010 the second edition of the SUD Salon Urbain de Douala took place in Douala.
Organisation
The SUD Salon Urbain de Douala is structured into a triennial programme which produced site-specific ephemeral and permanent artworks located in different districts and neighborhoods of the city of Douala. The programme involves all the activities of doual'art and it includes a programme of artist-in-residence, exhibitions, the recurrent event Ars&Urbis, a meeting and think tank around the relationship between art and urban transformations and of course the triennial festival meant to give visibility to the public art produced and involve a wider public.
SUD2007 - Salon Urbain de Douala, first edition 2007
The first edition of the SUD Salon Urbain de Douala took place in Douala between 9 and 16 December 2007, and it is promoted by doual'art in collaboration with the iStrike Foundation. The festival produces performances, installations and permanent artworks. The performances are
The documentation of the event is prepared during the Ars&Urbis International Workshop and it is published in the book Douala in Translation presented at the opening of the festival. The first edition of the SUD 2007 is presented in the website of the Sawa people in an interview to Marilyn Douala Bell.
SUD2010 - Salon Urbain de Douala, second edition 2010
The second edition of the SUD Salon Urbain de Douala took place in Douala between 4 and 11 December 2010, and was sponsored by doual'art in collaboration with ICU art projects. The festival produced performances, installations and permanent artworks.
SUD2013 - Salon Urbain de Douala, 3rd edition 2013
The 3rd edition from 3 to 10 December 2013, SUD2013, entitled "Douala metamorphoses", encouraged artists to transform the collective space, to work on the physical evolution of the common shared city sites and to liberate and create poles of encounters.
SUD2017 - Salon Urbain de Douala, 4th edition 2017
The theme of the 4th edition of the SUD2017 is "The human dimension" and will take place from 5 to 10 December 2017. In a context of strong dehumanization and disempowerment of youth and adults, doual'art hopes by this 4th edition to mark the city with artworks which interpret the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights and to start a dialog that helps to share ideas on a better way of living together.
