06/05/2026
For the design of Bët-bi, a museum and a center for culture and community under construction in southwestern Senegal, acclaimed architect Mariam Issoufou’s eponymous studio took the opportunity to reassess what defines a museum in the 21st century.
“We started the project the same as any other we’ve worked on, trying to excavate the memory of this place,” Issoufou explained at Summit 2026. “It wouldn’t have made sense to make a museum in the way that I had seen in the Western world—or anywhere else.”
Rather than reference the 19th-century typology of the museum, drew on the rich cultural heritage that produced many of the artifacts these institutions hold, grounding its response in the region’s precolonial history. With its exhibition spaces buried below ground—a reference to the thousands of ancient megaliths dotted between Gambia and Senegal—the museum serves first as a space for gathering. “There was this idea that there should be a social ritual around encountering the art, and above ground would be a landscape where people could dwell.” Issoufou explained. “If they wanted to go into the museum, they could. But it’s almost a suggestion.”
Once open, the museum has plans to serve as a temporary space for repatriated objects, supporting the return of African art to the places of its creation. But Issoufou emphasized that the process of rebuilding culture doesn’t end with the museum. “The architecture itself is not the repair,” she said. “Repair is the construction of the conditions under which a community can hold its own history again—and hold it physically, hold it ritualistically, hold it on its own terms.”
Watch Issoufou present Bët-bi on theworldaround.org. Link in bio 🔗
Summit 2026 took place at The Museum of Modern Art on Saturday, May 9. Visit our website to watch the full program.
