Fondation Donwahi pour l'Art Contemporain

The Donwahi foundation occupies three 1970s villas of clean modernist lines set in a large garden in Cocody, and a visit typically moves between the exhibition rooms inside the villas and the grounds outside, where the tearoom offers a place to sit with a drink between galleries. Exhibitions rotate through Ivorian and wider African contemporary artists, and the foundation also runs residencies, talks, screenings and workshops, so the specific art on view varies considerably from one visit to the next; checking the current programme on the foundation's Facebook or Instagram pages before going is worthwhile. A visit during an active exhibition takes one to two hours, enough time to see the rooms across the villas and to sit in the garden tearoom afterward; between exhibitions there may be less to see, though the architecture and grounds remain worth a stop. As the senior private institution for contemporary art in Abidjan, the foundation is an easy pairing with the commercial galleries on nearby Boulevard Latrille, including Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, allowing a short gallery circuit through Cocody in a single outing. Visits during an exhibition opening, usually held in the evening, offer the liveliest atmosphere, with artists and the local art scene often present, while weekday mornings and early afternoons are calmer and better suited to unhurried viewing of the work itself.