Making Doula 2007-2017 shows the relationship between artistic production and urban transformation in Africa. It does so through the remarkable experience of SUD – Salon Urbain de Douala, an international triennial festival dedicated to public art that was inaugurated in 2007 in Douala, Cameroon, and that has brought a great number of Cameroonian and international artists to engage with communities of various neighborhoods and the public spaces these relate to in the city. All artworks are realized with local resources, thereby supporting local economies and integrating the projects in the local context. Beside their artistic aims and cultural relevance, these interventions have a strong social and political dimension, fostering the value of the public space and the sense of ownership by the interested communities, something that is not commonly found in African cities. Their impact on citizen’s views and perceptions of the city is significant, as shown by research assessing how culture affects safety and security in African cities, including Douala. The Basel exhibition is also an opportunity to share insights gained through these scientific investigations.

The artistic experiences of SUD are shown in an exhibition at the gallery Ausstellungsraum Klingental in Basel, in 2017. The exhibition is curated by Doual’art, ICU art projects & Lucas Grandin and the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland.
It is a documentary exhibition, with models, videos, posters, sketches and photographs of public art works made in Douala. The exhibition brings a fragment of Douala’s chaotic vitality to the tidy Basel.

Roberto Paci Dalò presents the installation Douala Flow: a visual representation of how the relationship between the business and cultural activities present in the physical city and their online representation evolves over time. The project also highlights how oral culture is still dominant in Cameroon today. The sound landscape is in fact composed of radio fragments from native stations and interviews collected as part of the scientific research of Marta Pucciarelli, which inspired Paci Dalò.