2023 SPECIAL PROJECTS
Our central theme for this year is 'The Dialogue', through which we aspire to propel audiences to take the time and find the space for dialogue, to share and inspire one another through art, against a backdrop of challenges being experienced in Nigeria, with political and socio-economic difficulties across Africa and further afield.
The Special Projects feature carefully curated exhibits, engaging installations, and thought-provoking experiences, celebrating diverse voices in the art world. Through our esteemed guests and visionaries, we seek to elicit reflection, conversation and discussion, to move us towards seeing beyond the dilemmas we experience, and encourage us to imagine the here and now differently.
These projects promise to offer a captivating exploration of the intersections of culture in Nigeria, Africa, and beyond. We invite you to explore them at ART X Lagos.
The Special Projects feature carefully curated exhibits, engaging installations, and thought-provoking experiences, celebrating diverse voices in the art world. Through our esteemed guests and visionaries, we seek to elicit reflection, conversation and discussion, to move us towards seeing beyond the dilemmas we experience, and encourage us to imagine the here and now differently.
These projects promise to offer a captivating exploration of the intersections of culture in Nigeria, Africa, and beyond. We invite you to explore them at ART X Lagos.
WRITING WITH...
SPONSORED BY CHAPEL HILL DENHAM
The central theme for the year was ‘The Dialogue', through which we aspired to propel audiences to take the time and find the space for dialogue, sharing and inspiring one another through art, against a backdrop of challenges being experienced in Nigeria, with political and socio-economic difficulties across Africa and further afield. The Special Projects featured carefully curated exhibits, engaging installations, and thought-provoking experiences, celebrating diverse voices in the art world. Through our esteemed guests and visionaries, we sought to elicit reflection, conversation and discussion, moving us towards seeing beyond the dilemmas we experience, and encouraging us to imagine the here and now differently.
These projects offered a captivating exploration of the intersections of culture in Nigeria, Africa, and beyond.
GRAPHIC STORIES
COLLABORATION WITH ED KEAZOR
“The cartoon may be described as a conundrum, a graphic phantom that does not always signify what it implies, a medium that at once affirms and denies. It possesses pictorial qualities that facilitate the codification of messages in succinct, subtle or hidden form.” - Dele Jegede, 1999
Graphic Stories was a retrospective look at the kinds of stories that emerge and can be made visible through illustrations in mass media. Focusing mainly on cartoons, from their earliest appearance in Nigeria during the 1940s through to the 1980s, it revealed the ingenuity and approaches by which cartoonists produce meaning between image and text through cartoons featuring social commentary and critiques on everyday life in Nigeria. This illustrative survey highlighted the way graphic artists have challenged dominant narratives, including the subsequent reactions to their work.
THE NIGERIA IMAGINARY INCUBATOR PROJECT
PRESENTED BY MOWAA
At ART X Lagos 2023, The Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) presented the Nigeria Imaginary Incubator Project. This project was conceived in collaboration with the Nigerian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Aindrea Emelife (Curator of Modern and Contemporary art, MOWAA), who selected the theme Nigeria Imaginary. The participating artists for the Nigerian Pavilion are Yinka Shonibare, Ndidi Dike, Abraham Oghobase, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Fatimah Tuggar, Onyeka Igwe, Precious Okoyomon and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. In this interactive installation, visitors to ART X Lagos were able to interact with core themes of the Pavilion — nostalgia and utopia — with the potential of having their recorded responses included in the Pavilion.
PASSING / BUILDING / VICTORY
PRESENTED BY NBA AFRICA
Passing / Building / Victory by Dennis Osadebe was a collaborative project with NBA Africa that explored the essence of community and togetherness through the game of basketball.
The work featured Osadebe himself as a sports action figure, with a mirrored basketball in his outstretched arms and dressed in a kit that references Nigeria’s national basketball team and Osadebe's visual language, the latter through the artist's signature mask. The figure appears to be inviting visitors to take possession of the ball to discover what the game has to offer, the opportunity for reflection furthered by the material choices of the work. Passing / Building / Victory spoke to the importance of teamwork, not only in sport but in all aspects of life, and encouraged us to reflect on what we’re capable of when we band together and remember that no one becomes a legend on their own.
THE HANDS THAT REMAIN
PRESENTED BY PAPA OMOTAYO & MAX KALAIWO
In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, many Nigerians left home in search of a better life. It began with the political elite and the educated middle class, and soon everyone wanted out. By the time democracy was restored in 1999, almost 90,000 doctors had emigrated to the UK and USA, along with similar numbers of other professionals and their families.
Those who leave seldom forget those who remain. Those who remain do not forget those who have left. The psychological weight never dissipates entirely.
What does it mean to remain here in this place in November 2023, 40 years after the first exodus began? The Hands that Remain was an interactive installation that presented an archive of those left behind, in the home we are still building. It asked strangers, friends and relatives to acknowledge what it means to remain, and visitors what it means to hope.