Today marks the unveiling of the Nigerian Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. It's the country’s second participation in the global event and the presentation curated by Aindrea Emelife (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at MOWAA, the Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Nigeria) showcases works by a cross-generational group of artists including Y.S.F. and G.A.S. Founder Yinka Shonibare CBE RA alongside G.A.S. alumni Tunji Adeniyi-Jones and artists Ndidi Dike, Onyeka Igwe, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Abraham Oghobase, Precious Okoyomon, and Fatimah Tuggar. Commissioned by the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, on behalf of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, the exhibition exclusively features commissioned, site-specific works, which have been installed throughout the historic Palazzo Canal in Venice’s Dorsoduro.
Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul, 2023. Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
The artists presented in the Pavilion were selected to respond to the theme and title Nigeria Imaginary. As Aindrea Emelife, Curator of the Nigeria Pavilion explains, “Nigeria Imaginary will explore the many Nigerias that live in our minds, curated to capture a sense of optimism imbued in inherited and collective cultural history. Articulated through different perspectives and constructed ideas, mediums and disciplines, nostalgias for Nigeria and visions of the Nigeria that is yet to be; Nigeria Imaginary is a restless investigation of the legacies of the colonial past in today’s post-independence nation and a defiant imagining of a hopeful, youth-driven future.”
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Celestial Gathering, 2024. Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
Exhibition highlights include a site-specific intervention by Tunji Adeniyi-Jones that nods at both Nigerian and Venetian tradition, drawing attention to Nigerian modernist artistic legacies pushed forward by the artist’s contemporary, Diasporic sensibility. A two-part artwork by Ndidi Dike reflects on the local uprising of End SARS and how it intersects with global movements against police corruption, serving as both a memorial and a beacon of hope. Onyeka Igwe presents a three-work audio-visual series that explores the hangover of colonialism and the entwinement of Nigeria and Great Britain in an extension of her previous exploration of colonial legacies through the “sonic shadows” of film archives.
Ndidi Dike, Blackhood: A Living Archive, 2024. Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA)
Works by Toyin Ojih Odutola explore the Mbari house, a centre of creative exuberance in post-independence Nigeria, as a site and a metaphor, meanwhile, an installation by Abraham Onoriode Oghobase complicates the narrative of objectivity and authority in the written and photographic records from Nigeria’s colonial period, drawing particular parallels between the mining of landscapes and the exploitation of labour. A radio tower turned instrument designed by Precious Okoyomon to register and broadcast atmospheric conditions as sound, along with the confessions of select Nigerian poets, artists, and writers. An installation-based artwork by Fatimah Tuggar harnessing Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Animatronics, within architectural façades inspired by Tubali Hausa vernacular architecture explores how colonisation and globalisation have increased cultural erosion of indigenous craft. Finally, the pavilion presents a major sculptural installation by Yinka Shonibare CBE RA based on the majestic, historic artworks created in the Kingdom of Benin and subsequently looted by British forces in the Benin Expedition of 1897.
Toyin Ojih Odutola, Left: Nwanyeruwa (Aba Women's Rebellion), 2023-2024; Center: Congregation, 2023; Right: Onye ụtụtụ (Morning Person), 2023. Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
The pavilion includes a selection of historic and contemporary Nigerian objects, in a space called “The Nigeria Imaginary Colloquium.” These immerse visitors in a display of historical artefacts, and ephemera and quotidian objects from the past and present, elaborating on the intersecting themes of Nigeria Imaginary and providing a visual and intellectual scaffold for the exhibition. The Pavilion incorporates select content developed through a special research project conducted by MOWAA at ART X Lagos and EdoIFest in Benin in 2023, The Nigeria Imaginary Incubator Project. In the midst of an installation of objects and images of everyday life in Nigeria, visitors were invited to enter audio booths and record their responses to questions such as: What does Nigeria taste like? What song reminds you of your grandmother? What childhood memory would you like to relive? How did you get to school? What does Nigeria look like in 2050? The audio responses feature in the Pavilion as contextualising memories and dreams.
The Pavilion’s commissioner is Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Nigeria’s Edo State, on behalf of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA, formerly called EMOWAA) serving as its official organiser.
Fatimah Tuggar, Light Cream Pods (Excerpt), 2024. Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
Precious Okoyomon, Pre-Sky / Emit Light: Yes Like That, 2024. Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
Abraham Onoriode Oghobase Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
Onyeka Igwe. Still from No Archive Can Restore You (2020). Courtesy of the artist.
Banner Image Credit: Exterior of Nigeria Imaginary at the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. Image: Marco Cappelleti Studio. Courtesy: Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).