Eighty participants from 30 countries across the world will be featuring their artwork at 4th edition of the Lagos Biennial. This was disclosed by Folakunie Oshun, Lagos Biennial Director during an interactive section with the press, in Lagos during the week in Lagos island.

Speaking during an interactive section with the press, in Lagos, Folakunie Oshun, Founder and co-artistic Director said: “The event will feature the works of 80 participants from 30 countries responding to the theme through architectural pavilions, art installations, artist talks, film screenings, projections and performances.

“This edition includes veteran Nigerian artists Demas Nwoko and Bruce Onabrakpeya.

“Themed REFUGE, Lagos Biennial 2024 addresses the concept of the nation-state and critically reflects on the site of the exhibition, Tafawa Balewa Square, the venue of Nigerian independence celebrations in 1960.”

Explaining further, Oshun noted that “the international exhibition of contemporary art, design and architecture originally scheduled for September 2023, will open to the public at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan and will run from February 3rd till the 10th of February, 2024.”

“In addition to its importance in nation-making in the early post-independence phase, and leisure activities in colonial times, hosting concerts during FESTAC ’77 marked a pivotal moment at this key venue because FESTAC’s enduring legacy lies in its visionary pursuit of a global-scale initiative to honour and amplify African cultures across the continent and its diasporas. Also, drawing inspiration from the 6th Pan African Congress in 1974, held in Dar es Salaam, I wonder, how can we reimagine this rich cultural inheritance in Lagos, fifty years later”, he added.

According to Kathryn Weir, the co-artistic Director of 2024 edition of the Biennial, “the event offers an opportunity to reassess the promises, disappointments, and ongoing ramifications of the nation-state model with its panoply of modes of governance under the aegis of global capital”

“The critical issues of this 21st century even though global in reach are played out in local, national, and regional spaces,” Weir noted.

The event which is Endorsed by the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is sponsored and supported by Royal Air Maroc, Terra Foundation for American Art, Guest Artists Space Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Institut Français Nigeria, Alliance Française Lagos at the Mike Adenuga Centre, Goethe Institut Nigeria, ko artspace, ProHelvetia, Friends of Lagos Biennial, and St. Nicholas Hospital,

Created and founded by artists in 2017, the Lagos Biennial is a not-for-profit contemporary art platform under the Àkéte Art Foundation, which is a Lagos-based artist collective registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria.

Through its activities, the Biennial privileges adventurous approaches to art-making, presentation, and critical discourse – aspiring to broach complex social and political problems, cultivate new publics, and establish fresh modes of engagement within the city, as well as throughout the country and internationally.

Entrance to the Biennial is free after registering at www.lagos-biennial.org/tickets. Follow @lagos_biennial on Instagram for more updates

4th Lagos Biennial: amplifying African cultures

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