ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Art category.

At Ake Arts and Book Festival

For the last six days since Tuesday November 19th, writers, artists, book lovers, poets, and a few politicians, have gathered in Abeokuta for the maiden Ake Arts and Book Festival. A brain child of writer and poet Lola Shoneyin, the Festival played host to hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of visitors in the rock-head town, home to Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka – himself a presence at the event which took place at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto.

The Festival featured the launching of Wole Soyinka’s play Alapata Apata as well as the command performance of the (Caine Prize-winning Rotimi Babatunde’s) stage adaptation of Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. There was also a number of “Book Chats” and dialogues with authors, as well as art exhibitions, symposiums, book fairs, one-one-one conversations with Wole Soyinka, poetry reading, among very many others.

Other writers and artists present for the Festival include Chibundu Onuzo (The Spider’s Daughter), Tope Folarin (Winner of the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing), Peter Akinlabi (notable poet), Teju Cole (Open City), Ikhide Ikheloa (writer and critic), Victor Ehikhamenor (artist, and author of Excuse Me!), Molara Wood (blogger and author of Indigo), Binyavanga Wainaina (One Day I Will Write About This Place), Eghosa Imasuen (Fine Boys), Ayodele Morocco-Clarke, Igoni Barrett, Christie Watson, Remi Raji, Marlon James, Pelu Awofeso, Tolu Ogunlesi, Toni Kan, Ayodele Olofintuade, Chuma Nwokolo, Kunle Ajibade, among very many others. There was also the governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi and the Commisioner of Health in Ogun State, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka.

Pictures courtesy of KT and Tamilore Ogunbanjo

Cocktail at Terra Kulture by Nollywood Workshops

Saturday night at Terra Kulture, at an event by Nollywood Workshops to introduce GIST – a resource for actors, movie producers, directors, and other movie practitioners. GIST, according to the Nigerian director Bond Emeruwa, is sponsored by a number of collaborators from in and out of Nigeria (and the Gates Foundation) and supporters in Hollywood and Bollywood who have deep and abiding interests in telling stories that carry factual and reliable health information. To achieve the overall aim of making Nollywood (and Hollywood/Bollywood) pay more attention to the veracity of the health claims made (even in passing) by characters in their movies, GIST is providing access to information resources that movie directors, producers, and actors can use before, during, and after the move-making process. It is free.

At the cocktail were the directors of GIST, including the aforementioned Bond Emeruwa (a TED fellow and a veteran of Nigerian movie industry) as Co-Director, Chris Dzialo, PhD (visiting from Los Angeles), Aimee Corrigan (from Boston), Eke Ume, and Temie Giwa (GHC Fellow and GIST Nigerian Program Manager). The actors present, about fifty of them, included Kunle Afolayan, Emeka Ossai, Tunde Kelani, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Yomi Fash Lanso, among very many others.

More about Nollywood Workshops here and here.

Writer Things at the Freedom Park

The Lagos Arts and Book Festival (LABAF) has come and gone, occupying the spaces of the (now named) Freedom Park on Broad Street. The annual event organized by the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA) took place between 15th and 17th November, and it featured a number of art-related activities from “Art Stampede” to “Book Trek”, “Jazz Nite”, “Writers’ Seminar”, “Musical Concert”, “Visual Art Exhibition”, among others.

I attended one day of the events on Saturday, which featured a colloquium/workship titled the Caine Prize for Nigerian Writing. It featured discussions by Caine Prize Winner Rotimi Babatunde and Caine Prize Nominee/Finalist Elnathan John. The session was moderated by James Baldwin lookalike Ogaga Ifowodo. Conversation ranged from the influence of foreign money in African literature prizes (with Elnathan taking the position that the source and stature of foreign prizes inadvertently condition the nature and content of African stories, and Rotimi arguing that the effect is negligent, or at best an equally important addition to the dialogue and the medium of storytelling). to the influence of the Caine Prize itself on today’s writing, especially its influence on breeding more fiction than poetry writers.

The Freedom Park where the events took place used to be a colonial minimum-security prison which housed famous inmates like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Herbert Macaulay, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, and Chief Anthony Enahoro at some point or the other. It also housed Esther Johnson, arguably its most (in)famous death-row inmate, sentenced to death in 1956 for the murder of her British husband who she stabbed with a pair of scissors in throes of a jealous passion. (More about her here). It has now been turned into a multi-purpose art venue with a serene environment for intellectual exchange. On Saturday however, it was a lively village of countless creative heads.

Guests at the Saturday event included writers and artists of various stripes, among whom were Victor Ehikhamenor, Ayodele Olofintuade, Pearl Osibu, Tade Ipadeola, Biyi Olasope, Toni Kan, Tolu Ogunlesi, Jumoke Verissimo, Molara Wood (author of the newly-released and critically acclaimed Indigo, a collection of short stories), Jahman Anikulapo (of CORA), Sylva Nze Ifedigbo among many others. There was music, drumming and dancing, and stage performances by a group of young children. There was also an exhibition of books and arts, with this blogger being able to buy a few – one of which was Teju Cole’s Everyday is for the Thief.

Voyage Retour: Exhibition on Broad Street

An exhibition project by Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, Lagos, took place on Saturday at the old Federal Government Printing Press on Broad Street, Lagos Island, adjacent from the Freedom Park (aka Old Colonial Prisons).

It was, according to the organizers, an exhibition of German and Nigerian photography on Nigeria and Africa. The content of the exhibition bears out the theme – photos spanning pre- and immediately post-independent Nigeria (and a few other African nation-states). It was also well-attended by interested art curators and producers in Nigeria.

These are a few photos from the event, featuring works from Nigeria, Leipzig, Ghana, Hamburg, and Congo, among others. Notable names under the works include Rolf Gillhausen (1922-2004), Wolfgang Weber (1932-1983), Germaine Krull, Robert Lebeck, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere (b. 1930), and Malick Sidibe.

The exhibition will be on from November 17 to December 1, 2013. 10am – 4pm (working days) and 12am-6pm (weekends).

Enjoy the photos.

More information at Museum Folkwang and Goethe-Institut, Nigeria.

Art and Company At Project Space, Lagos

The public art project of Nigerian artist Emeka Udemba was up for discussion at the weekend, at his stomping ground at Badore, Lagos where his “Lagos Open – Ajegunle Invitation 2013” international public art project was unveiled at a cocktail for writers, artists, and journalists. The street art project itself would be open for viewing on Saturday 16th November at Ajegunle, a result of a week-long work by various artists on public structures and street corners in one of Lagos’ most popular slums.

Of the housing complex called Project Space where the social gathering took place, Emeka was very effusive, and equally effacing. His enthusiasm about what he sees as a chance to make art relevant enough to engage society and engender social change was affecting as he showed us around all the rooms in the house, but so was also his humility. Art isn’t just for money, he said, but for a chance to affect society. The house is indeed private, as seen by the living quarters there where a few artists currently reside who are on residency in Lagos. It is also a public art project of itself, an art edifice built modestly and to taste in a quiet corner of the Lagos Islands. The ornateness of the simplicity of design was evident, as was the craft and deliberateness put into creating wide and stimulating spaces for artistic expression. The furniture was made with deliberate simplicity, crafted likely by local artists, and well places around the kitchen, living quarters, and the man-made lawn where many of the guests sat. Beside the fence were two bicycles resting against a coconut tree. In another corner of the house is a man-made pool, in case any of the residents feel like getting immersed in water.

This space, Emeka tells me, was acquired more than ten years ago, and was developed gradually with personal funds from private exhibitions across Europe. Now, he hopes to open it up for art gatherings and events as a way to contribute to the culture of Lagos art circuits as well as keep the structure utilized during the long spells he spends outside the country with his family in Germany. And while food, drinks, and barbecue flowed through the crowd present (which at some point included musician Ade Bantu, Marc-Andre Schmachtel, the director of Goethe Instituut, Lagos, Bayo Olupohunda – a columnist with the Punch Newspapers, and a number of other artists and journalists), the serenity of a Lagos evening made itself evident through the silence, the soft chattering, the blowing winds of the coconut trees, and the darkening whispers of an Island at night and at rest in good company.

The art project starts today Monday and ends on Friday. Artists from around the world will descend on Ajegunle to paint and work on public structures there in collaboration with the residents of the area. The finished product will be launched on Saturday 16th November. More information here.

Photos taken with a Lumia 820. More can be seen on my instagram feed /kolatubosun.

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