Alliance Francaise, Goethe-Institut keep Lagos’ culture landscape rocking
* Deep Curating, Passage, Une r’Ekpè Planting Masterclass, others
By Editor
AS Lagos International Poetry Festival 2023 wound down over the weekend, Lagos International Festival of Animation 2023 opens today, Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos. The animation festival opens with a panel session on ‘Investment in Creative and Digital Enterprise: Prospects and Opportunities’, and will have Promise Ike George, Mbuotidem Johnson, Tunde oluwa, Richard Oboh, Ife Adebayo and Sam Onyemelukwe, as discussants with Esther Kemi Gbadamosi moderating the session. Other important sessions will hold virtually tomorrow just as the festival closes with a cocktail party at Mike Adenuga Centre on Thursday, November 2, 2023.
At Goethe-Institut, Lagos, the art seasons is in full swing. “Une r’Ekpè (song of the soil)” is still showing. Opening times are Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm. Today, Tuesday, October 31 @6pm, the curator’s talk titled ‘Deep Curating’ will hold. It’s a curator’s talk and presentation on deep, sustainable curating and discourse on ‘Existing Otherwise’. Solvej Helweg Ovesen (b. 1974, Denmark) is a curator and cultural studies theoretician. She recently curated ‘POLY: A Fluid Show’ at KINDL. She is currently the Artistic Director of the communal Galerie Wedding-Space for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany.
On Thursday, November 2, @6pm Goethe will host the Lagos premiere of the dance solo performance “Passage” by The Future of Dance Company. The piece delves into the crucial triad of human experiences, the day of our arrival, the revelation of our purpose, and the indelible impact we make before departing. We continue on Friday, November 3 from 10am with “Tag der Muttersprache – Day of The Mother Language”. The event includes speak-dating, open mic, a cultural parade, games, and lots more.
After learning some new languages, you can stay and learn something new on the life of plants! Join us for the “Une r’Ekpè Planting Masterclass”, a planting propagation masterclass which will be led by Stacey Ejiroghene Okparavero (Ravvero) as part of the Une r’Ekpè (song of the soil) exhibition. Participants will have the opportunity to co-create an outdoor plant installation at the Goethe-Institut that will grow during the exhibition. Come out to learn how to multiply the plants that you have and push back against the loss of nature in our city!
Then on Saturday, November 4 @12pm, there will be a compelling conversation on “New Horizons for Contemporary Art Practices” that features storyteller and cultural producer, Jumoke Sanwo, fashion designer, technologist, artist, and filmmaker, Malik Afegbua and Goethe-Institut’s resident Studio Quantum technologist and visual storyteller, Ifeoluwa Osunkoya. Together, they will embark on a journey into the frontiers of contemporary art practice in Nigeria. This event pays homage to those who have fearlessly pushed the boundaries of their artistic expressions and seek to address the challenges that creatives may encounter in their pursuit within the country.
Following this enlightening conversation, we invite you to a screening of “DZATA: The Institute of Technological Consciousness,” a film by Lo Def Film Factory, a South Africa-based art-making initiative. This captivating film re-imagines Africa’s role in the planet’s historic techno-political landscape. Its aim is to embark on a robust exploration of the pathways that creatives can tread to flourish as contemporary artists.
Finally, the first Lagos Art Book Fair at Arts X, organised by We Make Books, a project by the Goethe-Institut Nigeria holds. The Lagos Art Book Fair at Art X Lagos is a dedicated space for the celebration of art books, zines, serial publications, and other printed materials related to contemporary African and diasporic art. The event includes a curated art book display, art publishers’ showcase, and in-person interactions with the artists, writers, curators and publishers behind the featured art publications. This will take place on Saturday and Sunday, November 4-5, from 10 am – 7 pm at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Federal Palace Hotel, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos.
