‘Nigerian Identity,’ ‘Pony Congo’ displayed in Abuja

Various works including ‘Nigerian Identity’ by Ima Mfon; ‘Pony Congo’ by Vicente Paredes; ‘The Superwalés’ by Patrick Willocq and ‘Awoulaba/Taille Fine’ by Joana Choumali were exhibited last Thursday at the Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Abuja as part of the photography exhibition ‘Designing Futures.’ The week-long event, organized by the Institut Français du Nigéria, the Embassy […]

Various works including ‘Nigerian Identity’ by Ima Mfon; ‘Pony Congo’ by Vicente Paredes; ‘The Superwalés’ by Patrick Willocq and ‘Awoulaba/Taille Fine’ by Joana Choumali were exhibited last Thursday at the Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Abuja as part of the photography exhibition ‘Designing Futures.’
The week-long event, organized by the Institut Français du Nigéria, the Embassy of Spain in Nigeria, the Thought Pyramid Art Centre in partnership with LagosPhoto – International art festival of photography in Nigeria, will give the opportunity to the Abuja public to discover part of the 2015 LagosPhoto exhibition.
According to the Director, LagosPhoto, Azu Nwagbogu, 14 artists were exhibited and each artist showed about eight images.
On how the artists were selected, Nwagbogu said: “The theme of the exhibition is Designing Futures, each artist exhibited had work that embraced aspects of the theme and demonstrated a broad approach to critical design aesthetics and photography and above all the works all have a strong sensibility that relates to Africa.
With questions about how well the works told Africa’s story, he said: “It’s less about representation and more about ideas. We want to tell our own stories but how these stories are told and the skill and creativity that is utilised in the visual narrative is really important. I believe the works speak for themselves and Adeoye outstanding.”
Other works exhibited were, ‘The Ghetto Tarot’ by Alice Smeets; ‘White Shadows’ by William Ukoh; ‘Sartist Sport’ by Andile Buka and ‘The Prophecy’ by Fabrice Monteiro.
There was also ‘The Yellow T-shirt’ by Onise Abuzaid; ‘Waiting for Spring’ by Daniel Donnelly; Wotsit all about’ by James Ostrer and ‘Another’ by Kadara Enyeasi.
The event also featured the launch of the book ‘Africa under the Prism, contemporary African Photography’ edited by LagosPhoto, as well as a masterclass, facilitated by the French photographer Sami Trabelsi, which holds from June 4 to 10.