Goethe-Institut has announced the 2021 edition of its annual Lagos-Berlin
Residency.
A statement by the German cultural institute said that the aim of the successful exchange programme since its establishment in July 2015 has been to create a highly individualised programme that, in addition to enabling a work stay of several weeks in the respective cities, also includes an insight into the work of the partner institutions with opportunities for consultation, contact and exchange, as well as the presentation of results in various formats.
“The Nigerian side of this exchange programme is jointly organised by Goethe-Institut Nigeria and the Lagos-based creative incubator, 16/16 (pronounced “16 by 16”). The Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U), SAVVY Contemporary, the Office for Higher Education and Culture/ Department of Art and Culture in conjunction with the Gallery Wedding – Space for
Contemporary Art will take care of the Berlin side of the exchange,” said the statement.
This year, the residency in Lagos resumes with an on-site format: The Berlin-based Brazillian
artist, Luiza Prado, will work closely with 16/16 from mid-October to the end of November
2021.
Expanding on last year’s installation of a practice-oriented community garden at 16/16,
Prado’s project reimagines the garden as a space of encounter and coming together. The
project thus explores reproduction as a process that occurs beyond bodies, and within
broader geopolitical, environmental, economic infrastructures. Hosted by the project partner
within Lagos, this project also appraises local herbalist epistemologies as strategies for
survival, particularly in times where biological pathogens are actively being exploited for
the maintenance of colonial necropolitics.
Focussing on the plant-based parts of looted archival objects, visual artist and musician,
Obaro Ejimiwe will also visit Lagos from October to November as part of an ongoing
research on archives. During this period he will work closely with Luiza Prado and the
residency partner, 16/16.
This year’s residency also offers last year’s artist-in-resident, Monai de Paula Antunes a
chance to visit Lagos. Due to the global pandemic which disrupted travel routines across the
world last year, her residency could only be undertaken digitally. Her project aims to put
together a database of stories, sounds, testimonies, knowledge on household level food
production, native plants, urban gardening, seeds, fermentation… memories, dreams and
much more from the vast universe of aurality, especially when in connection to ecology. The
final stage of the residency is dedicated to archiving experiments using digital technologies
and experimental radio formats.
The Nigerian artist Jere Ikongio will take up a two-month residency in Berlin from the
beginning of September to the end of November. In the context of the Lagos-Berlin
residency project, he will explore elements of implicit bias in the protocols and politics of
artificial intelligence art, while investigating the role and processes of archiving and reimagining existing archives.
“As global protocols are rapidly evolving and advancing, artificial intelligence, increasingly,
gets to make some of the most important decisions about human’s privileges, access and
opportunities and will be responsible for deciding human life soon enough. I am planning to
explore the archives presented by ZK/U’s Publishing and CityToolBox Platform as well as
Savvy Contemporary’s Publications, Documentation Centre & Archive and/or Colonial
Neighbours Archive. I am hoping to activate the post-internet and contemporary
manifestations of archives and produce (a living) AI archive and program that is trained to
construct ‘new’ art based on modern and contemporary art from West Africa’’ says Jere
Ikongio.
For the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, which provides financial support for the residencies, this
exchange marks a renewed consolidation of artistic exchange between Germany and Nigeria,
whilst offering the interested public in both cities a fresh opportunity for a change of
perspective.
