The Lagos Biennial is set to return in 2024 with its 4th edition, themed REFUGE. The international exhibition of contemporary art will take place from 3 to 10 February 2024 at Tafawa Balewa Square on Lagos Island.
The biennial with artistic directors Kathryn Weir and Folakunle Oshun, will explore the concept of the nation-state and critically reflect on the site of the main exhibition, Tafawa Balewa Square. The square is named after the first Nigerian Prime Minister and was the venue of Nigerian independence celebrations in 1960, as well as the Festival of Black Arts and Culture FESTAC ’77.
The Lagos Biennial 2024 will bring together artists who explore how to create an operative notion of refuge that can offer alternate paths towards constructing renewable communities and work towards climate justice in this historical moment of systemic crisis. It 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 biennial will feature a range of exhibitions, projects, and events, including:
* REFUGE teams, a series of autonomous collaborative platforms responding in different ways to the theme of REFUGE, produced by teams who took part in the online 3rd edition of the biennial in 2021.
* Gregarious architectures, special projects and existing works by artists speaking to the theme of REFUGE, the site of Tafawa Balewa Square and notions of informality in building new architectures of community.
* CAPTCHA, an exhibition project curated by Egyptian art historian, curator, and educator Sarah Rifky and Lagos Biennial co-artistic director Kathryn Weir, reflects on regimes of seeing and strategies of taking refuge in plain sight.
* Worldmade communities, a convening for participants with a stake in cultural infrastructure that builds capacity and alliances across Africa and elsewhere. Aspiring to reclaim and celebrate contemporary art as a community and worldbuilding practice, the programme is curated by Sarah Rifky and Kathryn Weir with interventions by Romi Crawford and the New Art School Modality.
The 2024 Lagos Biennial is supported by the Guest Artist Space G.A.S Foundation, who are facilitating research residencies for several participating artists. The Lagos Biennial production is supported by A White Space Creative Agency AWCA Lagos.
Lagos Biennial is proud to announce a three-edition partnership with Royal Air Maroc as Official Travel Carrier.
The full list of participants for the 2024 edition of the Lagos Biennial will be announced in November. Visit www.lagos-biennial.org for more details and travel information.
