The Republic of Benin will have a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale for the very first time next year, joining the small but growing presence of African nations at the world’s longest-running contemporary art exhibition. Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of the non-profit African Artists Foundation (AAF), based in Lagos, will organize the inaugural exhibition, according to the announcement made Monday (March 13) by the government of the East African country. West.
Born in Lagos, Nwagbogu is known for his critical advocacy of African art, particularly photography, and his work to reinvent museums to better serve their localities. After founding AAF in 2007, a non-profit organization that supports contemporary artists and arts programming in Africa, he helped launch the LagosPhoto photography festival in 2010. In 2018 and 2019, he was director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, where he has co-organized exhibitions including a major exhibition on contemporary Zimbabwean painters. He was appointed to lead the organization of the Benin pavilion at the Venice Biennale by a joint selection committee composed of members of the National Gallery of Benin as well as the Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, and headed by the country’s president, Patrice Talon.
“We are delighted to have Azu Nwagbogu as curator of the Benin National Pavilion,” Talon said in a statement. “His unique background, vision and expertise in the field of art conservation make him the ideal candidate to showcase Benin’s cultural heritage and contemporary art to the world.”
Curator Azu Nwagbogu, who will organize Benin’s first presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2024 Courtesy of Azu Nwagbogu
The country’s participation in the Biennale is part of the government’s broader policy to engage in greater cultural diplomacy. Talon has made returning art looted from Benin a priority since his election in 2016, and in 2021 his government signed an agreement with France to receive 26 treasures stolen by the French military more than a year ago. ‘a century. In 2022, Talon’s office organized a very popular traveling exhibition that put these objects on display alongside works by contemporary Beninese artists. Title Beninese art from yesterday to today, from restitution to revelationthe show debuted at the presidential palace in Cotonou, where it drew large crowds, and is on display at the Mohamed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco, through May.
Nwagbogu has also been outspoken on restitution and repatriation, speaking on the topics at various panels and making it the subject of an issue of Africa art which he edited as a guest in 2020. In 2017, he also participated in a forum organized during the Venice Biennale on the under-representation of African nations at the international art exhibition. That year, only seven African countries presented national pavilions. The number is slowly increasing, with Ghana And Madagascar debuting in 2019, and Cameroon and Namibia unveiling inaugural pavilions in 2022.
Benin’s first pavilion will be commissioned by José Pliya, a playwright who is the general manager of La Galerie Nationale du Benin. The curatorial team will also include the gallery’s curator, Yassine Lassissi, who participated in the organization of the contemporary section of Beninese art of yesterdayand the architect Franck Houndégla.
