Nigeria has unveiled plans for its pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, which will take place from April 20 to November 24, 2024. This will be the second time the country has participated in the event, following its inclusion in the fifty-seventh edition, in 2017.
The pavilion is commissioned by Governor Obaseki of Nigeria’s Edo State on behalf of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Culture and Information. Curated by British Nigerian curator and art historian Aindrea Emelife, who is Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art at the Beninese Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), the exhibition is titled “Nigeria Imaginary”. The exhibition will feature works by eight Nigerian or Nigerian Diaspora artists – Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ndidi Dike, Onyeka Igwe, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Abraham Oghobase, Yinka Shonibare, Fatimah Tuggar and Precious Okoyomon – from different generations and at different stages of their careers. After the closing of the Biennale, the exhibition will travel to MOWAA, official organizer of the pavilion, where it will appear in an expanded form in 2025.
In a statement, Emelife said the exhibition, which will be held in a historic palace in Dorsoduro, close to the Gallerie dell’Accademia, “will explore different perspectives and constructed ideas, memories and nostalgia of Nigeria, with an intergenerational and inter-geographical scope”. Elsewhere she acknowledged the perfect fit of the concept within the larger rubric of the Biennale.
“It’s pure coincidence that Adriano Pedrosa’s theme for the Biennale is ‘Strangers Everywhere,'” Emelife said. The arts journal. “It speaks to me as a phrase about movement and evolution, finding one’s home and exploring one’s connection to the nation.”
Obaseki in a statement summed up the purpose of the pavilion, noting, “This exhibition, envisioned by Ms. Emelife with a diverse list of accomplished artists, encourages us to revisit the past in order to create a bright future for Nigeria.”
