A new phase of the residency exchange, an opportunity for artists living and working in Berlin and Lagos initiated in 2015 for young artists and curators, is taking place this year in Berlin and Lagos from mid October to November 30 this year.
With the theme, “Archives”, their limitations, power structures, and their current manifestations, this year’s residency in Lagos will for the first time will be virtual.
Known as the Nigerian half of the exchange programme, it is jointly organised by Goethe-Institut Nigeria and the Lagos-based creative incubator, 16/16, while 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 handle the Berlin side of the exchange.
Berlin-based artist, Monaí de Paula Antunes, is scheduled to work closely with 16/16 from mid-October to the end of November 2020 to implement an online project about radio and audio archives.
According to Antunes, while restructuring the residency at 16/16, it became increasingly clear how important the public programme and the community-related aspects of her project are in order to fully execute it.
She added, “This is why the initial stages and the groundwork are designed to awaken people’s interest in working on radio programmes and horticulture by offering lectures, workshops, and discussions in which knowledge is shared and exchanged.”
In addition to the joint installation of a practice-oriented community garden hosted by the project partner in Lagos, “this project aims to assemble stories, sounds, records; knowledge about domestic food production, indigenous plants, urban gardening, seeds, fermentation processes; memories, dreams and much more from the vast universe of orality into a database, especially if they contain ecological knowledge”.
The final stage of Antunes residency focuses on the archival experiment, using digital technology and experimental radio formats.
She expressed that it would create a solid framework for a sustainable and constantly growing collaborative radio and a sound archive that offers the possibility of replication by other radio and archive enthusiasts.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian artist, Afopefoluwa Ojo presently working in the Netherlands, is taking up a three-month residency in Berlin from September to November.
Her project reflects on the question of archives from a poetic point of view. “Berlin is one of the most vibrant cities. I’m very excited to come to a place of innovation that lies between two of the most exciting cities at the moment – Berlin and Lagos; cities that are brimming with artistic expression,” she enthused.
During this process of creating and learning, she says she hopes to collaborate with great institutions such as the Goethe-Institut, Savvy Contemporary, ZK/U, Galerie Wedding, and 16/16 to re- conceptualise ways of archiving.
Ojo said, “I am also looking forward to exploring how archives can be presented visually, artistically, acoustically, technically and others.”
For the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, Goethe-Institut Nigeria, which provides financial support for the residencies, the exchange marks a renewed consolidation of artistic exchange between Germany and Nigeria.
It also offers interested public in both cities – Lagos and Berlin – a fresh opportunity for a change of perspective.
