The online third edition of the biennial in 2021 took place after a series of multidisciplinary teams responded through an open call process to the theme of REFUGE, with 13 teams finally selected by a jury composed of Kunle Adeyemi, N’Goné Fall, and Kathryn Weir. The finalists produced conceptual videos about their proposals that were lauched online in December 2021.
From 3-10 Febuary 2024 some of the REFUGE teams will physically present their proposals at Tafewa Balewa Square in the context of the fourth edition of Lagos Biennial.
04.12.2021
MARE A MARE
Artists: Meriem Chabani (France/Algeria), Zoe Paul (UK), Mohssin Harraki (Morocco) Leone Contini (Italy),Asuncion Molinos Gordo (Spain)
Curator: Anïssa Touati (France)
07.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
AS THE CARBON WE ARE
Artist: Jade Montserrat (UK) In collaboration with INIVA
Curator: Alexandra Moore (UK)
06.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
ALIENS IN ERITREA
Artists: Sephora Woldu (Eritrea/USA), Shushan Tesfuzigta Eritrea/USA), Rezene Tsegai Eritrea/USA), Nahom Abraham Wael (Eritrea), Gzoly Vishnu Balunsat (Philipines/Germany/USA)
Curator: Sephora Woldu (Eritrea/USA)
05.12.2021
OUTSIDER
Atists: Martinka Bobrikova (Slovakia), Oscar de Carmen (Spain), Anto Lloveras (Spain)
Curator: María Alejandra Gatti (Argentinia/Italy)
08.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
EWORO YI NGBE: PLANT TEMPLE
Artist: Yussef Agbo-Ola (Nigeria/USA)
Curator: Olaniyi Studio (UK)
09.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
RADIO BORN THROW WAY
Artist: Adéọlá Ọlágúnjú (Nigeria)
10.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
TRACES OF ECSTASY
Artists: Temitayo Shonibare (Nigeria), Nolan Oswald Dennis (South Africa)
Evan Ifekoya (UK), Raymond Pinto (USA), Adeju Thompson (Nigeria)
Curator: KJ Abudu (UK/Nigeria)
11.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
THE ALBANIAN CONFERENCE
Artists: Anna Ehrenstein,(Germany), Fadescha (India) Rebecca Pokua Korang (Germany)
Blair Opara and Clinton Opara DNA (Nigeria)
Curator: Shaunak Mahbubani (India)
12.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
XTRÆNCESTRAL
Artists: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald (USA/Liberia), Julia Cohen Ribeiro (Argentina), Lina Lasso (Colombia), Jasmin Sánchez (Brazil), Florencia Victoria Gomes (Argentina)
Curator: Kukily, afrofeminist arts collective
13.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
MUSING THE BORDER
Artists:Helena Uambembe (South Africa/Angola), Kiluanji Kia Henda & Paulo Moreira (Angola/Portugal), Marina Camargo (Brazil), Sammy Baloji (DRC)
Curators: Paula Nascimento (Angola), Suzana Sousa (Angola)
14.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
HANGING IMAGINARIES
Artist: Feda Wardak (Afghanistan/France)
15.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
BLACK TALES
Artist: Mónica Miranda (Angola/Portugal), Chullage (Portugal/Cape Verde)
Curator: Cindy Sissokho (UK)
16.12.2021 11:00 WAT GMT+1
DATA CENTERED COLLECTIVE
Artists: Temitayo Ogunbiyi (Nigeria), Lisa Ann Parks (USA), Laila Shereen Sakr (USA), Miha Vipotnik (Slovenia) Data Centered Collective
Curator: Temitayo Ogunbiyi (Nigeria)
Jury
N'Goné Fall
N’Goné Fall is an independent curator and cultural policies specialist. She graduated with distinction from the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. She has been the editorial director of the contemporary African art magazine Revue Noire (1994 – 2001). She curated exhibitions in Africa, Europe and the USA. She was a guest curator of the Bamako and Dakar biennales respectively in 2001 and 2002. She is the author of strategic plans and evaluation reports for national and international institutions. She has been a visiting professor at the Senghor University in Alexandria, Egypt; lecturer at the Michaelis School of Arts in Cape Town, South Africa; and the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey in Niger. In 2018, N’Goné Fall has been appointed by the French President Emmanuel Macron General Commissioner of the Africa2020 Season, a series of more than 1,500 cultural, scientific and pedagogical events all over France from December 2020 to September 2021.
Kunlé Adeyemi
Kunlé Adeyemi is an architect, designer and development researcher whose works are internationally recognised for originality and innovation. He is the founder and principal of NLÉ – an architecture, design and urbanism practice founded in 2010, for innovating cities and communities. Adeyemi’s notable works include ‘Makoko Floating School’, a groundbreaking, prototype floating structure once located in the lagoon heart of Lagos, Nigeria. Makoko Floating School has since evolved into ‘Makoko Floating System (MFSTM)’ – a simple, prefabricated, building solution for developments on water – now deployed in 5 countries across 3 continents. This acclaimed project is part of NLÉ’s extensive body of work – the ‘African Water Cities’ – which explores the intersections of rapid urbanisation and climate change. In 2016 NLÉ was awarded the Silver Lion Prize for its second iteration of Makoko Floating School (MFS II – Waterfront Atlas) at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Other NLÉ projects include A Prelude to The Shed in New York, USA, the Black Rhino Academy in Karatu, Tanzania and the Serpentine Summer House at the Royal Kensington Gardens in London, UK.
Kathryn Weir
A curator, writer and researcher based in Paris, Kathryn Weir is the co-artistic director of the Lagos Biennial 2021-2024, and teaches curatorial studies at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. She is currently collaborating with Tai Kwun Contemporary on the exhibition ‘Green Snake: women-centred political ecologies’, which opens in December 2023 in Hong Kong. Appointed artistic director of the MADRE contemporary art museum in Naples, Italy in 2019, she was previously director of multidisciplinary programs at the Centre Pompidou, and created ‘Cosmopolis’ there in 2015 as a platform for research-based, socially engaged and collaborative practices across broad geographies. She also established the annual festival ‘MOVE: performance, dance, moving image’ at the Centre Pompidou, with the first edition in 2017 focusing on the figure of the amateur and participation. From 2006-14, at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, she was chief curator of international art, directed the Australian Cinémathèque, and was a member of the curatorium of the 5th, 6th and 7th Asia Pacific Triennials, as well as leading the major project ‘21st Century: art in the first decade’ (2010-2011). Her curatorial and writing practice engages with critical thinking on gender, technology, race, class and political ecology.
