NIGERIA PAVILION,
LONDON DESIGN BIENALLE
Sector
Public
Location
SOMERSET HOUSE, LONDON
Year
2023
CATERINA PEREIRA, MARINA GUBBINS, RICHARD AINA,
POLAM CHAN, MICHAEL
PRODUCERS
ADEWUNMI ADEGBOLA,
ZULUM ELUMOGO
Photographer
CHRISTIAN CASSIEL
Theme: The Global Game, Remapping Collaborations
Title: Natural Synthesis
Natural synthesis is a term first coined and then deployed to full precision by Uche Okeke and members of the Zaria Arts Society. An approach to cultural production that honoured ancestral codes and methods. One that stood in firm opposition to the detached and decontextualised education of pre-independence Nigeria. A term open enough to draw and infer. To propose and to observe.
Nigeria’s Pavilion is an observation of a Natural system, elegant and poetic in its design. One of alliance between the seemingly barren Sahara Desert and the vastly expansive and bio diverse Amazon Rainforest. Insects, the most successful animals on the planet were used as devices to map this relationship. These crucial environmental agents & carriers served as an allegory of this exchange.
Viewers were greeted by a 7m long, Steel stick insect, designed as a sand depositing system onto a bed of hand formed leaves. A subtle bow, serving as it’s only mechanism.
A model of the Chinguetti Tower, a key monument at the Center of several trans-saharan trade routes of the 13th Century stood firmly in the space behind a colourful arrangement of circles, mapping the Climate and Vegetation of the continent of Africa.
The pavilion stood as an ode to the power of difference. A call for a return to Intra-African connection. A reflection of a contemporary hybrid society where people work in synergy towards shared and collective concerns
It was an honour to have Ladi Kwali’s vessels, which she masterfully decorated with leaf motifs. She will remain a National beacon of excellence eternally.
