" Where contemporary African art is concerned, curatorial endeavours
over the past two decades have focused extensively on interrogating
recent political developments, primarily within the contexts of
subjectivity and identity formation, citizenship, environmentalism and
urbanism. These issues have been approached predominantly in the context
of post-independence euphoria and its disillusionment, particularly in
African countries that have experienced civil strife, voluntary and
forced migration and even societal disintegration. While exhibition
projects exploring these concerns do well in critically broaching many
of the topical concerns and contemporary realities in various regions,
they have also tended to result in skewed narratives that frequently,
though inadvertently, result in “Afro-pessimism” or situations wherein
the continent is positioned as an emblem of perennial crisis. What then
might a critical engagement with the subject of love offer us as an
intervention?
The presentation of
The Progress of Love at Centre for
Contemporary Art, Lagos will explore the question or problem of love
through a series of unfolding events and of works in a range of media,
highlighting performative artistic practice that has yet to receive
adequate presentation or critical engagement within the field of
contemporary art in Nigeria or, more broadly, in West Africa. The
performance work of
Jelili Atiku (Nigeria) and
Wura-Natasha Ogunji
(USA) will explore the subject of love within the contexts of familial
bonds and personal memory, while performative installation works by
Temitayo Ogunbiyi (Nigeria) and
Valérie Oka
(Ivory Coast) coerce viewers into interactive projects that take the
technical and ephemeral dimensions of romantic emotions as subjects of
inquiry. The moving image forms an integral aspect of the exhibition
through the works of
Zanele Muholi (South Africa) and
Andrew Esiebo (Nigeria), with their insightful and topical documentary projects as well as
Adaora Nwandu’s
(Nigeria) short films which foreground lived experiences and fictional
stories from the perspective of same-gender love confronting a continent
that considers such affections taboo. Inspired by personal experiences,
family ties, tradition, technology, and local literature, these works
express joy, loss, absence, pain and difference; they invoke memory,
challenge prejudice and articulate togetherness in lyrical and at times
satirical ways.
The Progress of Love at CCA, Lagos opens up a dialogue
through presentations that challenge the audience to expand their
positions, rethink their preconceptions and prejudices and engage in the
multiple ways in which love affects their life. The growing visibility
of the role of the performative in contemporary art is in itself akin
to a political act. With a younger generation of local artists breaking
free from the historical dependence on painting and sculpture, live art
provides new possibilities and flexibility for transgressing media
boundaries and opening up a space for articulating complex ideas about
their experiences and daily realities—a space where art converges with
life and impacting the way we critically engage and actively explore
love today. " excerpt from e-flux announcement
