Marketing Director, Tate Modern, Marc
Sands (left), Deputy Director, Alex Beard and GTBank’s General Manager and
Head, Communication and External Affairs Lola Odedina, in Lagos…recently.
African
art is set to take its place in the international space, so suggests an ongoing
partnership between Guaranty Trust Bank and U.K-based Tate Gallery.
These areas of interests were
highlighted during a briefing by the representatives of GTBank and Tate at the
bank’s new head office in Victoria Island, Lagos. It was the third of such
gathering, involving Nigerian art community and members of the media, which
offered the partnership an opportunity to restate that indeed the rest of the
world is waiting for African art to be a big player on the global stage.
Two of the themes to be in focus at the
yearly events, he said would include Interdisciplinary Practices and Politics
of Presentation.
The partnership, which took off with
four artists selected across the continent continues with curatorial, funding
for Tate and regular art events across Africa.
First unveiled in Lagos last year, and
presentation of the project’s curator, Elvira Dyangani Ose, done last March,
the partnership will take a multi-facets form. Ose, is a well-known curator and
scholar in the field of African art. She will take up her post next month and
curate the GTBank annual project for Tate Modern as well as contribute her
expertise to the collection and Tate programmes, the organizers explained.
The two partners are not new to African
art and artists. Recent of such partnership was the involvement of GTB and Tate
in the Yinka Shonibare’s celebrated installation, Nelson in Ship mounted at Trafalgar Square, U.K.
Lola Odedina, General Manager and Head,
Communication and External Affairs listed the content of the partnership: “the
creation of a dedicated curatorial post at Tate Modern to focus African art;
establishment of an Acquisition Fund to enable the gallery enhance its holdings
of works by African artists and organization of an a yearly art project in
London or in African cities.”
She recalled that last year, progress
was made in the collection aspect of the partnership when the Africa
Acquisition Committee (AAC) was launched. Chaired by Tutu Agyare and Robert
Devereux with 26 other members, including Bolanle Austen-Peters and Prof Oba
Nsugbe, the committee has been saddled with the task of assisting Tate in
collecting African art.
Odedina disclosed that the art events
wing of the project takes off with Across the Board next month in the U.K. as
well as Accra, Ghana and Douala, Cameroun in 2013. In 2014, the event berths in
Lagos. Odedina stated: “the three main purposes of the projects are: the
creation of platform to engage with local art scenes and its protagonist,
curators, artists, scholars and institutions, enhancement of Tate’s collecting activities
and to generate new dynamic and experimental types of programming at Tate.”
Speaking on how contemporary African art
can redefine international art history, the Deputy Director, Tate Modern, Alex
Beard noted that “early in the 1990s, it was possible to show without African
art.” He however argued that with the increasing dynamics of artists within and
outside the continent, “it is no more possible to show without African
content.”
Three of the top artists present at the
briefing included Nike Okundaye, Abiodun Olaku and Alex Nwokolo. While
commending the partnership, Olaku urged for an extension of corporate support
to the art schools in Nigeria. He noted the alarming rate of depreciation in
art studios of higher institutions.
For Okundaye, a growing army of artists
needs to be reassured of their future. She argued that “with over 30, 000
artists in Nigeria more support will go along way in assisting” the young
professionals.
Already four artists Kalder Attia, Sammy
Baloji, Michael ManGary and Adolphus Opara flagged off the yearly events with
Contested Terrain, last year. Shown at Level 2 Gallery at Tate Modern last year
and at Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Lagos in January 2012, it was
co-curated by the two venues.
By Tajudeen Sowole
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