By Tajudeen Sowole
The
modern ruins, captured by the roaming lens of Gbré's camera, are not in any way
compared to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but the depth of the
resplendent imaging confirms the strength of photography in architecture
documentation. A body of work from the images - shot in Bamako, Mali;
Itiberias, Israel, Lome, Togo and Porto-Novo, Benin Republic - is currently
showing as Abroad at Art Twenty One, Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria
Island, Lagos. It ends tomorrow. Abidjan-based Gbré is showing Abroad under
the collaboration of
Art Twenty One and Galerie
Cecile Fakhoury.
Disused State House, Lome, Togo showing as part of Abroad at Art Twenty One, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
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On the left side of the exhibition space are
images of victims of the computer age in the unkept, old analogue printing
press machines captured at National Press building, Porto-Novo. Parts of the
images include waiting room and car garage with a 1980s Renault. As much as the
photographer's capture of the images tells a story of so many things, the car
garage also exposes the depth of poor preservation culture of the people.
"The building is over a century old," Gbré tells me ahead of the
opening of the exhibition as the works were being mounted on the expansive
walls at Art Twenty One.
Clearly, these images tell a story of parts
of the Benin Republic's history, in architecture, that dates back to German
rule over the West African country, which is being lost to non-preservation.
Elsewhere
in Lome, Togo, the story is different; culture of preservation exists in an old
government house said to have been functional during the reign of one of
Africa's notorious dictators, Gnasingbe Eyadema. Also built by the Germans,
perhaps over 100 years ago, the building, even in its state of non-functional state
house, is properly kept. In fact, recent historical contents include parts of
the walls that show relics such as bullet holes that brings back the memory of
military combats for the control of the country.
However, it's not exactly clear if the
photography of the palace seen from Gbre's lens would not be the only reference
left of the old Togolese state house. The edifice is perhaps not standing today
with those bullets-riddled walls and architecture features of its colonial
builders. The photographer discloses, "I was asked to come and photograph
the building two years ago before renovation started."
At Art Twenty One, the star of Gbré's Abroad
is a space or site-specific picture of a disused Olympic size swimming pool
at Modibo Keita Stadium, in Bamako, Mali. The presentation of the work creates
an installation illusion as the picture is cut out and pasted on the wall, deep
inside an inner space of the exhibition hall.
Quite an incendiary curatorial presentation, the picture physically
lifts the swimming pool from Mali onto the Lagos space. The installation style
presentation, Gbré's explains, "reflects the looming effect of the place
as it was when I photographed it."
On the
invitation of a friend to Israel, five years ago, he came across quite a number
of disused buildings, some of which he features in Abroad. His roaming lenses did not spare similar buildings in
Paris, France.
Caline Chagoury, curator at Art Twenty One
notes that Gbre's work balances "his gaze between the micro and the
macro," as he "captures the minute details of the architecture, with
its rusted ladders, eroded concrete, and faded signs."
Gbré
graduated in photography at the École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques in
Montpellier, France. After working as a fashion photographer, his practice
evolved to focus on exploring African stories through portraiture and urban
design. His work has been included in major international exhibitions such as New
Africa (Casablanca, Morocco), We Face Forward (Manchester, UK), the Visual
Arts Festival of Abidjan (Ivory Coast), and the 8th and 9th Bamako
Encounters - African Photography Biennial (Bamako, Mali).
In 2010, his work was nominated for the Danny
Wilson Award at the Brighton Photo Biennial and was awarded Second Prize
at the Tarifa PHOTOAFRICA competition.
Last year, Gbre was invited to Lagos to
document the stretch of the Kuramo Beach and the ongoing Eko Hotel and Suites
project. He has a few photographs of Lagos still in the works, that “are too
late to meet the Abroad show."
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