Azu Nwagbogu: Thoughts on the African Artists’ Foundation

Chadd Kortge

Apr 22 2015

Located in Lagos, Nigeria, The African Artists’ Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on the promotion, creation and discussion of contemporary African art - within the borders of the continent, and beyond. The Foundation’s director, Azu Nwagbogu, was recently in New York City promoting Art Base Africa, a new online platform advancing the critical debate of contemporary art in Africa. He sat down with Happening to tell us about the AAF, Art Base Africa, and what’s happening next.

How would you describe the AAF to those unfamiliar?

The African Artists’ Foundation was founded many years ago, working with contemporary art in Africa. Though it’s not just about African artists! It’s about people who are interested in the culture of the continent. We’ve created various platforms to network and support artists. They come to Lagos from all over - not just local artists. It’s about creating a continental destination for contemporary culture. And what’s important is that we’re not trying to create something exclusive for us. It’s inclusive, though on our terms, and in our own spaces.

Goddy Leye at AAF. "prêt-à-partager" An exhibition organised by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (ifa)

Tell us about the artist residency program you’ve established at the Foundation

We initiated that program because we thought it was important to create a dialogue between the artist and the curator when making art. So, from its inception, we’ve always engaged a curator to work with an artist as they produce the work. One of the first exhibitions we did with the program was called This is Lagos, in 2009. It was a two-man show with the sound artist Emeka Ogboh and painter Bob Aiwerioba. Both came and stayed at the Foundation - Bob from Benin, Emeka from eastern Nigeria. Emeka created a sort of soundscape of the city, and Bob created work that was inspired by the sounds. It was a great show. The residency has become all about collaboration.

"I think design is like the meta-sculpture that connects all of the various contemporary art forms"

You’ve begun to work more and more with African designers. Can you speak to the ‘blurred line’ between ‘artist’ and ‘designer’ that’s been a focus of some of your projects at the AAF?

I think this is a very timely concept at the moment. We are at a point where contemporary art has sort of come full circle, and the ‘object’ is what’s important now. And I think design is like the meta-sculpture that connects all of the various contemporary art forms. Having a good conceptual idea is important, but there needs to be a level of skill and craftsmanship involved in the object or the artistic experience. Design and photography prop up contemporary art today.

Akintunde Akinleye, Lagos Sand Merchants

And how did Art Base Africa come about? What makes a platform like this so important for the artists you work with?

One of the things we’ve found is that there is a sort of gap in the dialogue when we talk about contemporary art that relates to Africa. A lot of people know that there great artists in Kenya, in Mozambique, in Zimbabwe. But there’s no commentary on it. And if you can’t really engage a dialogue, then it’s not really important. It’s happening, but it’s almost happening in a vacuum, with no theoretical context.

"If you can’t really engage a dialogue, then it’s [art] not really important. It’s happening, but it’s almost happening in a vacuum, with no theoretical context"

And this culture of looking at art from an aesthetic point of view, it all becomes driven by purely bourgeois interests - like middle class people trying to buy art. It becomes decorative, and that’s not what art is about. Art needs to be pushing the boundaries of society and doing all of the wonderful things we know art can do. So we decided to create a space for contemporary artists, writers, curators to engage and meet. And since everything is happening online today, we created a platform to get curators from Italy, France, Africa, everywhere, to engage in this big evolution that’s going on. Africa needs to play a bigger part in Western civilization. So we’re going to be launching the next edition of the journal - a design edition - in Milan. We’ll have a design space where we’ll invite people from all over the world to come and engage in what we’re doing to broaden the discourse. We need to be thought of as relevant. Africa is here to stay!

We’ve been known to promote vernacular photography, documentary work, art photography. But I also think it’s important for us to support the work of photojournalism. And Akintunde is absolutely iconic. Lots and lots of young people are trying to get into photojournalism, and we thought it would be interesting to celebrate and show the work of an icon of the industry so he can offer shared experiences to the next generation.

http://www.africanartists.org
http://www.artbaseafrica.org

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Artists

Azu Nwagbogu: Thoughts on the African Artists’ Foundation

How would you describe the AAF to those unfamiliar?

Tell us about the artist residency program you’ve established at the Foundation

You’ve begun to work more and more with African designers. Can you speak to the ‘blurred line’ between ‘artist’ and ‘designer’ that’s been a focus of some of your projects at the AAF?

And how did Art Base Africa come about? What makes a platform like this so important for the artists you work with?

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