‘The Nigeria Imaginary Is Dialogical’
Aindrea Emelife on the Meaning of the Nigeria Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
‘The Nigeria Imaginary is dialogical,’ Aindrea Emelife, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) and of the Nigeria Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, told me via email. She was responding to a series of questions I had shared in April 2024, just before the official opening of the 2024 Venice Biennale. For weeks, teams from The Republic and Pavilion organizer, MOWAA, had been reviewing a selection of essays we had commissioned for this special magazine issue on the Nigeria Pavilion; we were also assessing entries for a cover contest we had designed to spearhead the issue. I was curious about the eight artists Emelife had selected for the Pavilion, how diverse and diasporic they were, being based in Nigeria, Canada, the UK and the US. I asked Emelife if she had intended to make a statement about the fluidity of Nigerian identity today. She had not, she said. Instead, her goal was to provoke more general discussion: ‘I ask questions, the artists ask questions, you should leave, hopefully, with even more questions.’ The Pavilion, she explained, ‘is a site of discussion, not a lectern.’
The Pavilion is Nigeria’s second at the Biennale, the first having been in 2017. In her edition, Emelife sought to provoke new questions about Nigerian identity and thinking. ‘Curating with a national objective is a curious task indeed,’ she explained. ‘I received advice early on to try not to get too swept up by politics. That being said, I kept Federal Character in mind, and I wanted to sway towards a greater representation of women artists to correct a historical imbalance.’ Connecting this year’s pavilion to the 2017 pavilion, Emelife noted that, ‘The theme of the first Nigeria Pavilion was “How about now?”—very much interrogating the idea of inclusivity as well as representation. This pavilion takes it on in an even more bombastic way.’
Economically, these are tough times in Nigeria. Questions about the significance of art amidst economic uncertainty, while potentially reductionist (art and artists are also affected by and indeed shape the economy), are inevitable. But what emerged in my conversation with Emelife, was the need to consider this moment as an important opportunity for Nigerians to discuss not only where Nigeria is headed, but also where the country is coming from. In putting together the Pavilion, ‘It was clear from the beginning that there should be a community consultation, to capture the many varying views and perspectives of Nigeria today,’ Emelife said. Yet the success of the Pavilion may not be easy to read just now or deducible through the usual metrics (viewers, reviews etc.). ‘Success, for me, cannot be read immediately,’ Emelife told me. Additionally, with MOWAA intending to stage the exhibition in Edo State later this year, ‘The real success, I hope, will be when this exhibition returns,’ she said. Read our full conversation below.
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