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By Editor
22 October 2017   |   3:40 am
Bisi Silva, the widely referenced art curator, will be moderating a seminar devoted to examining the new consciousness in curatorship at the Lagos Book and Art Festival.

Bisi Silva

Printmakers’ Association Clashes With October Rain

A new group named Printmakers Association, PA, will be inaugurated at The Quintessence in Ikoyi on October 28, the same day that October Rain 2017, the much publicised, much anticipated annual exhibition of the Lagos chapter of the Society of Nigerian Art will be open. Kunle Adeyemi, dean of the School of Art and Design at the Yaba College of Technology and coordinator of the PA, dismisses suggestions that the choice of date will hurt attendance at October Rain., which is dedicated to the memory of Rasheed Gbadamosi, the late art collector. “The sky is wide enough for millions of birds to fly”, he argues. “People will move from our event, which starts at 2pm, to the National Museum, to see October Rain. Jahman Anikulapo disagrees. “This kind of attitude suggests that the body of visual artists is divided”, he says. “The gallery circuit in Lagos is narrow”, he explains, “the creative and viewing community for visual arts in Lagos is a small one by global standards; this is neither New York, nor London so you should not be cluttering any day with visual arts events if you can help it”. The PA inaugural event will be attended by Bruce Onobrakpeya, patriarch of Nigerian art. There will be a lecture by Kunle Filani, the recently retired provost of the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta.

Bisi Silva To Moderate “Disruptive Explosion” At LABAF
Bisi Silva, the widely referenced art curator, will be moderating a seminar devoted to examining the new consciousness in curatorship at the Lagos Book and Art Festival. Art: The Disruptive Expansion will examine new developments in the art circuit and will feature a panel constituted by owners/curators of such large ambitious exhibitions as ArtX; The Lagos Art Expo; The Lagos Biennale; Ambode’s Public Art Initiative, The Lagos Photo Festival etc. A subtext of the conversation is the worrying dearth of criticisms to match these new developments. The core objective is to get the public to appreciate these efforts and offer critical notes on them; if possible, to assist the initiators in re-evaluation of content, form and; strategies to make them more viable. The event will hold at The Freedom Park on Tuesday November 7 at 1pm.

UNILAG Students to Interrogate J.P Clark at Book Fest
A dozen undergraduate students of English at the University of Lagos are currently reading J. P Clark’s America Their America. “They will use the insight gained to debate Professor Clark at a special mentoring session at the Lagos Book and Art Festival”, according to Jahman Anikulapo, Director of the 19 year old Festival. Clark, 84, wrote America Their America after he travelled to America on a fellowship in 1961 at the age of 28. It’s a literary non-fiction account of the trip. “How does Clark’s explanation of the America he encountered 56 years ago resonate with the Post Truth America presided over by Trump?”, Anikulapo asks. “That’s the kind of discussion we are hoping these young people will be having with JP, who is now a Grandfather figure”. The session is a product of the ongoing collaboration between UNILAG’s English department, headed by the Poet/Essayist Hope Eghagha and the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA). The America Their America session will be chaired by the novelist/short story writer Karen King Aribisala, who, like Eghagha, is a professor of English at UNILAG. The department’s other panel session at the Festival is entitled The Lagos Stories. It features students reading from stories informed by their experiences of Lagos. “We are trying to encourage our students to take active part in the literay life of the city”, says Eghagha. “LABAF is important”.

Calendar: Lagos: The Carnivals Continue
The year-end Culture Calendar for Lagos City features the Lagos Biennale, an ambitious Visual Arts exhibition and Artists Talks which continues on its third week at the Railway Compound and the Centre For Contemporary Art, running until November 22. Art X Lagos, the huge showcase of contemporary African art, happens between November 3 and Nov 5 at the Civic Centre on Victoria Island. The 2017 version of the Lagos International Poetry Festival runs from November 1 to 5 with the theme “Bridges From Walls,” bringing together 30 poets, writers and artists from around the world, in a feast of conversations, performances, and parties. Among this year’s star guests are Chris Abani and rising South African poet Koleka Putuma. The Lagos Book and Art Festival, tagged Africa’s largest culture picnic, will hold from November 6 to 12, 2017 at the Freedom Park on Broad Street. It features conversations around 15 books with a collective theme Eruptions: Global Fractures, Our Common Humanity. Niyi Osundare, the country’s Poet Laureate, will give the keynote address. The

By Eseoghene LabaCompiled by Staff of Festac News Press Agency

 

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