Lagos, home for all – collab between Dutch & Nigerian makers
Under the somewhat vague but nonetheless ambitious slogan ‘resilient communities, inclusive cities, just societies’, the Dutch Stimuleringsfund provides funding for creative projects that bridge European and African culture. This grant allows creators to reach across borders and work with colleagues you would otherwise never meet in daily life.
Animation studio Mooves (Amsterdam, Netherlands) joined forces with VX Animation (Lagos, Nigeria) for a multimedial exhibition about urban life in Lagos.
Nigerian economy has been booming since the 1980s, and with the economy, the Nigerian comic and animation industry started to grow as well. VX Animation started as a comics studio, focusing on the African answer to superheroes: spirit heroes. This concept caught on, and the team was able to branch out to animation.
Founder Somto Ajuluchukwu states in an 2017 interview they strive to “explore the culture and push African stories forward, not just for the Nigerian market alone, but for the world market – just like the Japanse anime culture became viral.”
The cross-continental collab resulted in ‘Lagos, home for all’: five animations and one comic by six creative teams, strung together by graphic black-and-white posters. The posters connect to digital experiences via augmented reality (the free Artivive app), so you can visit the exhibition and watch the animations on your phone.
Each story highlights a specific Lagos landmark and its role in the community. Lagos is one of the largest cities in Africa, with a population of at least 17 million, and counting. This comes with a myriad of challenges.
On a practical level: how to house the population and keep the city as liveable as possible. But also: how can you preserve specific cultural traditions and identities in an ever expanding melting pot?
One landmark that ties into the Stimuleringfund themes seamlessly is Makoko Floating School. It was Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi‘s solution to problems like climate change and urbanization: a wooden structure, kept afloat on plastic barrels, where children from Makoko neighbourhood could go to school.
Another work focuses on the textile market of Tejuosho, an interesting example of cultural cross-polination. Dutch colonial history is especially on display here. When they colonized Indonesia, the Dutch megacorporation VOC also tried to co-opt the traditional Indonesian batik technique (wax prints). After sales in Indonesia dwindled, Dutch fabric moguls took their production lines to the African market.
This blend of influences – Dutch, Indonesian and African – resulted in a seemingly endless variety of patterns and color schemes. On Tejuosho Market you can find a large selection. The VX-team took this history as inspiration.
Lagos, Home For All will be officially launched at Cross Comix, 12-13 Sept in Rotterdam, with the showcasing of the six posters and an artist’s talk. After that, it will become a traveling exhibition in both Lagos and the Netherlands.
