Exkursion Lagos, Nigeria

From 3 to 11 November 2022, we travelled to Lagos in Nigeria with a group of 7 students to artistically survey the "Tafawa Balewa Square" (TBS) within a week. The Lagos Biennial will take place there in September 2023 under the theme "Rufuge", curated by former guest Prof. Folakunle Oshun. In the winter semester 22/23, scenographic ideas will be developed for this in an accompanying seminar.

The excursion was organised in cooperation with the University of Lagos and the Goethe Institute. Various analyses of the square were carried out in small groups over the course of the days. The square is a brutalist concrete architecture and where once was a horse racing track, later a military parade ground, there is a local trade fair on our first visit. The entire square is filled with wooden stalls and tents where well-known and unknown companies offer their products. Curator Folakunle Oshun gives us an introduction to the square and repeatedly emphasises that, in his opinion, Lagos does not need a biennial because Lagos itself is a biennial. For example, the logic of a market in Lagos is that it always looks the same as a collage, but a stall can be located somewhere else in the morning than in the evening. This "processual" aspect also interests him in his research work, in which he talks about the independence of countries in the sub-Saharan region and realises exhibition formats in post-colonial architectures.

Various aspects of the square will be analysed in small mixed groups, including structures and materialities, economic contexts and the auditory characteristics of the 14-hectare square. Thanks to the local students, we can get in touch with the people on site. The result is a kind of kaleidoscope that contrasts the materialised narrative of this colonialist architectural monument with the relationships and feelings of the population towards the square.

In addition to the field research in and around the TBS, we explore other locations in the metropolis of over 14 million people. These included a former prison, which architect Theo Lawson converted into the so-called "Freedom Park", the "Crown Arts Factory", a small theatre school, the "Jelosimi Art Center" gallery and the National Theatre, where the second edition of the African Festival of Arts and Culture FESTAC 77 took place in 1977.