A Film Screening of The Salt of the Earth and a Discussion on Developing an Artistic Practice with Kwadwo Asiedu
On December 12th, 2025, G.A.S. Lagos hosted Cultivating Your Creative Purpose, a workshop for emerging artists and cultural practitioners. The event featured a screening of The Salt of the Earth by German filmmaker and photographer Wim Wenders and Brazilian filmmaker Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, followed by an artist-led dialogue with Kwadwo Asiedu.
The 2014 documentary chronicles the life and work of renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado, whose striking black-and-white images have captured major moments in recent history. Through the film, viewers traced Salgado’s journeys across continents and his profound engagement with humanity, the environment, and visual storytelling.
Following the screening, Kwadwo led a guided discussion focused on helping young artists explore their personal narratives, cultivate meaningful inspiration, and develop an artistic practice that is both authentic and transformative. Drawing on his own experiences, Kwadwo encouraged participants to consider how their environments, histories, and lived experiences inform their work. He shared how his upbringing within the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), surrounded by one of West Africa’s largest preserved rainforests, shaped his understanding of the natural world as a partner in creative thinking, influencing his artistic process and approach to observation.
Throughout the session, participants engaged in reflective dialogue on key questions central to building a grounded artistic practice. These included identifying the experiences, environments, and moments that form the roots of their creativity; examining how daily observation and presence influence their work; exploring recurring themes, emotions, and questions that drive their practice; and considering how challenges, doubts, or moments of disconnection can lead to growth, reinvention, or new directions. Attendees were also encouraged to reflect on the responsibilities and intentions that guide their work and how their practice contributes to connection, understanding, and renewal.
Throughout the workshop was intentionally open, reflective, and conversational, creating a space for participants to reconnect with what moves them and to consider their creative purpose in relation to their environment, community, and personal histories. By drawing inspiration from Salgado’s journey and their own lived experiences, participants were invited to recognise the threads within their lives that shape their work, fostering clarity, confidence, and a deeper sense of direction. Cultivating Your Creative Purpose at G.A.S. thus provided a regenerative space where emerging artists could engage with both the practical and philosophical aspects of developing a practice, leaving with renewed insight into their own artistic voices and motivations.
Event Details
Date: 12th December, 2025
Time: 4:30pm - 7:30pm
Location: 9b, Hakeem Dickson Drive, off T.F. Kuboye Road, Oniru, Lagos
About the Facilitator
Kwadwo A. Asiedu
Kwadwo A. Asiedu (b. 1987) is a self-taught Ghanaian – Mexican artist and photographer, currently based in Lagos, Nigeria. He holds a Master's degree in Environmental Management from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Raised within the grounds of an agricultural institute, The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, (IITA), home to one of West Africa’s largest preserved secondary rainforests, Asiedu's early life was deeply intertwined with nature's rhythms and intricacies. This upbringing fostered a lifelong reverence for the living world and a visual practice rooted in abstracted landscapes. Drawing on elements of flora, fauna, and ecology, Asiedu's work investigates humanity’s fragmented relationship with nature. His artistic approach positions him not as a creator, but as a conduit, translating nature’s emotive force into visual forms that critique, honour, and reimagine our place within the Earth’s ecosystems.
Photo of Kwadwo A. Asiedu. Image courtesy of Jochi Photography Studios.
Header image: Official film still from The Salt of the Earth, courtesy of Into Film.