As we eagerly anticipate the start of Lagos Art Week at the end of October, we are thrilled to announce the arrival of Theophilus Imani, who will join us at G.A.S. Lagos until November 8, 2024. Theo’s residency sits within the framework of the Annotations Programme - a six-month project that explores major African cultural festivals and their dual nature as historic events and repositories of postcolonial pan-African encounters. A visual researcher based in Verona, Italy, Theo’s practice primarily focuses on the representation of the Black body within diasporic visual culture, particularly in the Italian context.
By engaging with the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive, Theo aims to conduct thorough archival research during his residency, deepening his understanding of the social and cultural contexts of FESTAC'77 - a major international festival of arts, music, dance, literature and culture held in Lagos in 1977. He is eager to create meaningful connections with the local community, which will enrich his insights on how the festival's legacy continues to influence contemporary art and culture. Through these interactions and research endeavors, Theo hopes to enhance his critical gaze and thinking, while creating new encounters between past and present that will reverberate into the future.
Little Black Book, 2020. Image courtesy of Adriana Monsalve.
What is the current focus of your creative practice?
Informed by Henri Lefebvre's theories of spatial politics, particularly "the right to the city", I am currently exploring how Black bodies in Italy are represented by the panoptic eye of Google. This research can be viewed as a form of counter-surveillance that examines the Italian terrain not only as a geographic space but also a psychic one. By meta-exploring the country and capturing and altering the readymade visuals, this new project corroborates a very simple yet fundamental thought of belonging: "this is our home."
What drew you to apply for this residency and how do you think it will inform your wider practice?
FESTAC'77 represents the epitome of cultural and artistic expression on the continent and the diaspora. As an individual, intimately shaped by his diasporic belonging, I am eager to take the opportunity to delve into the afterlives and reverberations of the festival, by engaging with the cultural community in Lagos and the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive. I believe this experience will hone my 'Black gaze' and provide new tools for expanding my visual language and furthering the artistic journey I have embarked on.
Diptychs from the series "Echoes and Agreements", 2017-2022, dibond. Image courtesy of Jule Hering.
Can you give us an insight into how you hope to use the opportunity?
It is essential to consider the relevance and impact of FESTAC'77 in relation to the social and cultural fabric from which it originated. I hope to use the opportunity to create moments of cultural and artistic exchange with local practitioners and the community, in order to deepen my understanding of both the visible and latent impact of the festival on contemporary artistic and cultural practices. Through archival work and research, the residency will enrich my exploration of the pictorial complexities to the African and diasporic belonging that I envision.
About Theophilus Imani
Theophilus Imani is a visual researcher who examines the representation of the Black body in diasporic visual culture. His research, mainly declined in the Italian context, is articulated through the exploration of digital and physical archives, paying particular attention to the production of black vernacular images. Adopting a critical gaze, informed by his political identity as a diasporic subject, he proposes new ways of reading known and lesser-known images through the creation of visual rhymes and dialogues between image and text.
About Annotations
Annotations is a six-month project that explores major African cultural festivals and their dual nature as historical events and repositories of postcolonial pan-African encounters. Led by co-curators Naima Hassan (Picton Archivist) and Maryam Kazeem (iranti press), Annotations will spark innovative approaches towards archival research by engaging the complex histories of FESMAN, PANAF, Zaire 74, and FESTAC’77
Supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
