Re-imaging Futures

curated by Innocent Ekejiuba and Yinka Elujoba

Emeka Okereke, Lugards Rest House I, 2016, Lokoja, Nigeria
In 2016 and 2017, twelve Nigerian writers, photographers, and filmmakers traveled by road in two separate groups across the country for 81 days. Organized by Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographers Organization, the project, called Borders Within sought to cultivate new creative works addressing what it means to be Nigerian by attempting to decode both the contemporary and the historical. The first group traveled counter-clockwise around the country to retrace history and how it has molded the country?s present. The second group traveled clockwise, in an effort to understand contemporary Nigeria, and what it means to be Nigerian today and in the future.

Is it possible to escape what one has been named? By name, Nigeria is one country, but it is also a place that contains myriad identities and more than 250 distinct ethnic groups. In a country presently grappling with violence, political instability, ethnic crises, and a lingering shadow of a colonial past, showing the work resulting from this project now is timely. Visitors will be guided through and immersed in the motions of the road trip through a collage of images, audio-visual documentation, cartographic depictions, and public, site-specific interventions on topics pertinent to Nigerianness, such as masculinity, family, history, movement, and the Civil War.

Re-Imaging Futures: A Trans-Nigerian Conversation is the outcome of the Borders Within Trans-Nigerian Road Trip (2016 and 2017) an Initiative of Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographers Organisation.

  • artists:
    James Bekenawei
    Kemi Falodun
    Yinka Elujoba
    Emmanuel Iduma
    Nengi Nelson
    Kechi Nomu
    Kenechukwu Nwatu
    Zaynab Odunsi
    Emeka Okereke
    Amara Okolo
    Uche Okonkwo
Innocent Ekejiuba is a project manager and art administrator with varying interests that include art, technology, social media, traditional journalism, educational reforms, and history. He is also a tech enthusiast, media analyst, literary critic, and a media advisor to Barnhouse Publishing, Roving Heights Book Distribution, Sankofa Initiative for Culture and Development, and Fourth Canvas Design Agency. Innocent is currently the Project Manager for Invisible Borders Trans-African Organisation.

Yinka Elujoba is a Nigerian writer and art critic currently finishing up an MFA in Art Writing at the School of Visual Arts, New York. His texts have been published in different journals, magazines and exhibition catalogues and have also been part of exhibitions at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Krakow, Poland. He is currently the Director of Publications at Invisible Borders Trans-African Organization.



Installation Images

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view, opening reception.

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view, opening reception.

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Re-Imaging Futures Installation view.
 

Brochure Images

Emeka Okereke, Ruptured Rapture, 2016, Calabar
 

Emeka Okereke, My Name is Vulture, 2016, Asaba
 

Emeka Okereke, Here we think only of beginning of things, 2016, Makurdi

Kenechukwu Nwatu, Hill of Encounter, 2017, Ilorin
 

Nengi Nelson, Adura, 2017, Ibadan
 

Nengi Nelson, Para Soccer Team, 2017, Jos
 

apexart’s program supporters past and present include the National Endowment for the Arts, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, The Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.