I C A F LAGOS 2018 CURATORIAL TEAM
ARTISTIC DICRECTOR
Aderemi Adegbite created and curated a monthly literary art project, Poetry Potter, between 2006 and 2010. Also, in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos (CCA Lagos), he initiated and curated P.A.G.E.S – a project that serves as the confluence of literature and visual art. Between 2012 and 2013, Aderemi joined the travelling exhibition – Africa: See You, See Me – where he worked as an assistant to the Curator, Professor Awam Amkpa.
As a visual artist, Aderemi has participated in some residencies and workshops: Bayreuth with Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS), Indonesia with Biennale Jogja XIII, Berlin with NeueSchulefürFotografie, Photography Masterclass with Akinbode Akinbiyi in Lagos, Goethe-Institut’s Photographers Master Class at the LagosPhoto Festival 2013 and The Nlele Institute African Centre for Photography workshops series, Lagos OPEN RANGE 2015.
CURATOR – AT – LARGE
Ayodele Arigbabu is a writer, architect and creative technologist. A member of CORA Art & Cultural Foundation, he served as the organisation’s festival director for four years up until 2015. He has worked in different capacities in publishing, as an architect, designer, and on projects involving digital media, animation, game development and other digital technologies. He has also researched, consulted and been involved in projects on the borderline between architecture and urbanism, most recently with Heinrich Boll Stiftung’s broad ranging focus on urban resilience and affordable housing in Nigeria.
He is the publisher and editor of LAGOS_2060, an anthology of science fiction from Nigeria, published in 2013 and was curator of African Futures: Lagos, a festival on diverse future perspectives of the African continent, produced by Goethe Institut in three African Cities in 2015. He is the founding director of Design And Dream Arts (DADA) Enterprises, and Design & Applied Digital Arts Studios, the creative vehicles through which his practice in design, the arts and digital technologies find convergence.
FILM CURATOR
Onyeka Nwelue is one of Africa’s most prolific young persons, with over 9 published books, 4 films and has taught in universities in Hong Kong, India, South Africa, the US, Malawi and Sweden. He’s an award-winning writer, filmmaker, TV show host and educator, who won the ‘Best Director Award’ at the 2018 Newark International Film Festival. A Visiting Assistant Professor of African Studies & Literature at Manipur University, India, he’s author of the bestselling creative non-fiction, Hip-Hop is Only for Children. His first novel, The Abyssinian Boy was published nationally and internationally, winning the TM Aluko Prize for First Book and Ibrahim Tahir Prize for Fiction. He went on to publish Burnt, which was translated into different languages, including Spanish. His novel, Island of Happiness, has been adapted into an Igbo Language film as, Agwaetiti Obiụtọ.
He wrote, produced and directed the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nominated documentary film, The House of Nwapa. He studied Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, before gaining scholarship to study Directing at Prague Film School in Czech Republic. He was a recipient of the Prince Claus Ticket Grant in 2013 and became a Research Fellow at Center for International Studies, Ohio University.
SPOKENWORD CURATOR
Adebola Afolabi (REZthaPoet) is a Business Consultant, Poet, and Spoken Word Artist. As a writer and poet, his works delve into different cultural and artistic shifts by using the spoken word poetry genre to educate, engage and entertain a growing and displaced middle class whilst probing the notion of identity and culture and at the same time seeking the binding factor towards unity, in acknowledgement and celebration of diversity. His most recent chapbook, Beautiful, One (2018), is a bold collection of poems that share experiences on love, sensuality, and lust as a departure from cultural silences. Exposit (2016), his Spoken Word album, embodies a beautiful hybrid of language, traditional folklore, transatlantic artistic developments and an accessible poetic content.
Recently, he works and creative installation were hosted at the ‘Lipton & Literature’ book party alongside M.I (the rapper and record label executive) amongst others – identified as strong, vibrant writers and performers in contemporary Nigeria. He was also recently (September, 2018) a panelist and commissioned poetry curator for the maiden edition of the Minna Arts and Books Festival (Minna BAF). Earlier in the year (February, 2018), he was hosted by the Kwani Open Mic in Nairobi.
In previous years, he had performed at A Local Act for Peace, a one-day cause festival championing peace in the world which was simultaneously beamed across three locations; Stockholm, New York, and Lagos. He has also been featured in major culture events like SpokenWord Paris (France), Lingua Franca (South Africa) and in other parts of Europe. REZ has been a panelist, guest, and performer at the Lagos Books and Arts Festival, and the Lagos International Poetry Festival.
As a business consultant, his consulting experience span top multinationals across the oil and gas industry value chain, Retail industry, Agriculture services, pharmaceuticals and discreet manufacturing spread across East, West and South of Africa as well as parts of Europe. He is also a volunteer consultant to many SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria where he supports Entrepreneurs on his Network.
I C A F Lagos 2018 