The ninth edition of the annual LagosPhoto Festival kicked off on Saturday October 27th and will run till Thursday November 15th, 2018.
Entitled ‘Time Has Gone’, LagosPhoto is the first international arts festival of photography in Nigeria. In a month long programme, events include exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions, screening, and large scale outdoor installations in congested public spaces in Lagos.
LagosPhoto aims to provide a platform for the development and education of contemporary photography in Africa by establishing mentorships and cross-cultural collaborations with local and international artists. LagosPhoto presents photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the promotion of social programmes, and the reclaiming of public spaces. The event will feature twenty-two photographers from over eighteen countries.
Time Has Gone, this year’s theme and conversation of interest is intended to explore contemporary dialogues surrounding different facets of time. Artists from around the globe have been invited to discuss, confront and wrestle with this idea of urgency. Each in their own way, they investigate the practices of archiving, preservation, imagining the possibility of an Afro-based future, putting an end to a ‘‘time that is up’’ or the never-ending desire to reinterpret a past, laden with both nostalgia and/or hidden phantoms.
Looking at time both from a macro lens and with West African goggles, the curatorial team sheds light on the long way to go, from the then to the now, investigating diverse configurations of time in the least linear way possible.
The festival is opened to the public at The Federal Printing Press Building on Lagos Island, Lagos. Satellite exhibition venues in arts and cultural spaces throughout the city extend to Omenka Gallery, Africans Artists’ Foundation, Gallery 16/16, Alliance Francaise, h.Factor and Railway (Yaba).
Outdoor exhibitions in public spaces in Lagos include Ikorodu Park, Falomo Roundabout (Ikoyi) and Freedom Park.
