THEME: ‘GROUND STATE – FELLOWSHIP WITHIN THE UNCANNY’
Cotonou | Ouidah | Port-Novo | Lagos
October 27th– December 31st 2023
Curated by AAF’s founder and director Azu Nwagbogu, and East Wing Artistic Director (Dubai, UAE) Peggy Sue Amison, the 14th edition of the international photography festival will foster a fellowship of dynamic spiritual change and rebirthing of the unimaginable through the theme ‘Ground State – Fellowship Within the Uncanny.’ The festival will present a special solo presentation by artist Omar Viktor Diop curated by Maria Pia Bernardoni.
This year’s theme; Ground State – fellowship within the uncanny seeks to explore the present moment and envision ways to restore, repair and restitute the mysteries of histories that are crucial for our survival.
Photography has always held the power of mystery to it; the malaise, reordering, syncopation and entropy of the twenty-first century presents all sorts of possibilities and anxieties. The past two decades progressed the era of post-truth that encouraged increasingly sectarian and tribal societies with photography playing a significant role. We have evolved from the dystopian post covid reality into the era of conflict, war, of the limitless and improbable. The environment is now measured in growing levels of devastation. Centuries of an extractive history has left indelible consequences: temperatures rise, long forewarned water wars are a reality. The “Doomsday Clock” inches forward in seconds to an apocalyptic midnight. Recalcitrant colonial mindsets continue to judge worth through an impossible hierarchy. Efforts to imagine futures, decolonise, activate and recycle have ended up with reformulated hierarchies with the same output but with different players. We are racing to a breaking point; a Ground State, where everything humanity understands and identifies as “common sense” is neither. How do we restore, repair, and restitute mysteries of oral histories and aspects that are necessary for our survival.
Populations will turn to artists to make sense of what has been referred to as a “catastrophic era”. LagosPhoto Festival seeks projects that explore the present moment and envision how repair, syncopation, putrefaction, restitution, and restoration will take place; challenging our own complicity in a culture of desire, founded on consumption and how to foster a fellowship of dynamic spiritual change, a rebirthing of the unimaginable.
This year’s edition marks the first time in its history that the event will be held beyond Lagos, extending to Cotonou, Ouidah, and Port-Novo in Benin. This geographical expansion offers a wider audience the opportunity to engage with the powerful works of talented photographers, challenging our own complicity in a culture of desire founded on consumption.
For more information visit- www.lagosphotofestival.com
