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Artists are responding to
the call for entries and other materials relevant to the exhibition
and its enabling publications and related documentations. It is
expected that all text and images will have been received by the end
of February 2006. Between that date and the middle of March, some
members of the organizing team will make further visits to some
artists and critics with a view to fine-tuning data where necessary.
A total of about 120 artists were invited to participate in the
exhibition. It is our hope that at the expiration of the final
deadline at the beginning of February, up to 60% will have
responded. Since the curators have opted for a representative
approach in formulating the exhibition, this percentage will provide
enough basis for articulating a fairly historical perspective of the
development of modern art in Nigeria since the early 1900s. With
relation to text, it is expected that up to 80% of solicited text
will be received by the end of February, going by on-going
discussions and correspondences.
The exhibition will still commence in Dakar in May as planned. The
Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar will host the first phase of
the exhibition as one of the “offs” at the 2006 edition of the Dakar
Biennale of Contemporary African Art.
It is possible that the catalogue of the exhibition will not be
ready before the exhibition goes to Dakar, because of the slowness
of the inflow of text and images from artists and writers. To this
extent, a gallery guide will be produced for the Dakar exhibition,
while the planning of the comprehensive catalogue continues. The
catalogue, which will be published according to the highest
professional standards, must be ready before the Nigerian edition of
the exhibition in October 2006 (The same catalogue will be used for
the London, Amsterdam and USA editions of the exhibition in 2007 and
2008).
When the exhibition resumes in Lagos in October 2006, the following
will be used as venues:
Beyond Senegal and
Nigeria, there are serious plans to ensure that the exhibition
travels to Amsterdam, London, Berlin, and some cities in the United
States. These tours of the exhibition are planned to take place
between 2007 and 2008. As soon as the arrangements are complete, the
respective venues will be announced. |
