All roads lead to Dak’Art holding in Dakar. And the bus is the Molue Mobile Museum of Contemporary Art (MMMoCA).
For the second time in a row, six artists will travel from Lagos to Dakar, this time under the theme: “Stretched Terrains”.
The ‘bus’ art project is curated by Germany-based Nigerian artist Emeka Udemba. The bus started its journey on Tuesday, April 10, and will arrive in time for the opening of the 13th Dak’Art – Bienniale of Contemporary Art next month.
Goethe-Institut Nigeria Director Friederike Moeschel introduced the project to the audience and gave a background into the MMMoCA’s first two trips to Cotonou and Dakar at a briefing last weekend.
She said Goethe-Institut continues to collaborate with Udemba given the project’s relevance to art and to the artist community, particularly in the context of international and cross-cultural collaborations between German and Nigerian as well as African artists.
Udemba described the curatorial outlook as being based on an exploration of how topography influences not just culture, but also impacts the social, the economic and the political, with an emphasis on the experimental.
He emphasised the reason behind conceiving a Mobile Museum in 2004, as looking beyond a fixed address but offering a chance for contemporary art to be seen and appreciated by different people across locales. He related this to Goethe-Institut’s mission to bring art into the public space and how Dak’Art itself brings together artists from across the continent.
“Art is also about trying to start up a conversation among people. Their minds and consciousness are awakened. The essence of being an artist is the collaboration, and interrogation of other cultures. Such resolve cultural issues and differences,” Udemba added.
Supporting the Mobile Museum in showcasing art on the move are award-winning airlines Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines. “‘Stretched Terrains’ is a great platform to show the strengths of Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines in West Africa, working closely together and supporting the development of young African talents,” said Lufthansa General Manager Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, Robin Sohdi. He described the project as much more than a museum, but in turn, “a moving blank canvas”.
Monsuru Alashe, the Nigerian photographer, graphic designer and experimental artist, who was also on the 2016 Dak’Art trip, looks forward to profiling fellow participants, as well as the people and cultural differences to be encountered on the trip. The last trip had given him a chance to develop his writing skills. His work from that time has also been presented at the prestigious Harmattan Workshop founded and run by veteran artist Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya in Agbara-Otor, Delta State. First-time participant, Gabriel Goller, a German photographer, intends to transfer the photography style he developed in university into the project.
He described the challenge as exciting. Other artists joining the bus are Souleymane Konate (Cote d’Ivoire), Ray Clever Agbo (Ghana) and Dame Diongue aka Bay Dam (Senegal). They will be picked up at “bus stops” along the way to Dak’Art. During the journey, artists will research and simultaneously produce their works, which will be presented at Dak’Art, and at the Goethe-Institutes in Ghana, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire and the German-Malian Cultural Centre, Mali.
Ms. Moeschel thanked project co-sponsors Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines, as well as the media representatives for their support. She assured the artists and guests of the bus’s resilience and the measures put in place to ensure that the road trip – while not a luxury cruise – would be smooth for the participants in terms of healthcare, security, and immigration.
The press conference was followed by a tour of the Mobile Museum at the City Hall Car Park. Journalists and all present got the chance to hop on the solarpowered bus, and to see the facilities available to the participants.
The entire Stretched Terrains: Mobile Museum Trip to Dakar can be followed on a dedicated web-blog www.goethe.de/stretchedterrains and across social media platforms with #StretchedTerrains Stretched Terrains: Mobile Museum Trip to Dakar is organised by Goethe-Institut Nigeria, in co-operation with Goethe-Institutes in Ghana, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, and the German-Malian Cultural Centre in Mali. The project is supported by Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines. This year’s road trip will end with the return of the travelling group to Lagos in May.
Goethe-Institut Nigeria organises and supports a broad spectrum of activities that present the German culture in Nigeria and promote international cultural exchange through projects in cooperation with Nigerian partners.
Through these partnerships, the Institut encourages local creative development.
The MMMoCA to Molue Mobile Museum of Contemporary Art is a project developed by Nigerian-German Artist Emeka Udemba, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Nigeria. It aims at making contemporary art more accessible to the public as a mainstream element of the Nigerian social life and to de-eliticise the locations of creative encounters. MMMoCA provides creative spaces that challenge perceptions, interrogates society and sees the world not just through our own eyes, but through the eyes of other.