The Nigerian Video Art Movement

The records
Media art and video art dates back to over forty years ago, in the mid-60s when the Korean artist Nam June Paik screened unedited video footages in New York night clubs. At the 2000 Dak’Art biennial of contemporary African art held in Senegal, the video works of the Cameroonian artist Goddy Leye was stirring up substantial debates for its novelty and validity as an art form within the biennale context. Dak’Art after that mixed experience have today ensured the inclusion of several video works in subsequent biennales. Therefore, affirming the presence of the medium and ensuring artists the creative freedom to experiment.

In 1997, a Nigerian artist Oladele Bamgboye exhibited Homeward: Bound, 1995-1997. This 9 minute, 30 second, 2 channel video projection captured the emotional and regenerative experience of Bamgboye’s returning home after several years of absence. It also documented the encountering realities of a different urban setting dissimilar to his country of sojourn, presenting a narrative of multifaceted portrayal of everyday life in Nigeria.

In the university town of Enugu, Eramus Onyishi is acclaimed to be one of the earlier Nigeria artists to experiment and incorporate moving images into his work. A student of Prof. El Anatsui, he started experimenting with the medium of video in 2000 and created three works in VHS format – I Can’t Take No For An Answer (2000); Locomotive Painting (2000); and Even The Ants Are Selfish (2000) – which were shown during the New Energies exhibition in 2001.

The formal inception of video art in Nigeria began in 2007 with a string of video art workshops organized with the support of Amsterdam-based video art foundation, the OneMinutes Foundation in Enugu (2007) and Center for Contemporary Art, Lagos (2008). In 2009, another video art workshop facilitated by artists from Cameroon and Brazil and led by the Amsterdam based Angolan video artist, Miguel Petchkovsky at CCA Lagos further expanded the platform for more artists to expressively re-construct, record and contribute to the understanding of new experiences, possibilities and dynamics within the environment, using the medium if video art.

For a contemporary metropolis such as Lagos, video art as a novel form of artistic expression has brought together unprecedented ways for artists to explores the discursive elements of its urbanity. As much as video art movement is gradually gaining momentum in Nigeria through exhibitions, workshops that gives artists opportunity to produce, create and partake in the information gathering process that contributes to the restructuring of the Nigeria contemporary art environment. Video art programmes in Nigeria is also consciously raising in the exhibition rooms debates on the idea of media art assuming a status beyond aesthetics and the use of video as a catalyst for a multidimensional flow of expression Other workshops, programs and projects by institutions such as the Goethe-Institut and African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) and more recently, Video Art Network (VAN) Lagos have equally revealed the creative dynamics of this contemporary art form.

Video art presentation
When the idea for a video art exhibition was raised in 2009 by the Director, CCA Lagos, Bisi Silva, the basic intent was to further explore in depth possibilities to pursue the medium, both formally and conceptually, within Nigeria. Based on the success of past activities on video art, the idea of the exhibition titled Identity: An Imagined State was conceived and developed.

The exhibition being the first international video art exhibition in Nigeria brought together the work of twelve video artists of different cultural, geographic and social backgrounds, who considered from both a local and global perspective, the subject around identity in relation to Africa.

It also explored associations with the label ‘African’ and was contextualized in a manner that reflects on, but without answering, ‘what or who is an African’. The participating artists produced works on themes that tell the story of belonging, displacement, uncertainty, visibility and negotiation through the medium of video art.

Video artists in Nigeria have also participated in global video art activities such as the Bamako Biennale, Oneminute Train at the Venice Biennale, International Video Art Festival, Casablanca, Festival Miden, Greece and others.

Documentation
This is a key to creating a legacy of valuable interactions, connections and debates on video art activity in Nigerian. It is also a fundamental to producing information in booklets, catalogues, archive of audio and video from Nigerian video artists that will significantly act as a contribution to the understanding of contemporary in Nigeria. Pertinently, the catalogue that accompanied the first video art exhibition, Identity: An Imagined State, seemingly is the only compiled publication on video art activity in Nigeria today. Also the accompanying video footages and video work collected during video art workshops held in Nigeria in as many years adds to the growing archive of video from Nigeria.

Interestingly, the emergent of the video art collective, VAN Lagos, with primary focus on promoting video art activity in Nigeria through screenings, workshops, production of works, further provides a platform for interaction, discussion and presentation of contemporary media art culture within and outside Nigeria.

The world video art day which was celebrated on the 22nd of June also jump starts the collective’s broad based activity on video art this season. As we commemorate this day with other video artists and institutions globally, VAN Lagos confidently positions itself as probably the only if not the only video art collective from Western African and specifically Nigeria to participate in this worldwide event.

Video artists and art spaces
When it comes to new media art and specifically, video art, a number of visual art spaces such as galleries, museums and institutes are still cautious of its time-based nature and conspicuous boundary with other ‘traditional’ artistic forms of expression. Current reflection on the state of media art demonstrate that video is yet to move into more mainstream art organisations, galleries and museums in Nigeria.

Art schools are yet to create specific departments or units for the purpose of dealing with this emergent technology based art so as to sustain the level of sharing, contextualisation, discussion and feedback that media art involves.

Conversely, there is an impressive participation of some Nigerian artists in media art initiatives within and outside the continent. They have taken up these opportunities and are using them to contribute to clarity in mapping the city of Lagos, redrawing the contours of its visuality and turning art in an adventurous direction that is intellectually engaging.

Irrefutably, with media related art gaining a dominant role in Nigeria, the emergence of video art marks a new beginning in visual art practice. Video art, in its technical and creative versatility allows for unequalled expressive freedom as it assumes a prominent role within the context of contemporary art. So, we must collectively encourage it to grow and position it within the visible sphere of international contemporary art culture through committed efforts, provision of technical equipment and support as well as through the organization of workshops, residencies and summer schools for emerging and professional video artists in Nigeria.