Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
26-31 July 2010
Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos is pleased to host the internationally renowned artists collective IRWIN, members of NSK (New Slovenian Art). Over a one week period of screenings, lectures and panel discussions, Towards a Double Consciousness: NSK Passport Project will take as its point of departure, NSK’s artistic intervention State in Time and its increasing significance in Africa especially within the context of Nigeria. State in Time, one of the most (in)famous projects produced by NSK, evolved out of their earlier activities, finding formation as a ‘state’ at the collapse of Yugoslavia and the coming into existence of the Republic of Slovenia in 1991. NSK’s State in Time transcends a physical geographical location or a defined statehood within a prescribed ethnic, cultural or religious belief, providing what IRWIN collaborator and writer Alexei Monroe describes as “a conceptual form of identification for individuals from diverse nationalities.“
Since the initial presentations around the world in the 1990s of State in Time the project is currently receiving a substantial number of requests for citizenship of the NSK ‘State’ from Africa especially from Nigeria. This has resulted in many Nigerians assuming a dual identity as holders of NSK and Nigerian passports. In view of these new developments IRWIN conducted interviews with African/NSK citizens living in London, to ascertain their reasons for applying. Could it be in support of the initial artistic purpose of NSK? Do they see it as an avenue with which to move from one territory to another? Or is it for other socio-political reasons? Towards a Double Consciousness: NSK Passport project will allow further debate on both the artistic and political implications of the NSK State in Time action, offering an examination of their original artistic interventions within the Nigerian context.
This project forms part of CCA, Lagos’ year long programme On Independence and The Ambivalence of Promise celebrating 50 years of independence by seventeen African countries including Nigeria on the 1st October 2010. It provides an avenue to interrogate notions of nationhood at a time when our ideas of citizenship is continuously being challenged by state policies such as Nigeria’s contentious ‘federal character’ system or through religious and ethnic disturbances such as the recent unrest in the city of Jos, as well as the perennial civic unrest of the oil rich Niger Delta. Towards a Double Consciousness attempts to interrogate the way in which artists propose and individuals search for alternative – real or fictional – possibilities that goes beyond notions of a fixed identity or geography.
Time for a New State, Lagos, 2010
Programme
26th – 31st July 2010
Screening: Research interview of NSK Citizens as well as artists based in Nigeria.
Friday, 30 July 2010 Time: 3 pm
Topic: Introduction to media art and the use of video in relation to other forms of new media, technology and performance in contemporary art.
Speakers include; Dr. Inke Arns, IRWIN members: Miran Mohar and Borut Vogelnik and Performance artist Jelili Atiku.
Saturday, 31 July, Time 2pm
Screening: 2:00pm Screening of interviews with African NSK passport holders living in London.
Panel Discussion: 3:00pm
Topic: NSK State: The Nigerian connection. A discussion on the significance of an artistic action made in Europe in the 90s on contemporary African consciousness.
Speakers include; Dr Inke Arns, IRWIN members: Miran Mohar and Borut Vogelnik, NSK member Eda Cufer and Nigerian NSK passport holders. Moderated by Loren Hansi Momodu.
