On the rails of a structure in Freedom Park Lagos—situated on what was Nigeria’s first colonial prison—hang several images. Titled “Afrotopias,” the body of work is part of the 15th edition of the international LagosPhoto Festival. The public park is one of the landmark spaces being activated for the event, which marks its inaugural edition as a biennial this year under the theme “Incarceration.” The recently opened Nahous Gallery—located inside the historic Federal Palace complex, where Nigeria’s Declaration of Independence was signed in 1960 and a key venue for the international festival FESTAC77—is also hosting the biennial. But this year, LagosPhoto Festival expands beyond Lagos to Ibadan, with work at New Culture Studios, built in 1970 and designed by renowned architect, painter and sculptor Demas Nwoko, a pioneering figure in Nigeria’s modern art movement.
“There were some specific locations that were quite important to the theme but the spaces had their own charged histories, and so the works showing in them had to be in dialogue with that,” lead curator Courage Dzidula Kpodo told Observer at the offices of organizers African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) in Lagos, which was recently reopened after two years of closure. “That was a very conscious decision, and I think largely comes from my training as an architect and how I think about space and its histories. The works that are exhibited are an activation of the space. People experience it in a very different way than they would if there were no work there. It gave us a very charged canvas for this show.”
<img decoding="async" class="lazyload wp-image-1600956 size-full-width" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" data-src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Cesar-Dezfuli-Amadou-S.-From-the-series-Passengers.-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-AAF-Large.jpeg?quality=80&w=970" alt="" width="970" height="683" data-caption='César Dezfuli, <em>Amadou S</em>. From the Passengers series. <span class="lazyload media-credit">Cesar Dezfuli, Courtesy of the artist and AAF</span>’>
The AAF offices, Alliance Française de Lagos and Didi Museum—founded in 1983 and said to be Nigeria’s first private museum—are also showing work as part of the biennial. The 2025 curatorial team, which includes Robin Riskin, Maria Pia Bernadoni, Vetum Gima Galadima and Kadara Enyeasi under the artistic direction of Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of AAF, presented the work of around 100 artists speaking to various types and meanings of the “incarceration” theme—be it self-imposed or by others, spiritual, ideological, psychological or political—through solo projects, collaborations, institutional exhibitions and screenings.
The work in the biennial spans photography, film, sound, installation and archives by a wide range of artists—from those who have been practicing professionally for about three decades to emerging artists and those still in school. These include the likes of Shirin Neshat, Ayobami Ogungbe, Cesar Dezfuli, Stefan Ruiz, Nuotama Bodomo, Yagazie Emezi, Fibi Afloe, Jesse Weaver Shipley and Gerald Annan-Forson. The New Culture Studios is activated to examine what the organizers call the urban and architectural dimensions of incarceration. The work on view in the studios also includes commissioned pieces by students at the University of Ibadan.
The artists whose work is featured in the biennial were selected following an open call, which was “quite successful because we had a very diverse group of work,” shared Kpodo. Previously, the team chose artists primarily through an internal nomination process based on their networks and research, which could be limiting. The open call filled that gap, and they received applications on “projects that we would otherwise not find. [Artists] were able to come to us.”
What did they look for in selecting the artists whose work is presented in the biennial? “I think we were looking for works that were layered and not very simple to read or to understand. We were looking for works that were also quite bold in the topics that they chose to examine. I think another big thing we were looking for was experimentation with the medium, and for us it was important to identify it in both established artists or even young and upcoming artists,” Kpodo explained.
The “cross-generational juxtaposition” of work presented in the biennial will be seen as speaking to shifts in perceptions and to the questioning of societies across generations, he added. “I hope people will pay attention to the fact that there’s more to what they are seeing. There’s usually a whole web of stories that gets summed up into what we end up presenting. What you are seeing is actually just a portal into something that’s much more.”
The LagosPhoto Festival Biennale is on view at locations in Lagos and Ibadan through November 29, 2025.
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