At the 60th Venice Biennale, Aindrea Emelife Seeks To Reimagine Nigeria

“There's a lot of pressure to do this very well,” Emelife tells OkayAfrica. The 27-year-old curator and art writer is one of the fastest-growing professionals in her field. Emelife began writing an art column for the Financial Times at 20 and has curated well-lauded exhibitions for both Somerset House and Christie. Alongside holding the reins to the Nigerian Pavilion this year, Emelife is also leading Modern and Contemporary curation at the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), currently under development in Benin City, Nigeria.

In the weeks leading up to the opening of the Venice Biennale, with pre-opening events starting April 17, Emelife has been in Venice to oversee the installation of the artworks she has curated. Her days are filled with a rigorous routine marked by early mornings and approving big and small details, some as minute as achieving the correct shade of green to match the Nigerian flag.

“I'm getting lovely notes from other curators who have either been in similar positions or who are in the African art field. They're just thrilled that this is even happening and it makes you realize that there's so much symbolism for this, especially when there's been a lack of representation historically,” Emelife says.

These works engage with and seek to make sense of Nigeria as a cultural identity, but also an unknowable, ever-evolving entity, all within the scope of the imaginary. Emelife’s intention while curating the exhibition is to broaden the perspective and understanding with which Nigeria is engaged.

Emelife’s journey to curating the Nigerian Pavilion began in 2022. After returning from that year’s Biennale, Emelife began wondering and asking why Nigeria had not presented since 2017. Thankfully, there was already some talk about bringing the pavilion back and Emelife got to work sketching an idea. “I thought very much about a concept that would be important for the world to see about us, but also I wanted it to be something that would benefit local audiences and engage with things that were valuable to us,” Emelife says.

The planning of the Biennale coincided with the arrival of a new government, a period that prompted a lot of imagining among Nigerians about what their visions of the country looked like. “I was really struck by how potent our sense of ideating our nation is and how in doing so, the different people that have different ideas, with their different perspectives, shed light on different historical pasts,” Emelife says.

Some of the artworks created for the pavilion build on this sentiment. Venice Biennale veteran Precious Okoyomon spent January 2024 speaking and recording conversations with over 60 people residing in Lagos — Nigeria’s most populated city — for her art installation. The installation is a sonic exhibition activated by motion sensors on a makeshift tower where those recordings will be playing from. Meanwhile, Odutola’s work addresses creative fluidity as she taps inspiration from the Mbari Club — a space that brought writers and artists together in 1960.

The Nigerian pavilion — which will return to Nigeria after its run at the Biennale and made a few international stops — has been hailed as the most staggering presentation at this year’s Biennale, if for nothing, but the sheer brilliance of the artists presenting and the vibrancy of their ideas. The return of Nigeria to the Biennale coincides with the explosion of Nigeria’s art scene, from music to film and food. This year’s outing could boost investment interest in the art scene and perhaps increase involvement of the Nigerian government in the art sector.

Still, for Emelife, the presentation at Venice is only a small part of the larger vision. “In many ways, when it tours back to MOWAA, it will reach its true intentions,” she says. “These imaginaries can become action points and if the next generation can be inspired, then that's a big achievement.”