Google Arts and Culture Celebrates Lagos with #MyEkoForShow Spotlight

Google Arts and Culture Celebrates Lagos with #MyEkoForShow Spotlight

Internet giant Google, today, profiled the creative side of Nigeria’s commercial capital and stylized Centre of Excellence for its Google Arts and Culture spotlight.

The feature encompassed a multimedia exploration of the bustling metropolis’ vibrant arts and culture scene with interviews and features on the major players in the music, film, visual arts, performing arts, literature, fashion, food as well as cultural and art centers in the city.

With a tagline that boasts “meet the movers and shakers shaping Nigeria’s electrifying city,” the multidiscipline ensemble did just that as it explored Lagos in all its pulsating creative and artistic glory.

For the Eko ni Wa (We are Lagosians) feature, ten Nigerian women writers who lived/had lived in the sprawling city and whom Lagos has had an influence in their writing. They each wrote mini-essays and short stories on what Lagos represents to them. The array of award-winning writers includes Chika Unigwe, Molara Wood, Lola Shoneyin, Sefi Atta, Ope Adedeji, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Precious Arinze, Ukamaka Olisakwe, and Jumoke Verissimo with illustrations by Yemisi Aribisala.

The Lagos visual art discipline was well represented by headliners such as acclaimed artist and photographer Victor Ehikhamenor, artist and gallerist Nike Davies-Okundaye, curator and gallerist Adenrele Sonariwo, artist Ayobola Kekere-Ekun, art director and design Daniel Obasi, documentary photographer Yagazie Emezi, musician and publisher Teezee DRB, curator Oyinkan Dada, and artist Nengi Omuku, all featured in an image and video slideshow combo titled ‘Homecoming’.

“My responsibility as a visual artist is to project my country in a much bigger and brighter way outside Nigeria. It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” Ehikhamenor said in the mini-documentary. 

Highlighting the immense growth and influence of Nigerian contemporary art and artists on the global arena, Teezee DRB said, “Its (Lagos’ contemporary cultural scene) creative energy is fuelled by the fact that it has such differences in society,” and as the cultural melting pot that its status as the largest black city in the world bestows on it, “it’s also the craziest city in the world, everyday life in Lagos is an experience.”

The spotlight also beamed on the hair art and surrealist interpretation of Nigerian Artist J. D. Okhai Ojeikere, and paintings of the popular Balogun Market on the other side of the Lagos Marina by Alex Nwokolo; as well as the sculptures that dot the Lagos landscape and mark important parks, bus stops, and monuments.

Nigerian textile art of Adire, Aso-Oke, and other traditional African weaving, and the city’s performing art centers, museums, and galleries were not left out of this digital profile of the city. And at the end of the immersive experience, you are left with a feeling of having an intimate relationship with Lagos and a nostalgic longing for a city you've never been to. 

Google Arts and Culture is a non-profit initiative that works with cultural institutions and artists around the world to preserve and bring the world’s art and culture online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere by digitizing and publishing high-resolution images and collections that showcase the unique appeal and lifestyle of a place.

The Eko for Show showcase by Google Arts and Culture was put together in partnership with some cultural institutions including African Artists Foundation, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos Fashion Week, and Terra Kulture.

This digital journey through the nerve of the city proves its prominence in driving the global proliferation of African art and culture, giving paid to the saying that an idea whose time has come cannot be stopped. This is the same force that Aworanka, the leading online aggregator of African art and galleries, sprang from.

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