Jelili Atiku brings 1922 Revisited to Lagos with performance and panel

Jelili Atiku will perform in Lagos on 4 November as Third Space Art Foundation and CCA Lagos launch the West Africa edition of 1922 Revisited. The program continues on 7 November with a public panel on colonial archives, restitution, and African cultural memory.

Why it matters: - 1922 Revisited shifts the project’s historical inquiry from Venice to Lagos, putting African cultural memory and restitution debates in a West African setting. - The Lagos program links performance, scholarship, and Indigenous knowledge to questions about how colonial archives shape the understanding of African heritage. - The initiative brings together artists and institutions across Africa, Europe, and the United States.

What happened: - Jelili Atiku will present Eyes No Dey Forget Wetin Heart See on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, at the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos. - Third Space Art Foundation and CCA Lagos are presenting the West Africa edition of 1922 Revisited. - The public performance runs from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. - The performance begins at the National Museum, moves through Military Street and King George V Road, and returns to the museum. - The work examines cultural memory, colonial histories, identity, public space, and Indigenous knowledge. - The program continues on Saturday, 7 November 2026, with Decolonizing the Archive Through Performance at CCA Lagos, 9 McEwen Street, Yaba, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

The details: - Atiku’s performance draws on Yoruba spiritual traditions, ritual movement, and the historical geography of Lagos. - The work follows a symbolic figure described as part spirit and part traveler. - The procession connects the National Museum with the living cultural landscape of the city. - The performance addresses colonial violence, displacement, cultural fragmentation, restitution, and belonging. - Atiku is an internationally recognized Nigerian performance artist and sculptor whose practice engages political power, social justice, environmental concerns, and Yoruba cosmology. - Atiku received the 2015 Prince Claus Award. - 1922 Revisited takes its starting point from the presentation of 33 African sculptures at the 1922 Venice Biennale. - The initiative examines how African cultural objects were collected, classified, and exhibited in European institutions. - The program’s first 2026 edition took place in Venice from 5 to 9 May 2026. - The West African edition extends the project’s focus to colonial extraction, cultural displacement, restitution, and Indigenous knowledge. - The panel at CCA Lagos will bring together artists, scholars, curators, and Indigenous knowledge practitioners. - Participants include Jelili Atiku; Taiwo Aiyedogbon; Tolulope Ami-Williams; Akin Oladimeji; Jumoke Sanwo; and Babaláwo Ifámúyìwá Akínwùmí Awóníran. - Oyindamola Faithful will moderate the discussion. - The conversation will explore oral history, ritual, embodied knowledge, and collective memory as tools for reconsidering historical archives. - The panel will also examine whether cultural restitution can include the recovery and transmission of cultural knowledge, not only the return of objects.

Between the lines: - The Lagos edition reframes archival debates as living cultural questions, not only institutional or historical ones. - Moving the project from Venice to Lagos places African artists and knowledge systems at the center of the conversation. - The focus on performance suggests that embodied practice can challenge written colonial records and expand what counts as historical evidence. - The program positions restitution as both a material and intellectual issue.

What's next: - The 4 November performance opens the West Africa edition of 1922 Revisited. - The 7 November panel will extend the conversation into public discussion at CCA Lagos. - Third Space Art Foundation and CCA Lagos will continue the project through collaborative programming that connects cultural institutions and artists across regions. - More information is available on Third Space Art Foundation’s official website and CCA Lagos’ official website.

The bottom line: - 1922 Revisited uses performance and public dialogue in Lagos to question how African heritage has been archived, represented, and reclaimed.