LAGOS (Reuters) – Toddlers on bicycles and wealthy women in tunics of bright African fabrics represent a dystopian future where plants and flowers replace the real things destroyed by climate change. An infrared image of a flashed past a screen.
They were among the hundreds attending the annual ART X Fair in Nigeria’s bustling commercial hub, Lagos, which welcomes more than 120 artists from 40 African countries and diasporas. .
The theme of the fair was ‘Who will gather under the baobab tree?
“We wanted to use art and creativity to tackle all the challenges we see in our society,” founder Tokini Peterside-Schwebig told Reuters.
Just beyond the fair, floods devastated farmland and displaced more than a million people. In central Nigeria, where agriculture is thriving, conflict is aggravated by desertification. Drought is also increasing food insecurity in other parts of Africa.
Artists are seeking to assert their cultural identity by finding solutions for Africa, as African and other world leaders strive for a global agreement to combat climate change. said at a fair that ended Sunday when they began gathering for the two-week UN conference in Egypt.
“I think it’s very important to provide a platform here at home, so that people can directly feel your emotions, your anger and all the stories that you’re driving in the first place… that’s exported to the outside world.” The world before,” said 30-year-old Julius Agbaje, who exhibited his paintings at the fair.
Obi, 24, stood by her favorite piece and said she most appreciates pieces that highlight African culture and African solutions.
“What type of person would we be if we weren’t thinking about the future?” she said.
Reported by Libby George.Edited by Barbara Lewis
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