The Arthouse Foundation is pleased to present a joint exhibition of Ngozi Schommers and Natalia Orendain del Castillo, featuring the artists’ final projects at the end of their artist residencies. 

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Ngozi Schommers is a Nigerian artist based between Ghana and Germany. Her residency project, Ìgwè bụ ényí (There is Strength in Numbers), explores female identity issues, with a particular focus on reproduction, womanhood, motherhood and stigmatisation in modern spaces. The project begins with a central premise: the stigma associated with childlessness, whether caused by infertility or obligation. Often times, social norms in society force women to perform certain roles that are against their personal ideology and desire, from sexual and social behaviours to domestic roles and motherhood. With the expectation for women to reproduce, Schommers questions how this interferes with personal choices and career. After speaking with multiple women who have been caught between this pressing dilemma and faced with her own personal experiences, Schommers created mixed media paintings based on their narratives, using a pointillist approach with small dots of paper confetti. Her project includes an installation that is inspired by Ọmụgwọ, the traditional right associated with motherhood in Igboland, where a mother goes to take care of her daughter immediately after giving birth. The project also includes a performance by the artist during the opening reception. 

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Natalia Orendain del Castillo is a Mexican born visual artist and scenographer based in Berlin. Her residency project, 6˚ 26' 22" N /3˚ 21' 30" E, uses the port of Lagos as metaphorical case study, focusing on the subjects of space and perception through an immersive and participatory format. The project collects diverse research materials, from traditional references on water and the ocean to navigation technologies used in cargo ships. The installation includes recordings from radio communication, sound and video material of the port and found footage, alongside diagrams, maps and photographs. Through a juxtaposition of perspectives referring to the location point of the Lagos Port Complex, Natalia composes different readings of the multiple elements and layers that refer, affect and influence its environment. The result is a deconstructed sketch of the port, revealing its global positioning, technical rhythms, and mediatic communications. The project includes a live performance intervention in collaboration with "Footprints of David" during the opening reception. 

 

The Arthouse Foundation is pleased to partner with the Goethe Institut to offer a residency exchange programme between artists in Berlin and Lagos in 2018. As part of this residency exchange under the theme “Unsustainable Privileges”, two artists based in Berlin — Natalia Orendain del Castillo and Jumoke Adeyanju — were invited to Lagos for residencies in five week sessions. Ojudun Taiwo Jacob, a performance artist based in Lagos, was invited for a three-month residency in Berlin. Their residency projects were exhibited at Galerie Wedding in Berlin in November 2018.