COLORSxSTUDIOS

In 1472, Eko, a small Yoruba fishing settlement on an archipelago clinging to the lip of West Africa, was landed by Portuguese traders. They renamed it Lagos, meaning “lakes”, on account of the many lagoons surrounding the area. From this minor colony emerged a cornerstone of empires – a crucial trade hub and subsequent global slave trading hotspot and later capital of Colonial Nigeria.. By the time of independence in 1960, Lagos’ population stood at 762,418. Now, the swollen cosmopolitan metropolis is estimated to hold fifteen to twenty-three million – the most populous city on the continent.

Though it may no longer be the capital of Nigeria, Lagos is historically understood as the de facto international contact zone in West Africa, a cultural capital in its own right, and later, the location of the country’s desire to re-establish its national identity as a new republic. This said, years of coups, political crises, and corruption scandals have overshadowed the city’s abundant creative legacy.

Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, founder of Art X Lagos, the first international art fair in Africa, is working tirelessly to restore Lagos as a leading global artistic center. A Lagosian by birth, Peterside-Schwebig’s primary concern is with locality: her adaptable model feeds Lagos, just as Lagos feeds it in return.

 

 

 

The years passed, and Peterside-Schwebig’s collection grew, as did her support for artists in Lagos. As a communication and events head for LVMH, she backed Nigerian artists through global platforms, supporting Wizkid’s first concert in Lagos, for example. Nonetheless, the center struggled to hold. “So many of them hoped to get an international residency,” says Peterside-Schwebig, “international” meaning Berlin or New York City. “Artists told me just how difficult it was to have a strong career—not just locally, but regionally and internationally too—if they maintained a base in Lagos. You’ve been to Lagos. I’m sure you’re well aware of how much more challenging it is to create a platform locally.”

In 2015, driven to restore the city’s sense of local cultural value, Peterside-Schwebig pursued an MBA at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore. She then traveled to Venice to visit “All the World’s Futures”, the 56th Venice Biennale curated by the late, great Okwui Enwezor. Equipped with a new qualification and inspired by Enwezor’s presentation of African artists as previously unfathomed, Peterside-Schwebig arrived at the office of the late Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos founder Bisi Silva and pitched her idea for a new kind of art fair for Nigeria. Silva joined the first edition as artistic director, and after a ten-month sprint, ART X Lagos opened to the public.