Pop-up gallery

The second edition of Art X this year saw works shown from more than 60 artists from 15 African countries at 14 galleries.

Celine Seror, the co-founder of the pan-African Intense Art Magazine (IAM), described it as a crossroads of “very intense, very rich” cultural exchange.

“It connects Nigerian artists and the whole continent with politicians and rich major collectors who could buy their art,” she said.

“They’re exploring classic themes of contemporary art such as the body, intimacy ... but there are also a lot of works with a strong political message about corruption or even the wealth gap.”

For Zina Saro-Wiwa, even if the event has a clear commercial side, art must before anything else “mobilise the spirit, create value”.

A curator, artist and film-maker, Saro-Wiwa is also the daughter of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995 by Sani Abacha’s military regime.

Her father led a popular movement that brought global attention to the devastating pollution by foreign oil companies, including Shell, in his native Ogoniland.

Three years ago, Zina Saro-Wiwa decided to return to her roots in the Niger Delta to “explore the legacy” of her father.

She created boys’ quarters in her father’s old office in a working class area of the oil hub Port Harcourt, making it a pop-up contemporary art gallery where promising artists, including Uwadinma, could exhibit. –