Palais de Lomé: A new home for art on the coast
If you have been driving past Lomé, the Togolese capital, in a rush while en-route to Ghana, you need to slow down on your next journey to peep into a new cultural offering along the coast.
The Palais de Lomé, which was formerly known as Palace of the Governors, is now the new home for art; from visual, performance, photography, historic, to many other genres.
The development is worth celebrating because the palace was once home to the German and French excolonial powers, and the seat of the Togolese government for several years before closing down two decades ago.
Covering over 25 acres and stretching down to the Atlantic coast, the palace and its rich park has been restored and reopened as a centre for art and culture, amid kick starting a vital cultural conversation in Lomé and Togo at large.
Ironically, the palace, which used to be the abode of only kings, is open to the public for the first time in its 121-year history, as a spectacular exhibition, design, visual and performing arts venue without parallel in West Africa.
It offers an exhibition space, a bookshop, a boutique and two restaurants in addition to facilities for musical, dance and theatrical performances. As well, it will feature a permanent gallery space devoted to the story of the city of Lomé and its future, while the ground floor will showcase contemporary Togolese and West African designs, making it the first space devoted to exhibiting designs in West Africa.
Aside promoting art and culture, The Palais de Lomé is a boost to the city’s tourism offerings. It is rightly located at the heart of the city, facing the Atlantic Ocean, and further wooing tourists with its preserved area of outstanding natural beauty dotted with century-old trees.
Excited at the magnificent centre, Sonia Lawson, its director, explained that the project is unique in West Africa because it mixes environment, patrimony, and contemporary art. She noted further that The Palais will become the first exhibition space for design in Africa, something that does not exist yet in the region.
Already, a number of events are scheduled to show the creativity of Africa in several fields, and with these events, Lawson hopes to reach out to more people to patronise art.
An exh ib it ion tagged,’togo of the Kings’ is expected to run from June 2019–February 2020 at the centre. The exhibition will display artefacts belonging to kingdoms that reigned over Togo in a multimedia show. For Lawson, it will be a journey through time and places.
As well, Lomé +, another exhibition, which runs from June 2019–June 2020, will investigate the past, present, and future of Lomé’s urban space through the lens of visual arts.
The centre is hopeful of hosting a biennial, which is scheduled to open in 2020/2022 and would be a great event for the country and platform to further showcase the centre to the world.
But while The Palais de Lomé is returned to Lomé and its people, the director’s concerns are how to convince the people to come and make them interested in what the centre shows and how to maintain the whole place in its current state.