Goethe Institute
In addition to commercial galleries there are obviously also the foreign cultural institutes in Lagos, most prominently the Goethe Institute, the British Council and Alliance Francaise.
The Goethe Institute was currently holding a very interesting exhibition of works by Ayo Aina, a graduate of ABU Zaria, and I had originally meant to attend the opening on Saturday evening. However, unfortunately this was the day Zico’s business partners decided to come down to Lagos and I had to evacuate the room in his apartment – and after the panic attacks involved in searching for a hotel room on such short notice and finally having arrived at my new place in Obalende area it was already over an hour late and I honestly really wasn’t in the mood to leave the room again. I still think that this was really bad timing and I lost a good chance to make some interesting contacts in the town but there will another chance another time. Anyway, I finally went to the Goethe Institute on Monday morning hoping to make an appointment for some other day. I ended up having a brief but informative conversation with the director right then. I have to confess that I was a bit surprised b this and otherwise would probably have asked one or the other additional question but on the whole I think I got most of the information I had come for. The occasion of my visit had been that the Goethe Institute organised a workshop for photographers in Kano some time last year. During my brief visit in June/July I had attended the opening of the exhibition of the works that had come out of this workshop at the History and Culture Bureau in Kano. Now I was interested in some more background information on the workshop as well as other activities of the Goethe Institute in the northern region.
In addition I had planned to visit the Alliance Francaise in Lagos but between the other places I attended I didn’t really find time to do so. I would really have been interested in the reasons that the branch in Maiduguri was apparently closed and to clarify whether the Kano outlet is still active or, as somebody has suggested to me, largely stopped its cultural activities. I guess I will now have to find out from the branches.
The Goethe Institute was currently holding a very interesting exhibition of works by Ayo Aina, a graduate of ABU Zaria, and I had originally meant to attend the opening on Saturday evening. However, unfortunately this was the day Zico’s business partners decided to come down to Lagos and I had to evacuate the room in his apartment – and after the panic attacks involved in searching for a hotel room on such short notice and finally having arrived at my new place in Obalende area it was already over an hour late and I honestly really wasn’t in the mood to leave the room again. I still think that this was really bad timing and I lost a good chance to make some interesting contacts in the town but there will another chance another time. Anyway, I finally went to the Goethe Institute on Monday morning hoping to make an appointment for some other day. I ended up having a brief but informative conversation with the director right then. I have to confess that I was a bit surprised b this and otherwise would probably have asked one or the other additional question but on the whole I think I got most of the information I had come for. The occasion of my visit had been that the Goethe Institute organised a workshop for photographers in Kano some time last year. During my brief visit in June/July I had attended the opening of the exhibition of the works that had come out of this workshop at the History and Culture Bureau in Kano. Now I was interested in some more background information on the workshop as well as other activities of the Goethe Institute in the northern region.
In addition I had planned to visit the Alliance Francaise in Lagos but between the other places I attended I didn’t really find time to do so. I would really have been interested in the reasons that the branch in Maiduguri was apparently closed and to clarify whether the Kano outlet is still active or, as somebody has suggested to me, largely stopped its cultural activities. I guess I will now have to find out from the branches.
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