Leading voices will reimagine African and Afro-diasporic archives as dynamic, contested, and future-shaping spaces at the Re:assemblages symposium in November.
THE Re:assemblages Symposium, a landmark gathering of artists, archivists, curators, publishers, and cultural practitioners, will take place on November 4 and 5 at Alliance Française, Ikoyi, during Lagos Art Week 2025.
Organised by the Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and the Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.), the symposium will bring together leading voices to collectively reimagine African and Afro-diasporic archives as dynamic, contested, and future-shaping spaces.
The event also marks the launch of the second phase of Re:assemblages (2025-26), a two-year programme aiming to reimagine the role of archives in shaping African and global art histories.
The organisers have designed the symposium to be an interactive experience, with opportunities for dialogue and exchange. They explained in a statement that it was developed in response to the Picton Archive-a collection of rare African-published journals, magazines, and manuscripts held at G.A.S.-the programme reframes archives not as static repositories, but as dynamic infrastructures for research, cultural production, and exchange.
They said that a second symposium, scheduled for autumn 2026, ‘will extend these conversations by developing a toolkit of adaptive archival practices.’
The seminar will unfold across four conceptual strands: Ecotones, The Short Century, Annotations, and The Living Archive, each offering unique insights and perspectives.
‘Ecotones trace transitional zones where ecologies, communities, and knowledge systems intersect. The symposium explores these intersections through presentations and workshops that envision Afro-ecotones across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.
‘The Short Century revisits 1945-1994 as a catalytic era of African independence and cultural production, revisiting the seminal exhibition on The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994 curated by OkwuiEwenzor.
‘Annotations probe margins, silences, and archival absences through experimental literary and Performative strategies, bringing to light hidden narratives and alternative epistemologies.
‘The Living Archive reimagines archives and libraries as active, artist-led, community-centred sites of care, restitution, and creative transformation. Through performances, readings, panels, and workshops, the symposium asks how archives can be regenerated as socially and politically vital spaces.’
The symposium will also serve as the inaugural public gathering of the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab), a new network convened by G.A.S. and Y.S.F. that unites a dynamic group of African arts libraries and publishers across cities, including Lagos, Dakar, Marrakesh, Cairo, Nairobi, Cape Town, and Limbe.
Through its Affiliate Network, the Lab engages with global institutions that hold significant African and Afro-Diasporic collections. Each AAL Lab public convening will culminate in a micro-publication documenting its outcomes and contributing to the Archive Futures Repository. This dynamic digital resource advances new, African-led models of archival stewardship and activation.
Commenting, Yinka Shonibare, founder of G.A.S. and Y.S.F., said: ‘The inaugural Re: assemblages Symposium in Lagos is a vital step toward building African-led frameworks for the future of archives. These collections are not relics of the past but living spaces that continue to shape our shared histories and futures.’
Symposium curator Naima Hassan added: ‘The symposium acknowledges the urgency of engaging African and Afro-diasporic art archives spanning text, image, oral tradition, and performance and asks: what encounters arise within these spaces, and how might they transform our understanding of the archive itself?’
Samantha Russell coordinates the symposium with thematic contributions from Maryam Kazeem, Ann Marie Peña, and Jonn Gale.
The Terra Foundation for American Art, Afreximbank’s Art Program, The Osahon Okunbo Foundation (TOOF), Bank of America, and Bookcraft Africa are supporters of the Re: assemblages Symposium, which opens with a roundtable on ‘How will we share this earth?’ on November 4.
MisslaLibsekal, Janine Francois, Ala Praxis, and Eve Oishi will explore Afro-Ecotones across oceans, beginning with a site-specific reading of Lagos’ lagoon as an ecotonal site of ecological care, memory, and resistance at the session.
The first panel discussion, ‘Destabilising the Archive’ featuring Ore Disu of the Museum of West African Arts, Benin, Samba Yonga of Women’s History Museum of Zambia and Amanda Maples of the New Orleans Museum of Art, will rethink restitution as a process, positioning archives as porous, unstable, and alive.
The second panel, ‘The Living Archive: Propositions for Collections into the Future’, will see Ann Marie Peña chairing a conversation with Michelle Jacques, Azu Nwagbogu and Jago Cooper on how artists and institutions activate archives as participatory, socially responsive spaces.
The day’s final panel, ‘Rematriating the Archive’, will feature Cheryl Finley leading a discussion with Sylvia Arthur, Aisha Augie, and Jareh Das on women-led strategies for regenerating archives through oral traditions, FESTAC ’77, and the legacy of Ladi Kwali.
A screening of Olukemi Lijadu’s ‘Sister, Sister’, a moving portrait of the Lijadu Sisters, reimagining music, memory, and devotion as a living archive, will wrap up activities on the first day.
The second day promises to be just as enjoyable as the first. Highlights include ‘Annotations in Four Acts’, which features Naima Hassan, Maryam Kazeem, Robyn Simpson, and Ufuoma Ogbemudje reading from a new publication on FESTAC ’77 and pan-African festivals, tracing archival fragments and their afterlives.
There will also be a discussion on ‘Curatorial History and African Archives’ where Serubiri Moses, Tumelo Mosaka, and Kemi Ilesanmi highlight the transformative role of African curators, tracing strategies of mobility, mentorship, and institution building across global art networks.