ERAN JIJE PROJECT

A recent line in my artist statement reads: “[Nnebe] rethinks historical narratives by centring the agency and emotional worlds of Black women and offering transgressive representations and understandings of Blackness rooted in anti-colonial relationality.” @posavailablehere puts these words into action by drawing attention to the livelihood and experiences of women POS agents in Lagos. The project draws on both the aesthetics and functionality of POS stands in order to reroute capital from the Global North to the Global South. It employs the dual principles of informality and the vernacular and puts them to work in creating conditions for mutual aid. From October 24th to November 18th, I raised €634 at the @janvaneyckacademie and at a town square in Maastricht that was then redistributed back to the five POS agents I interviewed, as well as two non-profits operating out of Lagos. One of these is @eranjijeproject , an organisation working with youth within the Isale Akoka–Bariga coastal community in Lagos. With the €345 I sent the organisation, they were able to support 10 youths with business needs and living expenses during the festive season, as well as document their recent end of year-programming. @posavailablehere next travels to the @visualartscentre in Canada and will continue to raise money to be redistributed in Nigeria. Many thanks to @janvaneyckacademie for providing the space to develop this project, and to @ofem.ubi for videography and documentation in Lagos.

✨#Flashback to the #DAAD & #AlexandervonHumboldt Foundation Alumni special get-together at the 🇩🇪 German Consulate #Lagos last week! 🥂 The event brought together Nigerian 🇳🇬 scholars who have benefited from 🇩🇪 academic/ scientific scholarships to network & explore avenues for increased cooperation. #GermanNigerianPartnerships

Isale Akoka came alive with powerful, community-rooted activations by the No New Friends (NNF) collective @nonewfriends_nnf , hosted by Eran Jije Project @Eranjijeproject . Responding to the theme “Environmental Stewardship,” the artists explored the community’s history of land built on reclaimed refuse — transforming this narrative into sound, movement, and installation. Their text-based mural became the lyrics of their performance song, leading a procession through the community, a sound room overlooking the water and Third Mainland Bridge, and participatory art-making with recycled materials. “Point of Sail” was a thoughtful, sensory journey that invited everyone to reflect on place, history, and responsibility. #ClaimingTheFuture #goetheinstitutnigeria #IsaleAkokaShowcase

We are deeply honored that Circular Heroes is awarded with the 3rd in the Earth Partner Prize by @artpartner  @earthpartner Portraying the Nigerian teenagers from the seaside of Isale Akoka area in Bariga, Lagos, as heroes into closing the loop of the circular economy. In collaboration with @eranjijeproject , @iam_peterbata and Ruby Okoro. This year, the 8 finalists will be showcased in the Prize’s virtual exhibition and presented at COP30 in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Find here the link to visit the virtual exhibition: /earth-partner-prize-2025-virtual-exhibition/ Thank you to the judges, Hans Ulrich Obrist @hansulrichobrist Marina Testino @marinatestino , Carlos Manuel Rodriguez , Orsola de Castro @orsoladecastro 🙌🏿, Ferdinando Verderi, Zhou Tan and Giovanni Testino & to the whole team at @artpartner  @earthpartner  @gef_global_environment We are very proud of this incredible recognition and we are proud of the path this project is taking from Bariga!

On the Claiming The Future project, @nonewfriends_nnf and @eranjijeproject delivered a powerful and unforgettable community performance, a truly immersive experience around the theme Environmental Stewardship. Here are a few grabs from this amazing open-air exhibition. 📸 Slide 1,8,9,10 @sams_documentaries 📸 Slide 2,3,4,5,6,7,11 @milan_documentaries

Join us for an unforgettable mural and performance showcase🥳. Come explore these communities through the eyes of our amazing artists RSVP here to follow the bus that leaves from the Goethe Institut VI for the first 25 people to each location. : https://forms.gle/tY8aXow6Uu7mfs129 PS: RSVP for location(s) you are available to attend. #ClaimingTheFuture #MuralandPerformanceProject #Badagry #Egbeda #LagosIsland #IsaleAkoka #Sogunro

EXHIBITING ARTIST | 🌱Eran Jije Open-Air Exhibition| Lagos 2025 - opening Saturday, 22nd November 2025 EJP presents "Environmental Stewardship" - a curatorial theme that invites reflection on our relationship with the natural world. The exhibition repositions communities not as distant caretakers, but as active participants within an interconnected ecological system. Through storytelling, indigenous knowledge, artistic expression, material experimentation, and upcycling practices, it challenges conventional narratives - urging us to see environmental care not as charity, but as shared responsibility and mutual survival. As part of our ongoing partnership with @fordfoundation and @goetheinstitut_nigeria for the Claiming the Future Project (@ctf2025_ ), @nonewfriends_nnf and other artists has held workshops, communal gatherings, and developing pieces leading up to the exhibition. These encounters were more than preparation - they transformed the community itself into a living exhibition. Here, the boundaries between artist and audience dissolve, and the community emerges as both muse and maker, voicing collective responses to climate vulnerability, stewardship, and ancestral connections to the land. The Eran Jije Open-Air Exhibition 2025 culminates in a multi-sensory experience featuring installations, mural displays, performances, soundscapes, shared meals, traditional games, and spontaneous music sessions. This gathering is a shared offering: an invitation to listen, feel, and imagine an alternative ecological future — one rooted in reciprocity, memory, and healing. Curated by: Peter D. Abayomi – @iam_peterbata CTF: @official.stunna_ @enitpine Ochuko Esievo Brand Design: @kimboy_graphics Our doors are open — join us as we reclaim the earth and renew our collective commitment to a sustainable future. #EJ2025 #EnvironmentalStewardship #EarthFighter #NNF #Sustainability #ArtExhibition #LagosCulture #EranJije2025 #upcycledart

🌱Eran Jije Open-Air Exhibition | Lagos 2025 - opening: Saturday, 22nd November 2025 EJP presents “Environmental Stewardship” - a curatorial theme that invites reflection on our relationship with the natural world. The exhibition repositions communities not as distant caretakers, but as active participants within an interconnected ecological system. Through storytelling, indigenous knowledge, artistic expression, material experimentation, and upcycling practices, it challenges conventional narratives - urging us to see environmental care not as charity, but as shared responsibility and mutual survival. As part of our ongoing partnership with @fordfoundation and @goetheinstitut_nigeria for the Claiming the Future Project (@ctf2025_ ), @nonewfriends_nnf participating artists and collaborators held workshops, communal gatherings, and developing pieces leading up to the exhibition. These encounters were more than preparation — they transformed the community itself into a living exhibition. Here, the boundaries between artist and audience dissolve, and the community emerges as both muse and maker, voicing collective responses to climate vulnerability, stewardship, and ancestral connections to the land. The Eran Jije Open-Air Exhibition 2025 culminates in a multi-sensory experience featuring installations, mural displays, performances, soundscapes, shared meals, traditional games, and spontaneous music sessions. This gathering is a shared offering: a call to listen, feel, and imagine an alternative ecological future rooted in reciprocity, memory, and healing. Curated by: @iam_peterbata Our doors are open — join us in reclaiming the earth and renewing our shared commitment to a sustainable future. #EJ2025 Brand design: @kimboy_graphics #EnvironmentalStewardship #EarthFighter #sustainability #ArtExhibition #LagosCulture #ERANJIJE2025 #upcycled

Discover the full series of the project CIRCULAR HEROES in collaboration with @eranjijeproject by @iam_peterbata and photographed by @rubyokoro . The project was part of this year @modesuisse @yannickaellen campaign and exhibited at the show venue at @kunsthauszuerich Furthermore it will be part of the upcoming exhibition TaDA: TOGETHER, Five years of the Textile and Design Alliance @tadaresidency in collaboration with @modesuisse with a special talk on Saturday 13.9 at 16:30. The project embodies the idea of representing Nigerian adolescents, from the coastal area of Isale Akoka in Bariga, as key players of the circular economy. Bariga is a picturesque island and a unique habitat created from the materials that surround it, most of which come from the lagoon: Waste, wooden boards, textiles, plastic. Through innovative recycling and upcycling ideas, the collected objects are given a second life as: landfill, building materials, electronic repairs, musical instruments or fashion. What many don‘t realise is that these efforts contribute significantly to the global economy. To realise «Circular Heroes», Swiss designer Rafael Kouto teamed up with Peter D. Abayomi, a dignitary from Bariga whose local initiatives focus on waste management and environmental sustainability concepts. Through several workshops, Rafael Kouto‘s goal was to raise awareness among young people in the community and participants across Lagos to foster pride, recognition and visibility for their valuable contributions. For this purpose, they produced scarves in collaboration with screen printing and hand-dyeing artisans from Lagos, which were photographed together with the young protagonists for «Circular Heroes».

Archiving Communal Rhythms: Sound and Memory Workshop, 2025 by Peter D. Abayomi Earlier this year, I had the privilege of serving as a mentor for the Claiming the Future project, an initiative by the @fordfoundation and @goetheinstitut_nigeria As part of this program, I facilitated a sound workshop for a cohort of 20 emerging artists based in Lagos. These practitioners, whose work spans performance art, visual art, sound/music, and more, engaged in an intensive, community-responsive artistic process. Claiming the Future is a socially engaged mural and performance art project that connects five major communities across Lagos, aimed at reimagining everyday public spaces as dynamic sites of artistic expression and critical cultural engagement. Within this framework, participants were invited to co-create works that are not only situated within local environments but also deeply informed by them. After receiving guidance and mentorship from @victorsozaboy Osa Seven @pollyalakija @tracianmeikle @thetonyhabis @taiwoaiyedogbon and @odun_o_ , I took the participants through a sonic journey exploring the thematic and diverse approaches to sound in public art. Core areas of my investigation included sound design in urban environments, the integration of sound into live performance, and the sensory relationship between visual and sonic elements in artistic practice. Through these inquiries, the artists considered how what is seen might shape what is heard and vice versa. One of the workshop’s central methodologies was “deep listening,” a practice through which participants began to understand themselves as “earthly composers”, attuned to the rhythms, textures, and narratives embedded in the sonic life of their communities. Everyday activities were transformed into compositional material, and the community itself became a living score. Through sound walks, field recordings, and materials sourcing, the participants created sonic works that reflect and archive the resilience and vibrancy of local life. 📸: @dharmhie Cc: @official.stunna_ Ochuko @enitpine 🙏🏿 — Peter D. Abayomi SD⏺️ Continued in comment👇🏾

Meet our host institutions! We are excited to announce that we are partnering with these fantastic institutions in the various communities for the Claiming the Future ( @ctf2025_ ) project. •Q dance center (Lagos Island community) @qdancecompany •Justice and Empowerment Initiative (Sabokoji/Sogunro community) @justempower •Eran jije Project (Isale Akoka/Bariga community) @eranjijeproject •Abbeyrian Art Studio (Egbeda/ Iyanapaja community) @abbeyrianartsandco •Mobee Family Museum (Badagry community) @mobeeslaverelics #ClaimingTheFuture #Ctf #CTF #GoetheInstitutNigeria

Here we are! #ModeSuisse2025 coming up, September 1, 2025 🔥 Thanks for the beautiful image by @rubyokoro from #circularheroes x @rafaelkouto x @eranjijeproject / Artwork by #RafaelKoch @miele #mielexmodesuissepositiveimpact #mielexmodesuisseaward #designfoundation @stadtzh @glattzentrum @paraplegie @ds_switzerland @ochsner_shoes @optic2000_ch @pmcare @kets_academy @landesmuseumzurich @tadaresidency @museumgestaltung @bongenie @b2_hotel_zurich @kunsthauszuerich @ten_studio #vxco @yannickaellen