Mário Macilau’s photographic work will be represented at West Africa’s leading art fair, ART X Lagos, 2025 edition, which takes place from November 6 to 9 in Nigeria’s economic capital.
Macilau is part of the Art Across Borders exhibition, which explores decoloniality through regional artistic perspectives, focusing on pan-African approaches to perception and location. “Taking its title as a provocation and proposition, the exhibition materializes local and embodied expressions of decoloniality across Africa and its diaspora,” explains the curatorial note.
The Mozambican artist’s photography stands out conceptually for bringing to the world’s attention the “discarded” of the earth, the lives that remain on the margins of economic systems based on the exploitation of resources, as well as serving as a denunciation of the negative footprint of human action on nature.
The challenge of the Lagos exhibition, however, goes beyond a photographic approach focused on nature, but rather on the very consciousness of human beings in the African context.
“The theme ‘We Are Where We Think’ inspires me to continue thinking and reinventing our stories and roots,” Macilau said in a post on his social media page.
The theme “We are where we think (we are)” will be reflected through installations, photographs, temporary media, and personal objects, to open a dialogue between artists and the public. “How do we build a home for ourselves, by ourselves? How do we explore a multiplicity of perceptions? How do we connect present realities with layered histories—from colonial cartographies to post-independence dreams and current contradictions—while resonating with the diaspora?” reads the note signed by curator Jumoke Sanwo.
In addition to Mário Macilau (Mozambique), the African artists featured in the Art Across Borders exhibition are Edson Chagas (Angola), Nicène Kossentini (Tunisia), Fatoumata Diabaté (Mali), and Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe).
Founded by Tokini Peterside-Schwebig in 2016, ART X Lagos has become a global destination since its launch, attracting artists and galleries from over 70 countries and drawing participants from 170 nations around the world, while expanding the boundaries of what an art fair can be.
Written by: Eduardo Quive
