The Ben Enwonwu Foundation in collaboration with the Society of Nigerian Artists and supported by Alliance Française/ Mike Adenuga Centre Lagos and Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos hosted the sixth edition of its monthly series of talks ‘Point of View’ (POV 6) on the 27th of April, 2021.
Mr Oliver Enwonwu, the Executive Director, Ben Enwonwu Foundation gave an opening speech to kick-start the event. He gave a broad overview of the theme and shared a brief documentary of previous POV editions.
Thereafter, he invited Oyindamola Fakeye, the Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts Lagos, who gave the welcome address. She spoke on her curatorial journey and introduced digital art and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) which were an integral part of the day’s discussions.
The guest speakers were Nsikak John, the Head Enterprise Innovation Hub, Nigerian Exchange Group and Seun Alli, Founder/Director of the June Creative Art Advisory. The panellists who engaged in the discussions that followed were; Hana Omilani, Director and Founder of Lasmara and the Director of Impart Artists Fair, Ngozi Aderibigbe, Sector Head Technology, Media and Entertainment of Jackson, Etti & Edu, Osinachi, a renowned crypto artist, Micheal Ugwu, CEO of FreeMe Digital Limited, with Oyindamola Fakeye as the anchor.
Nsikak John spoke on “Democratizing ownership of artworks, to build communities, connections and shared prosperity” to tokenize the digital work in order to enable more people to participate and become part owners, as a form of smart asset investment.
Following his lecture, an Analytics of Blockchain technology, Cryptocurrency and Predictions for the Arts Market was broken down by Seun Alli. In her own words, “Data is very key in transforming the Art World.”
In the discussion session, the panellists addressed Digital Art as a phenomenon where Osinachi rightly attested that “Crypto is Art”; traditional art and crypto art were appropriately explained. They analysed issues surrounding corporate ownership of art, how digital artists generate via marketing arts virtually and how traditional artists see and understand the use of tokens (NFT), in the sense that art should be exhibited in a gallery. However, Hana established that not all arts should be exhibited in a gallery, hence the utilization of digital arts.
After an enlightening talk session, room was given for questions and answers. Mr Oliver drew the curtains with his vote of thanks and acknowledgement of all Partners and sponsors of Point of View, including BusinessDay, Mike Adnenuga Centre, Society Of Nigerian Artists, WildFlower PR, Omenka amongst others, and the Ben Enwonwu Foundation. He noted that Point of View holds on the last Tuesdays of every month.
#POV6 #POINTOFVIEW
