A Lagosian by heritage, birth, and upbringing, and with creative roots spreading far across the world, Andrew Dosunmu is one whose story requires little introduction.Originally finding acclaim directing music videos for the likes of Wyclef Jean, Tracy Chapman and Common and contributing to publications such as Vogue, i-D and Ebony, his feature-length films span 2011’s ‘Restless City’ (starring Nataal founder Alassane Sy) to 2022’s ‘Beauty’, and his documentary work includes 1998’s ‘Hot Irons’ and 2010’s ‘The African Game’. This decades-long career is now being celebrated at ART X Lagos 2024 with his first solo exhibition on African soil. ‘Restless Cities: From Lagos to the World’ brings together a collection of Dosunmu’s photographic works from across the Black world, situating both him and the art fair’s audience in a rich conversation around the fluidity of Black internationalism. Inspired by his 2023 art book ‘Monograph’, the show is a fitting representation of Dosunmu’s dedication to exploring the complexities of Africa and its diaspora.

Here, we speak with the esteemed Brooklyn-living artist about his homecoming show.

This is this is your first solo exhibition in Nigeria, and indeed Africa. How does it feel to have this stage in your home city?

I'm excited because this is what made me. I am from this city, and everything I do is shaped by this city. I haven't been able to come to do anything [in Lagos] because the space has not allowed it. I wanted to do it in the right space, with people that get it. And ART X has been doing such amazing work over the last nine years so I was honoured when Tokini [Peterside-Schwebig, ART X Lagos founder] asked me to be part of it.

Tell us about what brings together the intimate portraits in your recently released art book ‘Monograph’.

‘Monograph’ is a conversation with people of African descent around the world. Whether you have somebody in Cartagena, Colombia or Ijebu, Nigeria, or Bolivia or Ecuador, there are similarities. I’m fascinated with continuing the conversation that the likes of Marcus Garvey and Edward Blyden started around Pan-Africanism in the early 20th century. The conversations stopped for a minute, then they came back in the 40s with Dubois, Azikiwe, Nkurmah. I'm just trying to create the same conversation, which is important because, if there's one thing that the medium of photography has done for us, it has presented us in a bad light. What we don't realise is that photography is actually one of the biggest tools of colonisation. People were able to come over here, put a bone in someone's nose, take a picture, go back to wherever they came from, and say this is the reason why we have to go and civilise these people. Photography is powerful tool. It's what has been used to shape Africa in a way. So how can I use that photography to retell our story and celebrate us as people of African descent?

The show borrows its name from your first feature film ‘Restless City’, which tells the story of a Senegalese immigrant in New York struggling to chase his dreams. How does your Lagos exhibition reflect on this narrative?

I have lived in Lagos, New York, Paris. And the similarity between those places is that everybody migrates there because they believe this is the place where they can make it. When I think of a younger generation, I think about all the minds that come to somewhere like Lagos, where there's so many great young people that are doing brilliant things. But the restlessness of the city, the restlessness of the society, the political restlessness, it all restrains them and limits their possibilities. So, you become relentless as well because at all costs, you have to survive.

Your exhibition was curated by the incredible ART X Lagos team, Papa Omotayo, Tega Okiti, Haily Grenet and Fikayo Adebajo. Tell us more about what the curatorial process was like.

What I really loved about them and working with them was discovering something else about my work. I want to learn, you know? I want to see how other people see my work, rather than what I think about it, because I have done the work already. That's why it's out there. I've interpreted it the way I want it to be interpreted, and it's really amazing to get new voices to take your work and re-create it. You never know where the next great idea is going to come from during that process.

How do you see the exhibition fitting within the ART X Lagos 2024 theme ‘Promised Lands’ and its emphasis on collective reflection on the present and striving towards a better future?

Going back to the pioneers of the early 20th century, the idea of the promised land was Africa. The Pan-African movement, The Black Star Line – all that is about coming back to Africa and creating the perfect promised land. In this exhibition, the idea of having all these diasporan pictures exhibiting in Lagos is part of that conversation. This is the promised land for us; anybody of African descent, this is where we belong. This is where we hope to shape and create and be the perfect oasis for ourselves. For me, that’s what connects it. The whole idea of Promised Lands is that we all see our unification and similarity, and understand that there is a broader conversation to be had.

The idea of collectiveness has been kind of strange between us as people of African descent. It's always either “you” or “I” rather than “we.” One wants to be so wealthy so they can have their beautiful house on a paved road. It's always singular. For me, I'm very much about the “we” in everything. How do we collectively start a conversation? If it's about “we,” it's not just about Nigeria. It's not about Lagos in particular. It's about a celebration of us. Because my objective as a lens artist has always been to celebrate people of African descent. I'm not interested in the other stuff. There's room for it, and it could be talked about. That's just not my calling. My calling is to celebrate us. Because all I've ever known for this medium to do is to never celebrate me.

As you add your voice to ART X Lagos, where do you see initiatives such as this, which emphasise multidisciplinary collaboration with a distinctly African and Black diasporic focus?

I wish that that there were places like ART X Lagos when I was growing up here. Back then, even the idea trying to be an artist was unheard of. Now we are developing our ecosystem instead of having to live out of this geographical space in order to achieve something. Beyond anything else, to me, it's always about inspiration. A space like ART X can inspire a newer generation of artists, and allow them to know that there is a world out there for them.