By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Stirling Pavilion in Venice, Italy, will exhibit the iconic architectural works of a Nigerian-born artist, designer and architect, Prince Demas Nwoko.

The pavilion will exclusively showcase the materials for a period of six months, beginning from May 20, 2023, to November 26, 2023.

This is coming after Mr Nwoko was chosen as a recipient of the highly prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale, Venice, Italy.

He would be conferred with the prestigious award on the first day his works would be displayed in Italy at Ca’ Giustinian, Venice.

The architectural exhibition will be curated by Professor Lesley Lokko, an international architectural academic, educator and best-selling novelist of Ghanaian and Scottish descent.

She has taught architecture at universities in the UK, the US, Europe, Australia and Africa. She is the founder and Director of the African Futures Institute, established in Ghana in 2020 as a postgraduate school of architecture, research and public events platform.

On the choice of Mr Nwoko for this year’s award, Prof Lokko said, “One of the central themes of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition is an approach to architecture as an expanded field of endeavour, encompassing both the material and immaterial worlds; a space in which ideas are as important as artefacts, particularly in the service of what is yet to come.

“With all of its emphasis on the future, it seems entirely fitting that the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement should be awarded to someone whose material works span the past 70 years but whose immaterial legacy  – approach, ideas, ethos – is still in the process of being evaluated, understood and celebrated.”

The Golden Lion Award, formerly known as The Golden Lion of St. Mark until 1954, is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival since 1949.

In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced to honour people who have made important contributions to cinema and theatre architecture.

From a galaxy of eminent nominations, Mr Nwoko was finally chosen as the recipient of the 2023 awards.

Baba, as he is fondly called, has been at the forefront of the Nigerian Modern Arts Movement. He is everything at once: an architect, sculptor, designer, writer, set designer, critic and historian.

When prodded, he refers to himself as an ‘artist-designer’, which speaks both to the polyglot nature of his talents and oeuvres and to the rather narrow interpretation of the word ‘architect’ that has arguably kept his name out of the annals.