Tutùọlá Institute Launches with Inaugural Exhibition in Berlin

Yinka Olatunbosun

Tutùọlá Institute, a cultural organization that represents the cultural image and identity of the Yoruba people in the South-western part of Nigeria has launched its inaugural exhibition in Berlin. Founded by Aderemi Adegbite, Tutuola is the first Nigerian Cultural Institute of Yoruba Culture at Sophiensaele in Berlin.The institute opened its home office earlier this month in Lagos. It is a privately-run legal entity created as an alternative artistic platform for critical reflection and practices in our postcolonial world. Aimed at promoting the Yoruba language and culture in different countries, it is created to foster international cooperation as well as collaboration with private, governmental cultural institutions, artists, and creatives etc.

The founder and an artist-curator, Aderemi Adegbite explains the rationale behind the cultural institution. “It is clear to me that most cultural productions in the Global South depend largely on funding from the Global North that are based on funding structures already in existence for several years or even decades. They are structures which place the funders above those seeking funding, structures which give the funders an upper-hand over the funded cultural organizations and projects, notwithstanding the qualities of those projects or the organization’s level of experience. In short, it is an unequal scale, one that tilts more to the advantage of the funders than the funded. Indeed, this funding dichotomy operates on “power play,” which flourishes on restrictions and manipulations of artistic inventions and processes,” he said.

In a bid to decolonize the cultural funding network and entre into the global cultural diplomacy discourse, he founded Tutuola Institute named after one of the leading indigenous writers from Nigeria, Amos Tutuola. In the spirit of Tutuola, one which establishes firmly the place of mytho-consciousness in human society, the Institute promises to build on the legacy of cultural revivalism that Tutuola’s works celebrate. The institute’s inaugural exhibition is presented as part of “White Money,” a project of Flinn Works, Berline-based cultural organization, which is created to the possibilities of addressing this funding dichotomy, including issues relating to the administration of funds and the power-play phenomenon between cultural operators in the Global North and Global South. “In my opinion, this project – White Money – might be all that is needed for the funders to realize the questions that are begging to be answered in the most dynamic way before administering funding for projects in the Global South,” he said.

For the inaugural exhibition, selected are five artists whose works reflect on the subject of humanity – its imbalance and advancement of the world, which are central issues of concern in the Yoruba tradition. The exhibiting artists are Candice Breitz (South Africa/Germany), Mario Pfeifer (Germany), Aline Motta (Brazil), Rehema Chachage (Tanzania) and Ahmed Olayode (Nigeria).

Flinn Works, like all art professionals who work across the invisible borders of Global North and Global South are deeply entangled in this structure. With a group of six artists and curators from different parts of the world, the project sheds light on some hidden aspects of White Money.

Anuja Ghosalkar reflects in a performance on the complicated ethics and harsh economies of working as an artist in India. Rehema Chachage shreds a heap of rejected funding applications and manually transforms them into something radically new. Abhishek Thapar takes the audience on an intimate and speculative journey through their bank accounts, minds and hearts. Azade Shamiri’s lecture performance shows representations of the West in Iranian plays and poses questions of the past to the present. Nora Amin sheds light on the history of so called ‘belly dance’ in her solo and wrestles the dance from the eroticized and voyeuristic gaze to an empowered expression of the dancer.

White Money as a project also seeks to stretch the boundaries of German funding regulations – by letting participants decide on how to spend the money for this project is also funded by the German government – White Money.