By Austine Akaeze.
For the first time in the 74 years history of the global awards, an African, Nigerian born artist, designer and architect, Prince Demas Nwoko was awarded the highly prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale, Venice, Italy.
The prestigious award was confered on Nwoko on the 20th of May 2023, at Ca’ Giustinian, Venice.
The usually reserved Nwoko returned to Nigeria on May 20th with the award. Accompanied by two of his daughters, a grandson and a Sierra Leonian UK based architect, Joseph Conteh, he landed at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja. With an excitement filled atmosphere, he was received by a cross section of architects, former students, a horde of creatives, family members, well wishers and the media. Nwoko who was visibly elated over the award was full of smiles as he cuddles the added fame brought by the award to his already larger than life image.
The award is given every two years to advanced and accomplished architects who have contributed significantly to cinematic architecture.
Speaking to journalists and displaying the award plague on arrival, Nwoko said he is very happy and feels fulfilled over the award. As he said, “I never knew the awards was at that magnitude. It was a huge great event. A real global ceremony. People all over the world attended the awards”.
Nwoko added that the award is not for him, but for the whole people of Nigeria and Africa for their resilience. When asked if he has an advice for young and upcoming architects artists, Nwoko encouraged Nigerians, especially the young ones, to stay in their country and do as much work as they can. According to him, “I have done almost all of my works while living in my village of Idumuje-Ugboko. I am happy that it is finally being recognised globally’.
He called on the Nigerian government, to establish a permanent exhibition pavilion at the award venues as that is the only way we can display our creativity to the outside world.
In the line with the award tradition, the exhibition of the iconic architectural works of Nwoko, will be on display for the next 6 months. It started on the day of the awards and will end on November 26th, 2023.
The Stirling Pavilon in the Giardini, will exclusively exhibit the works of Nwoko.
Speaking at the awards, the compare and exhibition curator, Professor Lesley Lokko, said that the *La Biennale di Venezia,* organisers of the award is very pleased and happy to present this year’s award to a most accomplished and distinguished African. According to Prof. Lokko,
“Demas Nwoko has distinguished himself in almost all areas of creative endeavors. He has made significant contributions to the development of architecture at a global scale and he has been a iconic source of light and hope for architects all over the world who desire to enquire more about new cultural forms and techniques in the development and practice of architecture”.
Prof Lokko is an international academic in architecture, an educator and a best selling novelist of Ghanaian and Scottish descent. She has taught architecture in universities in the UK, US, Europe, Australia and Africa. She is the founder and Director African Futures Institute, established in Ghana in 2020 as a postgraduate school of architecture, research and a public events platform. She norminated Nwoko for the awards, prior to the normination, they have never meet in person nor interacted.
The decision to bestow the award on Nwoko was approved by La Biennale’s Board of Directors chaired by Roberto Cicutto. On the choice of Demas Nwoko for this year’s award, Prof. Lokko, who spoke ahead of the awards ceremonies, paid glowing tributes to the works of Nwoko. According to her: “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 significant contributions to cinema and theatre architecture.
From a galaxy of eminent norminations, Demas Nwoko was chosen as the recipient of 2023 awards.
Prince Demas Nwoko has been at the forefront of Nigerian Modern Arts Movement. As an artist, architect and designer, he strives to incorporate modern techniques and enunciates the African experience in his works. These highly individualised approach, has given his works a distinct identity and appeal.
Nwoko was born in 1935 in Idumuje Ugboko in Aniocha North LGA, Delta State, Nigeria. Nwoko who initially wanted to study architecture, studied fine arts at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria from 1957 to 1961. He will later virtually teach himself architecture. While in Zaria, he was a prominent founding member of Zaria Arts Society. Uche Okeke, Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrekpeya and others, who will all grow to international prominence in artistic creations and teaching, were members of the society. These influential group of artists, also known as the ‘Zaria Rebels’ promoted the concept of ‘Natural Synthesis’. The concept focused on the promotion of African experience and narrative in the teaching and application of fine arts. The Zaria Artists contributed immensely to the post colonial modernist arts renaissance in Nigeria.
In 1961, Nwoko received a scholarship to study Theatre Architecture and Scenic Design at the Centre Francais du Theatre in Paris, France. He will quickly return to Nigeria to take up a teaching appointment at the newly established School of Drama, at the University of Ibadan. He taught theatre aesthetics, scenic design and African dance. He was a member of Mbari Writers and Artists Club in Ibadan. The club worked towards developing a new arts culture that blended African and Western modernist aesthetics, forms and processes to reflect the new spirit of political Independence. He founded the New Culture Studios, a sprawling edifice, built from locally sourced materials. It is a training centre for performing arts, research and designs. It has a huge well-terraced amphitheater for live performances. Nwoko also established the now rested New Culture Magazine, a publication that promoted and documented contemporary arts and culture in Africa.
Before his final relocation to his ancestral village of Idumuje-Ugboko in 1979, Nwoko established the African Design and Development Company. The outfit designed and produced building components, fittings, steel works, burnt bricks, high quality wood works and furniture.
Among his iconic architectural works to be exhibited is the evergreen Dominican Institute (1970 -1975) in Ibadan, which includes a monastory, a chapel and residences. The building built more than 50 years ago, still stands timeless in its’ elegance and originality. Renowned architectural critic, Noel Moffet, has this to say on the edifice: “Here, under the tropical sun, architecture and sculpture combine in a way which only Gaudi, perhaps among architects, has been able to do so convincingly”. Nwokolo designed and built the Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre (1972-1995) Benin City. Also to be exhibited are the Benedictine Monastory, Ewu, Edo State, (1987 to 2005) and his own private residence, LightHouse, Idumuje-Ugboko built in 1976.
In the international compendium of outstanding architectural works of all times, from historical to modern, titled – ‘1001 Buildings You Need to See Before You Die’, edited by Mark Irving (2006), Demas Nwoko stands out with three of his works listed in the compendium. Other famed architects were listed with one work each. The thoroughness of Nwoko’s designs, the originality in his concept of architecture, the soundness of his structures and the unique finesse of his finish, all combine to bear eloquent testimonies to his immense genius.
Demas Nwoko, aside his works in architecture and painting, has with the same outstanding magnitude, equally proved his mettle in play and dance directing and production. He was involved in the production and staging of **The Palmwine Drinkard* which was presented as Nigeria’s official entry at the Pan African Cultural Festival in Algiers, Algeria, in 1963. At the Negro Arts Festival held in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, he directed and produced a dance play – *Danda* , which was Nigeria’s cultural presentation at the festivals. Also, he directed and produced the *Olympic Dance* , Nigeria’s presentation at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. Again, in *Festac 77* , hosted by Nigeria, Demas Nwoko produced and directed *The Children of Paradise,* the signature dance drama for Nigeria at the festivals.
As Prof. Lokko would conclude in her pre-awards statements: “It gives me enormous pride and pleasure to award the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Demas Nwoko, an architect of both the 20th and 21st centuries; and to encourage all visitors to the 18th International Architecture Exhibition to visit the small but perfectly formed and articulated display of his works in the Stirling Pavilon in the Giardini, alongside the Book Pavilion Project of The Laboratory of the Future”.
Demas Nwoko is almost everything at once: an architect, sculptor, designer, writer, set designer, critic and historian. When prodded, Baba, as Nwoko is fondly called, 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.
With the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award in his belt, Demas Nwoko has cemented his place in the architectural global hall of Fame as a master craftsman.
(Austine Akaeze, a writer & researcher, lives and work in Asaba. He is profiling the works and philosophies of Demas Nwoko).