Jelili Atiku

Work for Live Art Denmark
2016 Collaboration with Alette Scavenius for COLAB Copenhagen

COLAB Copenhagen
For the COLAB program, Jelili teamed up with Alette Scavenius, Head of Theatre Collections at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. In the video below we hear excerpts from their conversations about memory and how to preserve it, in body and documentation, while we follow a series of performances in galleries and public spaces Jelili organized and performed in in Copenhagen, and an audience talk. The performances are based on animistic rituals Jelili was exposed to at an early age. Today they form the basis of much of his artistic work.

About the Artist
Jelili Atiku is a Nigerian multimedia artist with political concerns for human rights and justice. Through drawing, installation, sculpture, photography, video and performance (live art) he strives to help viewers understand the world and expand their understanding and experiences, so that they can activate and renew their life and environment. For over a decade, Jelili has put his art at service of the prevailing concerns of our times, especially those issues threatening our collective existence and the sustenance of our universe. His concerns often focus on the psychosocial and emotional effects of traumatic events such as violence, war, poverty, corruption, climate change etc., associated with our warring world.

Born on Friday 27th September 1968 in Ejigbo (Lagos), Nigeria, Jelili was trained at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and University of Lagos, Nigeria, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) and a Master of Arts (Visual Arts) respectively. He is presently the project leader of Art Africa Forum, the artistic Director of AFiRIperFOMA – a collective of performance artists in Africa, and Chief Coordinator of Advocate for Human Rights Through Art (AHRA).

Read more on Jelili’s website (last updated in 2013), and in English Wikipedia.