We are pleased to announce the 2025–26 edition of Re:assemblages, a dynamic, multi-year programme designed to foster collaboration and experimentation across African art library collections. This ambitious initiative reimagines the stewardship and activation of African and Afro-diasporic art archives, and will result in a rich constellation of international convenings, symposia, micro-publications, and a research intensive.
Re:assemblages was developed in response to the Picton Archive, housed at the G.A.S. Foundation in Lagos. The archive contains a significant portion of the personal library of Emeritus Professor of African Art John Picton and Sue Picton, spanning African and international art, history, archaeology, architecture, and anthropology. It offers a vital entry point for rethinking African modernisms, contemporary art, and postcolonial knowledge production within the shifting geopolitical and intellectual currents of the 20th century. The Re:assemblages programme will further expand enquiry by exploring alternative knowledge systems, archival futures, and the evolving landscape of art libraries and publishing in Africa. It will forge vital connections between artists, publishers, and research institutions, whilst addressing enduring challenges surrounding visibility, access, and the colonial legacy embedded in archival practice.
Central to this edition of Re:assemblages is a two-day symposium, taking place in Lagos, Nigeria, on 4–5 November 2025 during Lagos Art Week. Hosted by G.A.S. and Y.S.F., the symposium will bring together archivists, artists, curators, and cultural practitioners for a series of conversations, panels, and site-specific interventions.
The symposium will focus on four central themes:
- Ecotones will explore spaces where different ways of living, knowing, and relating to nature and culture come together and influence each other.
- The Short Century invites a reappraisal of the role of African liberation and independence movements in shaping transnational art and publishing between 1945 and 1994.
- Annotations will use experimental literary strategies to explore alternative ways of reading history.
- The Living Archive emphasises embodied, artist-led archival methods that prioritise community, memory, and ongoing transformation.
The symposium will also serve as the inaugural public gathering of the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab), a new network convened by G.A.S. and Y.S.F. that unites a dynamic group of African arts libraries and publishers across cities including Lagos, Dakar, Marrakesh, Cairo, Nairobi, Cape Town, and Limbe. It also extends to arts libraries, publishers, and research institutions worldwide that hold significant African and Afro-diasporic collections. Rooted in African-led perspectives, the Lab will explore experimental and collaborative models for knowledge exchange, collection care, and the activation of archives.
The programme is curated by Naima Hassan, with contributions from Maryam Kazeem, Ann Marie Peña, and Jonn Gale, and funding from the Terra Foundation of American Art. The programme advisory committee comprises Dr. Beatrix Gassman de Sousa, Natasha Ginwala, Dr. Rangoato Hlasane, Patrick Mudekereza, Serubiri Moses, and Dr. Oluwatoyin Zainab Sogbesan.
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
Re:assemblages Symposia: A two-day event taking place in Lagos, Nigeria on 4–5 November 2025, bringing together archivists, researchers, writers, and cultural practitioners to explore 20th and 21st century African and Afro-diasporic art archives through panels, conversations, and site-responsive interventions, followed by a second symposium in autumn 2026 that will workshop a toolkit of adaptive archival practices shaped by the programme’s outcomes.
African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab): A network of African arts libraries and publishers across cities such as Lagos, Dakar, Nairobi, Cairo, and Cape Town, focused on collaborative research, capacity-building, and pioneering preservation models. Through the Affiliates Network, the Lab extends to arts libraries, publishers, and research institutions worldwide that hold significant African and Afro-diasporic collections.
AAL Lab Convenings: A series of public events hosted by AAL Lab members across multiple locations to share research, foster dialogue, and amplify African archival voices. Each convening will culminate in a micro-publication that documents its outcomes, advancing new approaches to archival storytelling and knowledge sharing. The convenings will also contribute to the Archive Futures Repository, a living digital resource offering tools that support evolving models of archival stewardship and activation.
The Short Century Intensive: A research fellowship hosting five fellows exploring overlooked narratives and transnational archival traces of African liberation and independence movements from the period 1945–1994.
Re:assemblages 2025-26 is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
