Last year, a group of creatives who formed the team for Borders Within I travelled across Nigeria for 46 days, documenting all their experiences in words and images with an aim to map diversity across regions and ethnic formations in Nigeria.

This year, the team comprising Borders Within II are again embarking on another remarkable trip across the country via another route; an attempt to complete the important work begun in 2016.

Who am I in relation to the artificial map? How am I a product of what I have been inevitably named? How do I interact across the several visible and invisible borders I confront as a Nigerian?

These questions form the basis and narrative of this year’s project. As photographers, filmmakers, and writers journey through 12 states across Nigeria, these are the questions they will ask themselves.

During the six-week road trip starting mid-October through November, participants will move circularly through several Nigerian cities and towns whose history shaped and continue to shape a contemporary Nigerian identity.

“We seek to draw a map that is at once historical and contemporary while elucidating the ambiguities of what it means to be Nigerian.” – Borders Within II

They will also produce images and texts that reflect impressionistic, yet critical readings of contemporary Nigeria. Photographers and filmmakers are expected to develop one major body of work as a follow-up to the trip, while writers will be required to produce long travel essays.

In addition, the team will provide brief personal narratives of residents of towns and cities en-route the trip, with the aim of creating a crowd-sourced narrative of contemporary Nigeria. The narratives, combined, will be made into a lengthy documentary film, one that will underscore the improbability of reducing Nigeria to a single voice or way of telling.

The Borders Within project follows in the tradition of the artistic road trip intervention established by Invisible Borders in the course of five editions. The project is funded by the “Von-Brochowski-Süd-Nord-Stiftung.” Other supporting partners include Epidalert, CCA Lagos and Canon. According to Canon’s CEO, “Our partnership with the ‘Borders Within II’ project is an affirmation of our vision and commitment to developing, nurturing and supporting talent in Nigeria and throughout Africa.”

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