Jelili Atiku

Jelili Atiku is a Nigerian multimedia artist with political concerns for human rights and justice. Through drawing, installation sculpture, photography, video and live art performance; he strives to help viewers understand the world and expanding their understanding and experiences, so that they can activate and renew their lives and environments.

Since 2008, he has been involved in an ongoing performance project, In the Red, which uses red as a symbol of life, suffering, danger and violence. In 2008/2009, his performance video, Victim of Political Assassination was showcased in Video Library section of Rencontres Internationales in Paris, Berlin and Madrid. He also featured in the Geisai #12 Contemporary Art Fair, Tokyo, Japan (2009), 16th Festival International D’Art Video de Casablanca, Morocco (2009), Old News #6, Malmo, Lagos and Copenhagen (2009/2010) and Freedom to Create Prize, Singapore (2009).

He was among participating artists in the International Video Art Festival in Yorkshire, UK: VAF 1: From Africa (2011). Similarly, his videos, Red Bug were among the videos that were screened in: Woodland at the Kurt Schwitters Summer School, Merzbarn Estate, Lake District, UK (23rd July, 2011); Hail Thy Name screened in an exhibition, titled WƆbƆle kutu wƆkpe: Cultures in confluence held at Goethe Institut, Accra, Ghana (11-29, 0ctober, 2011), etc. He also participated in Cinemarche Video Art Festival, Scarborough Indoor Market, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK (22nd October), and 2011 Protest Art International Festival held in Harare, Zimbabwe – where he enacted performance, titled Red Flag in collaboration with Fisani Nkomo(28th October, 2011); 1st Arts and Culture Congress where he enacted RED uctio AD AB surdum, Lome, Togo (18th November, 2011); and the SICA Festival where he also enacted Red Carpet at Cotonou, Benin Republic (26th November, 2011).

In 2012, Jelili enacted series of performances in public spaces. These include Give Us This Day, Limbe, Cameroun, Abel’s Feast (The Feast Series #2), Yaoundé, Cameroun, Cain’s Feast (The Feast Series #1), Yaoundé, Cameroun, Eleniyan (In The Red Series #13), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, Isoro Ni Fesi (Occupy Nigeria #2), Centre For Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria and Nigerian Fetish (Occupy Nigeria #1), Centre For Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria. He just concluded Europe tour - where presenting talks and performances in Trädgårdsparken, Kulturcentrum, Jarna, (Sweden), Tate Modern and Tiwani Contemporary in London, Kurt Schwitters Merzbarn in Cylinders Estate, Langdale, Ambleside (UK); Manchester Art Gallery, and also in Carlisle, Cumbria; The House in Knipe Point, Scarborough, York and Bangor in Northern Wales (UK).