The inaugural edition brought together writers Thulile Gamedze (South Africa), Ann Mbuti (Switzerland), E.N. Mirembe (Uganda), Robert Steinberger (Switzerland) and Maryam Kazeem (Nigeria) for a research trip facilitated by Angels and Muse in Lagos, Nigeria. Immersed in one of the continent’s most dynamic cultural centres, the writers engaged closely with the city’s arts ecosystem and developed their individual research interests. The resulting texts – diverse in form, approach and subject – are published by C& Magazine and offer nuanced reflections on contemporary arts practices and discourse.

Robert, Thuli and Ann at a performance by the Lagos Sound Artists Collective © Damilare Adeyemi Lagos research trip

In November 2025, the writers gathered in Lagos for an intensive ten-day research trip organised by one of our residency partners Angels and Muse and facilitated by arts and culture writer Molara Wood. Taking place during Lagos Art Week, the research trip intersected with the many events and exhibitions taking place in the city, and included site visits, cultural excursions and exchanges with Nigerian artists and arts practitioners. Alongside this, the writers developed their individual research and engaged deeply as a group, sharing their practice and perspectives.

The trip began with the cohort attending the Re:assemblages Symposium jointly presented by Guest Artists Space Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation, which explored archives and libraries as future-shaping practices. They joined a tour of the CBAAC Archives, which house artefacts and publications from the seminal FESTAC ’77 festival, and attended a walkabout with the curator of the Afrobeat Rebellion exhibition, documenting the life, activism and music of Fela Kuti.

Touring the CBAAC Archives © Damilare Adeyemi Curator walkabout of the ‚Afrobeat Rebellion‘ exhibition © Damilare Adeyemi

From archives to the bustling streets, the writers visited a textile dying community in Surulere and joined iconic photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi for I Wonder as I Wander, a walking tour of Lagos Island’s open markets as spaces of exchange and storytelling. Later, the writers were able to engage with the photographer’s work in the exhibition Sea Never Dry at The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos. The cohort attended ArtX Lagos and Lagos Photo Festival, and performances by the Lagos Sound Artists Collective at the J.Randle Centre for Yorùbá Culture and History.

Walking tour of Lagos Island’s open markets with photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi © Damilare Adeyemi Ann, Mirembe and Robert on a site visit © Damilare Adeyemi Learning about textile-dying in Surulere © Damilare Adeyemi

Like many cities across the continent, Lagos’s arts ecosystem is largely built and sustained by artists themselves. During their visit, the writers met several of these cultural practitioners, including Wura Ogunji, founder of the project space The Treehouse, Nelson C.J., founder and curator of A Third Space, and artist and Angels and Muse founder Victor Ehikhamenor. They also engaged with fellow writers during a roundtable discussion moderated by writer Wana Udobang.

At a public event, the writers introduced themselves and their projects to a wider creative community by sharing recent work. These evolving self-portraits of their practice offered insight into their thinking and processes and ways their work converses with the world.

Roundtable discussion with other writers © Damilare Adeyemi The Fieldnotes cohort presenting their projects during a public event at Angels and Muse © Damilare Adeyemi Fieldnotes from Lagos: new writing

Thulile Gamedze (South Africa) is a cultural worker whose practice engages with text, textile and history. In an essay about the ‚Aftercycle‘ that moves between fast fashion waste, looted museum objects and their ghosts, Thulile asks what it would mean to touch, rather than preserve, the things that have been taken.

Ann Mbuti (Switzerland) is an independent writer and academic whose research examines the processes through which things are made public and how publics emerge. In a collage of field notes, Ann traces how art disseminates drafts of reality, and how activists and art collectives are bridging those realities.

E.N. Mirembe (Uganda) is a writer, research and curator. In a speculative letter penned to a co-conspirator, Mirembe reckons with what’s in a name and the colonial frameworks embedded in Black literary archives, specifically that of the Black Orpheus journal.

Robert Steinberger (Switzerland) is an artist, curator and writer, and co-founder of curatorial collective FRICTION and platform for writing practices DEARS. Through the Not-Yet-Become and encounters with arts practitioners in Lagos, Robert imagines latent futures in the small gestures enacted when we gather and hold space together.

Maryam Kazeem (Nigeria) is a writer and independent researcher whose work engages the intersections of archives, language, and place. In Water is Running, Maryam wades into the Lagos Lagoon, reflecting on the practice of artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, to think through diaspora, leisure, and what the water remembers.

© Maryam Kazeem, Damilola Bankole, Thulile Gamedze, Ala Praxis and Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Sylvester Bayode and G.A.S. Foundation courtesy of OlongoAfrica