When the organisers of Nigeria’s first biennial art exhibition called it Living on the Edge, they could not have known how painfully apt the theme would be.

It was inspired by the squatters living in the carriages and buildings of a disused railway shed, and their counterparts across Lagos, where housing is in short supply, and vast wealth and abject poverty exist side by side. Artists were invited “to investigate the realities of the losers in societies around the world – the unseen majority who are pushed to the brink of their existence”.

The families living in the old railway shed were surprised that anyone would want to host an exhibition in their run-down, leaky home, but got involved, digging trenches so it would not flood, sawing wood for the installations and helping to clean up.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/life-lagos-imitates-art-squatters-evicted-biennial-exhibition/

So what happens next? How did those squatters start living there in the first place? There are too many questions. Who will come to their aid?