EDÚNJOBÍ is a film that looks into the cultural narrative that the Yoruba thoughts accord to twin birth; Ibeji. Ibeji within the arts space has mostly been expressed through the visual arts and western aesthetics, which therefore focuses a lot of attention on ere ibeji, the calved objects, placing static objects as the signifier of a phenomenon that is richly complex and multiform, invariably reduces the narrative to what suites the western arts world and it’s addiction to animist practice of collecting dead objects. This full length film in 9 parts, makes an attempt to place performance and orality as an entry point into what constitutes the excellence and ingenuity of the Yoruba thoughts, upon what appears to be a universal occurrence amongst all humans, twin birth.

Director Biography - Qudus Onikeku

Qudus Onikeku is a movement artiste who has over the decade, established himself as one of the preeminent multitalented artistes, working today with different media: performance, film, research, installation, curating and community organizing. He is the artistic director of Nigeria's preeminent creative organization, The People Center Lagos, which operates as a creative incubator that applies artistic competence, human resources, innovation and creativity, as capacities for human centered content development.

Qudus’ international artistic practice intersects between his interest in visceral body movements, kinesthetic memory, disruptive practices and finding new vocabularies for performances that aren’t centralizing Eurocentric approaches, embracing an artistic vision and a futurist practice that both respects and challenges Yoruba culture and contemporary art. He has created a substantial body of critically acclaimed work that ranges from solos to group works, as well as artiste-to-artist collaborations with visual artists or architects, musicians or writers, multimedia artistes or technologists.
 
Qudus Onikeku has participated in major exhibitions and festivals across 56 countries including Venice Biennale, Biennale de Lyon, Festival d’Avignon, Roma Europa, TED Global, Torino Danza, Kalamata Dance Festival, Dance Umbrella, Bates Dance Festival etc. His dance works is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. He has been a visiting professor of dance at the University of California Davis and Columbia College Chicago.
 
Qudus is currently the first "Maker in Residence" at The Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship of the University of Florida - 2019-2022. His current research is in developing interactions with cutting edge technologies that uses artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to create new economic opportunity for creators of value, and in essence, lay a background for cutting-edge interactive systems to synthesize, gamify, preserve, remotely teach, freely share, collaborate and revolutionize dance and movement in the digital age, building a bridge between technology and Afro-Diasporic community, as well as dance and IP.

Qudus ONIKEKU Artiste|Culture Curator|Researcher
Founder / Artistic Director.
The QDance Company | The QDance Center | Afropolis

qudusonikeku.com | qdancecenter.com | afropolis.org