Great Lives

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Factual: Life Stories

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

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Great Lives: Sir David Adjaye on Okwui Enwezor

Sir David Adjaye on Okwui Enwezor

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Sir David Adjaye on Okwui Enwezor

Curator and educator Okwui Enwezor championed by the architect Sir David Adjaye.

International architect Sir David Adjaye celebrates the life and work of ground-breaking curator and educator Okwui Enwezor.

“I was astonished by the experience of standing there, where the two oceans met. I knew at that very moment this would be my concept: the meeting of worlds". 
Okwui Enwezor.

For centuries, the art establishment had been defined and dictated by predominantly white, wealthy, western critics and curators. Then in the early 90’s a young man who was born in Nigeria and studied Political Science in New York came onto the scene and said, ‘no more’. 

With an eye for aesthetic and a burning fire of political concern, curator and educator Okwui Enwezor transformed the art world. He placed non-western art histories on an equal footing with the long-established narrative of European and North American art. He was a man with a mission, utterly confident and determined. 

Sir David Adjaye, the architect perhaps best known for his largest project to date – the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture - champions the ground-breaking life of Okwui Enwezor, who became both his friend and collaborator. He is joined by Chika Okeke-Agulu, one of the foremost scholars of African Art and Professor of African and African Diaspora Art at Princeton University.

Presented by Matthew Parris
Produced in Bristol by Nicola Humphries

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