By Oyindamola Lawal
Gozi---- pechakucha
from Jpan with a large Heart
gozi, Tunde Kuboye and Papa
Born in Lagos on March 8, 1974, Ngozi Josephine Ochonogor left Nigeria for England at the age of 19 to study Software Engineering at the Imperial College, London. In 1998, she enrolled into the Central School of Fashion, where she studied Ladies Wear, which enabled her to use to transform men’s tailoring patterns into sexy ladieswear.
After working with Turner Prize winners, Keith Tyson, Mark Wallinger, Richard Billingham and others, with years of operation in Japan, Gozi has brought home her talent.
On return to the country, the creative damsel is making plans to organise three big shows, an art forum (PecheKucha), fashion exhibition and a philanthropic workshop for orphans tagged, “Live! U.Mi-1” in Lagos from December 18 through 27, with each day featuring different shows.
Through the shows, Gozi aims to bridge the gap between Nigeria and Japan by using Live! U. Mi-1, the philanthropic arm of her brand, which is an exchange programme aimed at bringing cultural awareness to orphaned kids in Nigeria and Japan through artistic workshops. Collaborating with invited artists, Gozi would educate Japanese children about Nigeria and vise versa.
According to her, “I am a fashion designer based in Tokyo with my brand U.Mi-1; I promote Nigeria in Tokyo. I work with different artistes and the synergy between us is used to create art. Basically, when I moved to Japan, I saw that the spirit between the people in Japan and Nigeria were quite similar. I had to abandon my London brand to start a new one.” “I have been doing that for over two and the half years, I have been on radio, I been to Tokyo fashion week. Basically everything I do, I use it to connect Nigeria and I think it is about time to come and do the same over here. With my brand, I have Live! U.Mi-1, it is actually the philanthropic arm of my brand.”
Speaking on her cultural exchange programme, Gozi says, “What I do is that, I organise workshop with orphan and I teach Japanese orphans about Nigeria and I come to Nigeria to teach Nigerian orphans about Japan; so the whole thing is about unifying Japan and Nigeria.”
The event, which is encouraging dialogue through art and giving the children a stimulating experience that can spur them to become creative in future.
The first workshop “My imaginary Lagos” was run in collaboration with architect Megumi Matsabara, and 15 children at Nonohana No le Children’s Home and a corresponding one at Little Saints Orphanage, Lagos, where Gozi introduced 20 kids to Megumia and the kids at the Children Home. The documentary videos were screened at the published exhibition in Tokyo.
Megumi Matsubara returns for another edition, this time to Lagos, where she will actually get to meet the children from the Little Saints Orphanage and with sound artiste Emeka Ogboh.
“I have an orphanage event coming up and I am actually bringing a Japanese artiste with me. Her name is Megumi Matsabara she worked with me on the first event in Tokyo and this is the second one with and would be done Nigeria. She is actually coming to meet the kids with her camera. The whole point is to actually give the kids a spark to be creative. I am also working with Emeka Ogboh.”
“People always give money and clothes to orphanages without thinking of the future of the kids, so, I decided I will them something that will take them through life, which is creativity; it would inspire them to think and fend for them when they become adults. That is what I do with Live! U.Mi-1,” she added.
Each edition is made of two corresponding workshops, one in Lagos and one in Tokyo. “What we are going to be teaching the children is all about theatre, we are going to be teaching them about Japanese theatre and it going to be quite artistic and abstract. What we want to do is that, we want them to teach Megumi as well how Nigeria does story telling. We are going to teach Japanese too about Nigeria theatre and story telling. It is always about two volumes, we do one here and then take the replica to show the children in Japan.”
What does she hopes to achieve? She explained, “I hope to give the children a creative spark. For me, I think it is something quite beautiful because these are kids, who would not actually have the opportunity to experience art in this kind of way. Usually when Megumi does creative education, it is because some rich parents have heard about her, because she is an established artist and architect; they have heard about her and they told the kids, you must go for this. She has really huge exhibition in well-renowned gallery, so when she met me, she was really exited that she was actually happy to meet real people and real kids, who cannot afford to do this. I am really happy that she is coming down to Lagos. The Japanese government is supporting her.
“My other event is Pechakucha, I it started in Tokyo. It’s actually a forum for creative peoples to meet, to network and to talk. It is actually done in 250 cities in the world and I am bringing a piece of that to Lagos. It has a given format such as each artist coming with 20 images with each image running for 20 seconds. Basically, you have 7 minutes to inspire the crowd. I did the first Pechakucha, three months after I arrived Tokyo, where I met Mark who encouraged me to present my work. After my presentation, I was asked to handle Lagos event. I think it is really important for Lagos right now because, as Fashola is physically reconstructing the city, we need to reconstruct our minds.”
The event, which is set to be an informal visual presentation about each presenter’s passion, gives the audience a chance to speak to those presenters who have inspired them. However, PechaKucha Night Vol 1 is the first in Lagos and Nigeria, where contemporary art in all spheres unite. The show is set to showcase works of renowned artists both old and new, ranging from architects such as Papa Omotayo, James George, and Jite Brume to artists Richardson Ovbiebo and Megumi Matsubara while on fashion it will feature Gozi Ochonogor and Biki John, and film producer Zeb Ejiro. Others are graphic designer Ibukun Oyetunji; Photographers Tunde Kuboye and Abraham Oghobase, and Sound Artist Emeka Ogboh
“What I hope to do with pechakucha, is to carbonize all these people together, so art can become part of our fabric; when people come to Lagos they will say yes this is an artistic city, so creative. We are such creative people, but everybody is doing their own thing, what I want to do, is to create a forum where people can actually come and meet people. I am having 12 professional artists, both the old and new generation. I have got Zeb Ejiro, Tunde Kuboye, Richardson Ovbiebo, and Papa Omotayo and others. What I want to do is to show that art doesn’t have to be about paint and sculpture, like we are all used to. There is an architecture, graphic designer, sound artist and fashion designer among others. It is a kind of bringing Lagos to what the rest of the cities in the world are actually doing and have been doing for a long time. I hope to unite all the genre of art using Pechkucha night. I believe human beings are similar in one way or the other and that if we can actually understand ourselves, there will be actually peace and progress. I believe Nigerians with all our problems and differences are beautiful people, who can actually do something positive. We are very creative, though that creativity died in the 70s. In those days James Brown will come to Nigeria to hear Fela play or listen to Tony Allen. Now everybody thinks about oil, we need to change that; there is more to live than just oil. Everybody knows that art and riches are alive, otherwise we are just going to be working day and night for nothing. So, I believe that with this, we can make kudos steps to better ourselves.” Ochonogor added.
Speaking on special quest appearances, she disclosed, “That is still under wrap, I actually invited the Governor, because I believe that as he restructure Lagos physically, it is very important for him to be in touch with the people who would change things tomorrow. I feel that our generation is going to do it, it will take time but you have to start changing the mindset people now. He can come down and be part of it and show that he is really out to restructure Lagos, he can’t just restructure just the building because if the people are corroded they will corrode the city, so it has to go hand in hand. ”
Hosting the night would be Tamilore Kuboye with Remi Solarin as co-host. The event, which will be held from 6pm to 11pm on Friday, December 18, at the Terra Kulture Gallery, Lagos, promises to be a fantastic night.
On her fashion exhibition, which will be held on Sunday, 27 December, she says, “I have done London fashion week, I have done Paris fashion week, I have done Tokyo fashion week. I collaborated with lot of great Japanese artists. I have actually collaborated with Puma and Erickson Beamon to mention a few. I just think it is about time I bring my work home and so, basically what I am planning to do is to showcase my work to Lagos and for everybody to see my talent. It is not going to be your usual catwalk show as you will see pieces of Tokyo come out; you are going to see pieces of different cultures. I am one of the new generations of people who travel and recreate our culture, like being married to different culture. I have lived in London and Tokyo; I have travel to about 30 countries in the world and every time, I pick good stuff from that, so, you are going to see all that come out in my exhibition. ”
Gozi recently joined the list of talented international artists to be interviewed on J-Wave’s Modaista show, and played her top funkiest tunes from Nigeria. The interview brought Nigerian culture and music to millions of Japanese fans.
“I promote the Nigeria spirit in every way I can. Recently, I was on the biggest Japanese radio called Modaista. Basically, when top artist come from America to Japan, they must be interview on Modaista. I met one of the producers and he loved the concept of my brand, he said fashion design is not really going on radio, but you need to come and talk about Nigeria, tell us about the country. So, I went their and played my five favourite Nigerian artistes, which are Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, 9ice, D’banj and J. Martins (Good or Bad). I talked about Nollywood as well and a lot of people are really interested in it right now. It’s been on the airplane. A friend of mine, who lived in France came to Tokyo and was amazed, he said, “oh my God, Nollywood is really big, it is really for real.” I am just thinking that we got so many talents out there and we just need to package them. It is all about packaging and selling them out. But as things progress, we all need to progress with it and do something. I hope with my little input things could actually changed.”
