Grand Popo’s Contemporary Art Festival

Images courtesy of Djibril Drame

About

A UN report estimates that by the year 2100, the 600 mile coastal stretch between Abidjan and Lagos will become the world’s most densely urbanised area – a “megalopolis” in the making. Given that west African cities build laterally over vertically, the eroding demarcation between urban centres and under-touched rural areas is already self-evident – both physically and behaviourally. 

Grand Popo, a forested coastal town in Benin Republic, comprising various villages sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the River Mono, provides a unique location from which to assess the impending megalopolis. Described by Wikipedia as a “transit town,” Grand Popo is equidistant from Accra and Lagos, and equidistant from Lome and Cotonou. The slowness, stillness, and traditional values upheld in the space offer glimpses into pre-colonial African socio-spiritual modes of existence: few other environs in the region offer such possibilities. With the demands and speed of capitalism applying increasing stress on the collective, regional and international artists have begun retreating to Grand Popo and other similar locales, for respite and inspiration. 

Launched in 2025, Lọpọ Lọpọ: Grand Popo’s Contemporary Art Festival invites creative practitioners and local communities to reflect on how presence in this space of natural beauty and rest, can serve as a prompt to dialogue on the physical and ideological implications of the megalopolis. In convening, re-centring, and dreaming, what artistic interventions might emerge?