Design in West Africa: Unity in Multiplicity, a new exhibition at the Palais de Lomé, Togo, is on view until March 15, 2026, and reveals how contemporary designers across the region navigate history, community and craft to create works that resonate across time and place.
A region of extraordinary richness, West Africa carries a deep cultural, spiritual and artisanal heritage that continues to shape creative practices today. While its countries and communities have long maintained distinct ways of living and making, these practices are often united by shared world views — particularly a profound respect for community and the land.
This ethos forms the foundation of Design in West Africa which showcases the breadth and vitality of the region’s contemporary design scene. From explorations of spirituality and labour to stories passed down through generations, from material experimentation to reflections on postcolonial identity, the exhibition highlights the work of 22 African creatives, celebrating the region’s multifaceted richness.
As the concept took shape, curator Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte found himself reflecting on responsibility and on how to create space for complexity – especially, as he puts it, “how to curate without translating these practices into Western categories”, which often frame design through linear narratives and fixed labels. In the context of African creative practices, he observes: “What matters above all is the act of creation itself… with disciplines remaining fluid, porous and often interchangeable.”
Bellavance-Lecompte’s curation highlights practices that resonate with one another, carrying multiple meanings and moving fluidly between form and function. One such presence in the exhibition is Rym Beydoun. The Lebanese-born, Ivory Coast–raised textile designer engages closely with architecture, draping arches and courtyards with softly billowing tapestries that respond to light and wind. “There is a natural overlap between dressing a building and dressing a body; between creating objects and creating clothes,” she explains.
The exhibition takes place at the Palais de Lomé, a building constructed at the turn of the 20th century as a colonial palace for German and French governors. It later became the headquarters of an independent Togo before falling into decades of disuse, and has recently reopened as the country’s first centre for art and culture. That layered history plays a crucial role in the exhibition’s dialogues, with Bellavance-Lecompte noting that many of the artworks respond to — or actively reinscribe — the building with new meaning.
Togolese artist Kwami Dodji Steven Agbétoglo’s work stands out starkly in this context. His sculptural table confronts Africa’s shared histories of slavery under colonial violence through a familiar domestic form. Eight carved wooden legs, shaped like human limbs, support the tabletop, each representing a displaced and formerly enslaved community now brought together. A slit runs down the centre, threaded with 54 twisted iron and copper links. “This represents the gathering of the continent’s 54 countries that do not speak the same language,” he explains, “but which, traditionally and individually, have invoked their ancestors through various symbols.”
West Africa’s enduring traditions in woodworking, pottery, textiles, metalwork and architectural craft have produced rich systems of knowledge that remain vibrantly prevalent today, taking on new dimensions in contemporary contexts. Aboubakar Fofana from Mali, for example, is a master of indigo dyeing, following a careful process that begins with planting and cultivating seeds, a practice that honours the ancient natural techniques of his ancestors. Meanwhile, Kobina Adusah from Ghana draws on centuries-old pottery traditions, sculpting large clay vessels etched with patterns that evoke personal strengths and the evolution of society.
Material intelligence is another recurring theme within Design in West Africa, exemplified by Burkinabé designer Hamed Ouattara’s vibrant cabinet crafted from industrial remnants. Constructed from reclaimed motor-oil drums and metal sheets using traditional techniques, the piece reflects on trade and industrial waste and the ways in which such systems shape sociopolitical and environmental landscapes.
With such a wide range of geographies, practices and personal histories gathered within the walls and terraces of Palais de Lomé, what comes through is not a hierarchy or a fixed set of approaches but a shared way of thinking through making — one that allows different methods and intentions to coexist just as they have historically. “As the exhibition took shape,” Bellavance-Lecompte reflects, “it became clear that this was about facilitating a conversation that has long existed within the region.” @palaisdelome
