Inside MMA2 Art Experience Centre

For arts lovers, enthusiasts and collectors, the recent opening of the Art Experience Centre at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2) operated by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) was to further advance the course of arts.

Many lovers of art converged on the terminal recently when the art exhibition centre was unveiled to the public; thereby adding to the aesthetics around the terminal.

Inside the exhibition centre are different artistic displays and collections focusing on different topics and themes, espousing different creative ideas that appeal to art enthusiasts and lovers.

On display were various paintings depicting different cultural and social values; there were also sculptures on display.

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One of such amazing displays was a drawing which according to the Chief Exhibitor, Wilson Agu, depicted Nigeria.

Explaining the drawing which features the eagles, the coat of arms, Nigeria’s flag, among others, Agu said the drawing represents the possibilities in Nigeria as well as its resilience in surmounting whatever challenges that might come her way. Also featured were paintings about the uniqueness of the traditional institution.

Agu, an engineer, is the Chief Exhibitor at the Arts Centre as he took visitors and the management of BASL led by the Chairman, Dr. Wale Babalakin SAN, on a tour of the gallery, explaining the various displays and the intrinsic meanings behind some of them.

Speaking with our correspondent, Agu said the decision to hold the art exhibition was “to promote art, culture, innovation and to have an interaction; a platform for the younger people to interact with their collectors, the colossus of arts, the enthusiasts and also to project our arts forward.

“We feel that this is the right place to be. MM2 is a unique place, it is a pace setter and the first of its kind in the country and the airports are a peculiar facility. It is meant to be the parlour of the country and the parlour of the state just like you make your room and you leave the parlour for your strangers. Airports are like that. It is a welcoming space for everybody. It ought to be a foremost projector of our culture. That is why we have opened a gallery here.”

He explained that the gallery would have different sections. “There would be the normal components of the gallery where we would sell arts, interact with arts and expose arts to the people and update arts.

“There is also the space, a kind of celebrity space for achievers in the society, where we would have space for collectors and people who have promoted the arts. We want to say one or two things about them. It could be corporations, it could be individuals, the most important thing is that we want to celebrate our own, we want to use this gallery as a platform to celebrate our own and encourage people.

“There is the profiling of our clientele, of our celebrities and people who have done so well for the arts. Also, there is a generality of arts where people can come in and interact and update themselves with that artistic interest.”

Our correspondent observed that many of the collections were about women with different canvas paintings highlighting the place of women.

Explaining his attraction for women, he said, “Women are a very unique gender. We are all products of women – our mothers, our wives, our sisters, our daughters and the womenfolk have done so well. So, the first appreciation of humanity must first start with women because your mother is the first person who showed ideally what love should be to you, not just in birth but your mother nurtures you. Your mother goes out of her way to make her best available. Yes, fathers have their own role, we don’t say otherwise but for most cultures, it has been generally accepted that women have a very unique role to play. So, that role is very inspiring.

“I want to first start by appreciating women. Of all the cultures in the world, we are the least that appreciate our own women. The typical white, most of their novels, films and a lot of their creative works are female-based, most of their stories move along that line and they are very captivating and if you look at where cultures have mixed, where we have cross-culture, why is it the African culture that is so laissez-faire when it comes to women? I don’t really understand, it shouldn’t be like that. Other cultures preserve women as an entity both in imagination and everything. We have to revive it; we have to recreate it. It is in us but we are not giving it enough expression.”

Babalakin said the Art Exhibition Centre is part of ramping up passenger experience at the terminal, saying an airport terminal is not just for passengers to come and fly.

He said, “The mandate I gave to the management is to create an environment where people can eat, shop, entertain and in the process fly. It is not an environment where you come and queue in the sun because you want to fly.

“If you decide you want to come and fly in MMA2, we have a gallery for flowers, you can decide you want to buy flowers, you can decide you want to have lunch before you travel.

“What we have tried to do is to uplift the standard with the hope that anybody who wants to build an airport tomorrow will have all these standards incorporated in their airport.”