IGÚN by Minne Atairu

This Lumen Global South Award Winner from 2021 is a generative art project that employs GANs to reimagine the lost bronze casting traditions of the Benin Kingdom, disrupted by the British invasion of 1897. Using datasets of looted ceremonial heads and other artifacts, Atairu creates AI-generated interpolations that explore the cultural and artistic absence inflicted by colonialism and its lasting scars. This mixed media collection also demonstrates the trend of how AI elements in art may eventually become ubiquitous. In addition to GANs, the work utilizes AR and 3D printing, reconstructing and reinterpreting these historical objects with the latest technology. IGÚN offers a dynamic vision that bridges past and present, while raising awareness of cultural restitution and historical memory. The project is a powerful demonstration of how systems thinking can be supplemented by AI to produce enduring artistic statements.