Of Being and Becoming: exploring language and identity in the African cultural space using VR

Open Arts is a collective committed to promoting arts and creative activities. As the organiser of the Hausa International Book and Arts Festival (HIBAF), the foundation prioritises the artworks and stories of people whose voices have been excluded from the global conversation.

The project aims to digitise the meetings, exhibitions, performances and other activities of the 2nd edition of the HIBAF festival in order to archive them and, above all, to recreate them in virtual reality. If the objective of this event is to open discussions on the Hausa language through history, music and arts of the past and present, its VR version will give it more resonance and will allow it to seduce a new public which, thanks to this technology, will be able to immerse itself and wander through the festival in Northern Nigeria, from anywhere in the world.