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Benin | 2022 | Painting & collage
Reinventing the lagoon shores of Porto-Novo
In Porto-Novo, Benin, a visual artist, an actor, and a choreographer use painting, poetry, and dance to help children from the lagoon neighborhoods express their emotional connection to their environment.
Reinventing the lagoon shores of Porto-Novo
The Lagoon: A Common Ground
Porto-Novo, the administrative capital of Benin, boasts exceptional natural heritage. The lagoon, at the foot of the traditional city, is bordered by fertile wetlands. The lagoon shores—important for flood regulation, biodiversity, climate resilience, and recreational potential—play a crucial role for the ecosystem and the city’s inhabitants. However, these fragile ecosystems are under various pressures that threaten their functions.
Since 2015, the municipality has been implementing a shore development plan called “Porto-Novo, Green City”: creating access roads to the shores, supporting income-generating activities (such as market gardening and fish farming), and improving informal urban areas near the lagoon (through opening up, drainage, and tree planting).
Artist
Rafiy Okefolahan, Zadok-Ange Hounkpatin, Maud Chabrol
Rafiy Okefolahan, Zadok-Ange Hounkpatin, Maud Chabrol
Partners
La Grande Place, Grabe NGO Benin Eight, schools in Porto-Novo
La Grande Place, Grabe NGO Benin Eight, schools in Porto-Novo
Participants
325 children and their families
325 children and their families
Agency
AFD Benin
AFD Benin
Dancing, Drawing, Imagining the Lagoon Shores
8
schools and 325 students involved
7
months of artistic practice
over 200
plant species, including endangered species, are hosted by the lagoon
Rafiy Okefolahan is a painter born in 1979 in Porto-Novo, trained at the École Nationale des Arts of Dakar. His work focuses on denouncing the race for modernity: “I want to highlight the harmful consequences of the reckless pursuit of progress: inequalities, climate change, rising individualism, and the gradual disappearance of African traditions that once formed a unique identity for my people.” Deeply committed to his country’s cultural development, Rafiy founded the association Elowa in 2008 to promote artistic creation and facilitate encounters between artists, the public, and cultural operators.
Rafiy Okefolahan encourages children to engage with their environment through visual arts, writing, and dance, in collaboration with eight schools from the lagoon shore neighborhoods.
The environmental NGO Grabe organizes workshops to introduce the children to the lagoon shores and help them feel the connections they have with this ecosystem.
During the visual arts workshops led by Rafiy Okefolahan, children interact with materials. They move and channel their energy through choreography sessions with French choreographer Maud Chabrol. Beninese actor Zadok-Ange Hounkpatin guides them through writing and speech workshops, promoting expression and orality.
After seven months of artistic practice, the children participate in a public eloquence competition based on their own narratives. This event is followed by the opening of an exhibition featuring an installation created by Rafiy Okefolahan from the children’s paintings. The exhibition, held at the Grande Place cultural center in Porto-Novo, is heavily attended by the students’ parents. The eloquence competition is filmed and shared on social media, ensuring the initiative continues to resonate even after its completion.
Through movement, creativity, and imagination, the 325 children have immersed themselves in the reality of their environment and shared their newfound perceptions with their loved ones.
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