By MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU

When  Spanish born Jess Castellote came to Nigeria in 1994, he did not  have in mind that his services to a non governmental organisation committed to the construction of private residences at the University of Ibadan would change course with time to the fields of education, art and culture.

Castellote’s stay at Ibadan was pleasant and  helped in many ways to open his eyes to the beauty and endowment of his new environment.

” Through my stay in the campus, I learnt a lot and it ignited my interest in people and helped me to interact with the teachers and students more meaningfully. ” He said.

*Jess Castellote

Trained as  an architect, Castellote on completion of his assignment at the campus of the University of Ibadan, opted to stay back in Nigeria and took up part time job with the university.

“I was asked if I wanted to go back or stay to help, I opted to stay. I stayed  back and worked part time with a furniture construction company until when I left for Lagos.”

The relocation to the metropolitan city of Lagos took Castellote back to what apparently combined the demands of  architecture and project design.

It is in Lagos that  he founded, along with an Italian colleague, Maurizio Fattarelli, Laborda Associate, a consultancy firm that specialises in architecture, management and engineering.

While doing all of these, Castellote’s interest in the art was not dead. And like he confesses,” It is not an interest that happened suddenly. It is a process, an interest of every single person to learn and discover something about his environment.

I can’t  remember what it was that was the first thing that I saw that interested me about Nigerian art. May be it was a day I went to the shop or museum and I saw a painting that was of interest to me.

I must say that my interest in the art is part of a broader interest in what is good since I come from a background where the visual and other physical aspects come very readily to be appreciated.”

With an interest in art spanning over a long period of time both in  Nigeria and Europe, how would Castellote assess the state of Nigerian art?

Not sounding prescriptive, he is quick in pointing out that there are a lot of things to be done to help project Nigeria’s art to global status.

According to him, ” proper documentation is as important as having professional critics and curators in the same way that one needs the support of business side of dealers.”

“Nigeria, Castellote, argues is immensely blessed and richly endowed with deep historical tradition that surpasses that of  any other countries in West Africa. You have a great tradition: the Ife arts, Igbo Ukwu, Benin and Nok among other great  artistic traditions. All that are needed  is to structure and have proper documentation of these periods and well informed critics and scholars , who can study and develop the link between the past and the present and where they converge in the work of modern and contemporary artists.”

Because of the paucity of scholarly and documentary institutions in Nigerian , Castellote became part of the initiative between Pan African University, Lagos and an art brokeage company, Art Exchange in establishing  the first of its kind virtual gallery in Nigeria,a platform through which works of modern and contemporary Nigerian artists  are showcased online for the benefit of researchers and collectors.

On his own and as further  expression of love for Nigeria’s art, Castellote embarked on a very ambitious artistic research, which resulted in the publication of a voluminous compilation titled; Contemporary Nigerian Art in Lagos Private Collection: New Trees in Old Forest.

The work , which was presented to the public in Lagos last year, took over  two and half years and captures over 400 images of works of artists located  in several private collections in Lagos.