In an exclusive interview, designer Ini Archibong says he is glad that people are waking up to issues of racial inequality and hopes that his London Design Biennale pavilion will provide a platform for conversation.
The Pavilion of the African Diaspora ? which was first announced in a live interview for Dezeen's Virtual Design Festival last year ? opened this week as one of 38 projects on show at Somerset House for the 2021 edition of the biennale.
Taking the form of a sail, it is the first of three follies that Archibong is creating for the project, with other structures due to be unveiled in New York and Miami later this year.
It will be used as a stage for talks, events and performances from members of the African Diaspora.
Ini Archibong hoped to create a monument to represent all members of the African diaspora Archibong told Dezeen that, although the project comes in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is not intended as a statement about race, but instead as a place where people of African descent can come together and share stories.
"This is meant to be a platform for the people in the diaspora to have a conversation," he said. "This isn't a platform for Ini to express his views on race. It was never intended to be that and it won't become that."
Representing something bigger
The African diaspora refers to Africans and their descendants who have settled away from the continent, as a result of migration or slavery.
Archibong, who was ...