The Ghanaian-Canadian artist reflects on Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3025 CE at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, where Afrofuturism, mythology and speculative world-building converge in monumental sculptural form.
26 April 2026
In discussion with ART AFRICA, Ekow Nimako reflects on Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3025 CE at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, an ambitious exhibition that extends his visionary Afrofuturist universe through monumental sculptures constructed entirely from black LEGO elements. Imagining a liberated Africa in the year 3025, the exhibition merges ancient Nile civilisations with speculative futures shaped by Black imagination, technological transcendence and ancestral memory. Through sprawling architectural forms, celestial figures and mythic landscapes, Nimako transforms a familiar childhood material into a powerful medium for cultural reclamation — one that resists historical erasure while proposing expansive new narratives of African futurity.
Ekow Nimako with Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
Brendon Bell-Roberts: In The Nile 3025 CE, you imagine an Africa shaped by uninterrupted histories. How does this idea challenge the gaps created by colonial narratives in your work?
Ekow Nimako: I think this idea goes straight to the heart of every continental African and reverberates among those of us in the diaspora. What if enslavement and colonialism never happened? What sort of future could be imagined and brought to reality, in which the avarice and machinations of Europe and America were not inflicted upon us? The aim of my work is to help inspire us to create that world. To reimagine the continent, unplagued by the very injustices and turmoil that the world that created those issues now looks upon with indifference and even hate. Everything I do creatively is in service of that goal. A utopian Africa exists in the future, and that future is imminent.
Installation view Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
You use black LEGO pieces, a material associated with play, to build serious, monumental works. What draws you to this tension between play and meaning?
I enjoy what I call the ‘cultural polarity’ that exists between the global iconography of LEGO products and the powerful Black-centred themes of my work. Growing up, LEGO was my primary creative outlet, but there was nothing that connected the products to my social and cultural landscape –as the son of Ghanaian immigrants, and within the othered African-Canadian experiences of my life. In my professional practice, play eventually became a sort of alter-biological process for me, too, especially in my figurative work, where tiny plastic pieces served as the building blocks of DNA for the complex beings I created. Beings that I essentially constructed to breathe life and vitality into static forms and spaces.
Ekow Nimako with Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
The work spans a vast landscape along the Nile. How do you use scale to shape both the visual experience and the story you are telling?
Scale was a tricky thing to navigate while creating this work. I wanted to present some architectural flourishes in key regions along the Nile, considering how far in the future this artwork is situated. However, it was the geographical and terrestrial elements that really pushed my material techniques to new heights. For example, building trees is often difficult, especially in black, since my Building Black Civilisations sculptures (the body of work The Nile 3025 CE is a part of) are created using micro-scale, a Lego building technique that uses the smallest pieces to recreate large structures or geographies.
For this artwork, I realised I could now use the modern hairstyles (afros, braids, puffs, and coils) created for Black IP mini-figure characters as trees and distant forest ranges. It was a revolutionary advancement for my practice, and it was only possible because The LEGO Group finally began diversifying its racialised characters, giving them nuanced details and accessories. In my case, the material often informs the art, so the innovation and evolution of The LEGO Group support the evolution of my work.
Installation view Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
Your work brings together myth, spirituality, and futuristic cities. How do you balance these different elements in a single visual language?
These significant themes naturally coexist across my various bodies of work, so balancing them is rather fluid. All mythology contains aspects of spiritualism, and cities are like monuments of human civilisation. LEGO elements are so textured and recognisable that they are the perfect vehicle for blending similar and disparate visuals and concepts into a unique, unified form.
Installation view Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
Visitors are invited to build and contribute to the exhibition. How does this shared process change your idea of authorship?
I appreciate the tactility of LEGO play, so I understand the need for builders, enthusiasts, and people who just recognise the joy of play to get involved. Every one of my solo exhibitions has a dedicated play zone for people to contribute. However, I do not allow people to add or remove parts of my artwork, lol. There are the controlled, protected contemporary works to view and be inspired by, and then there is the chaos and creativity of the play area, where the public can express themselves freely.
Installation view, Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
The exhibition removes traditional historical objects to make space for imagination. What does this open space allow that a conventional museum display might not?
I’m unsure whether the removal of historical objects is specific to this individual experience. Museum displays and spaces are rarely static. They shift and change, and are built and destroyed constantly for every exhibition.
The Wereldmuseum definitely made substantial space for my display to be introspective, contemplative, educational, inspiring, and fun, and other items were likely moved to make that possible. But I don’t think it was distinct from the processes of other museums. I will say that certain museums have a deeper colonial history to reckon with, so presenting my work in them is not without some mixed feelings. I’m fully aware that the underlying priority should always be to decolonise at every possible level. A daunting endeavour, but the work must be done.
Installation view, Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
Your series moves between historical references and imagined futures. How does this back-and-forth reshape how we think about African time and history?
My hope is that my work helps create a timeless African aesthetic, if that makes sense. For example, my AMOPRHIA series seamlessly blends West African mask-making traditions with interstellar vessels, using a plastic medium. But one that also appears like a metallic alloy, depending on the interplay of natural elements such as light and shadow. Work like this has tremendous power to bridge the temporal spaces between ancient history and modernity, while also providing a visual gateway to the future.
Installation view, Building Black Civilisations – The Nile 3023 CE. Image courtesy of Casper van de Kamp. © Aad Hoogendoorn
As museums rethink their colonial histories, how do you see your work engaging with the museum as a space of both storytelling and power?
Storytelling is power. Especially when we consider that so many diverse ethnic groups on the continent and in the diaspora use oral storytelling as the primary means of documentation and historical cataloguing. Historically, our libraries and centres of learning have faced (and in many places, continue to face) destruction, our cultures and cultural items have been co-opted and consumerized, and our spiritualities suppressed and demonised. Museums generally need to be restructured and reimagined to provide greater access and connection to the communities that created the objects they hoard. These artworks and artefacts were never ‘theirs’ to begin with. Repatriating them is a good start, but that process always seems long overdue. Institutions typically struggle to democratise power.
The exhibition took place at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, Netherlands, from 31 October 2025 to 8 March 2026.
