Minne Atairu

Minne Atairu is an interdisciplinary artist whose research-driven practice examines understudied gaps in Benin’s art historical archives. Using computational methods, she weaves historical data into conceptual prototypes that illuminate both the repatriation and post-repatriation status of the Benin Bronzes. Her work has been exhibited at Museum De Fundatie, Netherlands; Somerset House, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; RedCat, Los Angeles; The Shed, New York; Frieze London; the Harvard Art Museums; the Markk Museum, Hamburg; and the Fleming Museum of Art, Vermont. She is the recipient of the Re:Humanism Art Prize (2025), the S+T+ARTS Prize Africa (2024), and the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology (2021).

Originally from Benin, a community whose cultural heritage was looted during the 1897 British colonial invasion, Atairu’s work amplifies perspectives often excluded from historical archives, including oral histories and lived experience. Working with computational tools such as 3D modelling, artificial intelligence, and blockchain systems, her practice explores questions of ownership, custodianship, and data governance when cultural heritage is transformed into digital data circulating within global infrastructures. During the residency, Atairu will investigate the digital afterlives of the Benin Bronzes and the ethical implications of their presence within large AI datasets