Dreaming New Worlds 2025

This year, the contributions and perspectives of women* were at the heart of the open call theme  ‘Women Designed Cities’. The theme promoted projects that answer the following question: What would cities look and feel like if they were designed by female artists, matriarchs, scientists, carers, engineers and storytellers?

The selected projects present narratives that go beyond Lagos and utilize new creative materials and technologies. The collectives themselves emphasize beauty not as a luxury, but as resistance and connection. I am proud of their feminist approach, which challenges extractive progress and presents open, pluralistic, planetary and intimate ways of being in the world. This year's edition continues the framework for shaping the future that Dreaming New Worlds already presented in 2023. It shows concrete ways of communicating and negotiating with each other in urban space.

As usual, we will accompany you, our community, with an active program and engagement until the exhibition of the resulting works by the two selected collectives in February 2026.

Read about the collectives here: Dreaming New Worlds 2025 - Goethe-Institut Nigeria