Vernacular Art-space Laboratory – (VAL, Lagos) is a non-profit artist initiative, founded in 2015 in Lagos as an alternative cultural space where artists cohabit to exchange ideas and co-create works with uncommon flair. As a non-commercial alternative art space, the main focus is to provide a platform for the collaboration of contemporary artists of all genre and persuasion, though with inter-disciplinary art projects as the central guiding principle.
After some issues with the physical space, they have decided to continue with a non-space idea, which allows them to explore alternative and abandoned spaces for cultural and artistic interaction and intervention. This was what gave birth to the now annual Iwaya Community Art Festival – ICAF Lagos.