How LG OLED Screens Are Becoming Interactive Cultural Technology Platforms

The intersection of ancestral tradition, community and technology took centre stage at the recent Investec Cape Town Art Fair, where LG Electronics South Africa partnered with multidisciplinary artist Chidiri Nwaubani to present the immersive installation, Mbari Memorial: What Cannot Be Returned Must Be Reconceived.

Held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), the fair was guided by the theme “Listen,” a prompt that Nwaubani answered through a radical exploration of Nigerian Igbo culture and collective creativity. At the heart of the installation were reimagined ogene gongs – traditional instruments used to summon communities – transformed into electrically conductive sensors. By completing the circuit through simultaneous touch, visitors “activated” the reimagined gongs to generate unique digital sculptures displayed as a form of augmented reality on LG OLED screens.

The collaboration highlighted how technology can serve as a unifying conduit rather than a cold tool. By incorporating LG OLED technology as part of the artistic medium, Nwaubani moved the narrative from merely reclaiming stolen artefacts to resurrecting them. Unlike static museum objects, the digital forms generated were variable and temporary, mirroring the Igbo Mbari tradition where sacred structures were built collectively and left to decay naturally as a reminder of life’s fragility.

“This installation was a direct challenge to the traditional ‘do not touch’ museum mandate,” says Chidi Nwaubani. “By using LG’s OLED screens as a canvas, we transformed digital artefacts from static museum pieces into living, variable entities created through communal touch. Presenting this work on African soil was a visceral homecoming, asserting that our culture lives on through our collective power to recreate and reconceive what was once lost.”

For Nwaubani’s innovative multidisciplinary work in leveraging technology to play a role in his installation at the Art Fair, he was also awarded the coveted Tomorrows/Today Prize, supported by Fiera Milano Exhibitions Africa. Tomorrows/Today is a specially curated section to celebrate and highlight works of rising innovators in the art world.

Nwaubani’s work has already appeared at many major international platforms, including the Venice Biennale, and he is also the founder of Looty, a platform advocating for the return of looted African artefacts through digital storytelling.

For LG, the partnership represented a commitment to supporting the arts on the African continent while showcasing the versatility of its display technology. The deep blacks and vibrant colours of the OLED panels provided the necessary depth to make the digital sculptures feel integrated into physical reality, blurring the lines between body and archive.

“At LG, we believe that technology should serve as a bridge between people and their stories,” says Dimakatso Molaba, TV/Audio Product Marketing Specialist at LG Electronics South Africa. “Collaborating with Chidi Nwaubani allowed us to demonstrate how technology transcends traditional uses to even become an interactive medium for cultural storytelling. It was an honour to have a part to play with Chidi’s masterful artistic storytelling and see our screens help bring the spirit of the Mbari tradition to life.”