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Ìmolè Salù Iwadi Studio
Atlantic is pleased to present Ìmolè, Salù Iwadi Studio’s first design exhibition in Benin. In Yoruba, Ìmolè refers to spiritual radiance, the clarity of destiny, and the luminous presence of ancestors in the world of the living.The exhibition brings together the Gèlèdé lamp collection and the Zangbeto coffee tables.
The first draws from the Yoruba tradition that honours the authority of elder women, guardians of life and community. The second evokes the nocturnal guardian spirits of the Ogu people of Benin, whose power rests in what they withhold. Both pieces are grounded in the same belief: the most powerful forces don’t announce themselves, they reveal themselves quietly, and with intention.
Gelede Lamp Collection | © Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
Salù Iwadi Studio
Interview by Delphine Bousquet
In African cultures, a name always carries a meaning. Salù Iwadi Studio is no exception to this rule. While Salù is a contraction of Sandia Nassila and Toluwalase Rufai, Iwadi means “to return to the origin of things” in Yoruba. This is the manifesto of this young designer couple, Sandia based in Dakar, Tolu in Lagos, who envision a nomadic studio drawing from African history and spirituality to bring its cultures to life through design.
“Our creations are both nostalgic and futuristic. It is our goal: to understand where we come from and what constitutes us so we can look ahead in the right direction,” declares Tolu Rufai.
Anyone who has encountered the Zangbéto or admired the Gèlèdé will understand the feeling of déjà-vu and absolute novelty when facing the lamps and side table from the studio, created in 2023. In 2024, the duo made three trips to Benin to better understand these masks.The first, from the Gun people, takes the form of an inverted raffia cone. This “night hunter” scares away thieves, watches over villages, and acts as a mediator in case of conflict, a protector and guarantor of community order. The Gèlèdé tradition is one of the practices of Yoruba spirituality, the only one led by priestesses. It celebrates the power of women, particularly mothers, through carved masks representing female faces with almond-shaped eyes and scarification marks. During ceremonies, however, it is men who wear and dance in them as a tribute to those who carry the world. Among the Yoruba, the same force can be creative or destructive. Rituals guide this feminine power toward the well-being of the community. “We seek to tell these realities through design, to revive these traditions, and to bring them into another dimension. For us, it is also an exploration of our heritages and our personal stories,” confides Sandia. The designers claim a plurality of heritages because they reject barriers and borders. Anchoring these masquerades in their cosmogony, yes, but to highlight how close African cultures and beliefs truly are. “I am originally from Madagascar, and we have the same respect for ancestors; we honor our dead with rituals, just like in Benin. ” The link between the visible and the invisible, the recognition of the power of spirits, still matters. And Salù Iwadi Studio succeeds in expressing this link, translating it with wood, copper, and simple yet sophisticated forms, giving their objects a soul that many lack. This is the result of long-term work, as Tolu explains: “It took us more than 6 months to develop them because we understand the fragility and sensitivity of these subjects. Modernity allows us to show that these masks are not just mysterious or mystical; they are part of daily life and education, and these values are passed down from generation to generation.”
Salù Iwadi Studio with Gèlèdé Lamp Collection | © Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
Are Sandia Nassila and Toluwalase Rufai “transmitters”? While they don’t define themselves in those terms, they have nonetheless set themselves the mission of carrying the ethos of their ancestors. “We are addressing young people who adopt a hyper-Westernized lifestyle to tell them they can live with these ancestral values instead of turning away from them. We must reset their minds!” They also aim to demonstrate that design is universal. The couple was blown away by the Zangbéto, and their piece perfectly captures the typical movement of this mask, which spins rapidly on itself, making the raffia fibers fly. “It was the movement that drew us to it, on one hand, the way it moves, it looks like it’s floating, it’s majestic; and on the other, the way men move around it,” says Tolu. “It’s a masterpiece! Design is a language through which we Africans have always expressed ourselves; it’s all around us, but perhaps we didn’t understand it because it wasn’t formalized or standardized. Our ancestors already had the mastery, and we are only reinterpreting it. “There is the design, and then there is the craftsmanship. “We use traditional techniques,” emphasizes Sandia. “The table is entirely manufactured in Nigeria. The lamps blend the art of Nigerian bronzesmiths with Moroccan artisans who perpetuate centuries-old traditions of woodworking.”
The Gèlèdé lamp collection and the Zangbéto side table are being presented for the first time in Benin by the Atlantic Gallery, marking its debut in design. This exhibition is experienced as a special moment for Salù Iwadi Studio. “It’s wonderful to show them in Paris, in New-York, but here, in Ouidah, it’s a privilege to honor these masks in their own home.”
© Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
Gelede Lamp Collection
Gelede draws from the Yoruba tradition publicly honoring the authority of elder women, what Yoruba cosmology names as the power of the Mothers. This is not sentiment. It is structural. Elder women are understood to possess generative and regulatory authority over life, fertility, and communal continuity. The masquerade tradition enacts this authority through layering, concealment, and performance. Presence is intensified, not diminished, through veiling.
© Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
© Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
© Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
Zangbeto Side Table
Zangbeto draws from the traditions of the Ogu people of Benin Republic. The Zangbeto are nocturnal guardian spirits whose conical raffia forms move through darkness, patrolling communities and mediating between the physical and spiritual worlds. They do not reveal what they contain. Their authority lies precisely in that concealment, in the charge carried within the spinning form that no observer can fully access.
Salù Iwadi Studio, Zangbeto Side Table, 2025, Iroko wood (Neutral), 70 x 54 x 54 cm
© Roberto Tchoko / Sadiath Alimath Agency
