“The reason to find a new vocabulary is to transform how design can create a new toolbox for everyday users”, Enwezor said. “I think we have to inspire design to be more than utilitarian, to be more than functional. We need to inspire useless design just for the sheer effort of inventing and creating things, as a way of innovating. I think we need to inspire designers to make useless things”, he said. On the importance of recycling and its influence on African designers, Enwezor thought that  “the idea of recycling is very, very important because what Africa can teach us about recycling is the fact that things can find new lives and new forms through ingenious ways, but we should not overvalue recycling in Africa. […] The politics of recycling have to become part of our discourse within the framework of design.”

Born in 1963 in Calabar, Nigeria, Enwezor moved to New York in 1982 to study political science. He later became interested in art criticism, and his prolific body of work unfurled from there. In 1994, Enwezor entered the contemporary art world by founding NKA – a critical art journal focused on African art. In 1996, his exhibition at the Guggenheim on African photographers helped establish him as a powerful voice within the field. Enwezor's curatorial vision was matched only by his commitment to challenging the status quo within the art world. He was best known for directing prominent biennials including the Johannesburg Biennale in 1997, the Seville Biennial in 2006, the 2008 Gwangju Biennial, and the 2015 Venice Biennale – becoming the first African to do so. Okwui Enwezor has passed away yesterday, after a long illness at the age of 55.