Lagos Soundscapes is an ongoing project by Emeka Ogboh, capturing the ever-changing sounds of Africa’s most populous city and his own hometown, Lagos, Nigeria. Described by Ogboh as a city shaped by globalisation, a “melange of new and old, modern and archaic, first and third world”,1 Lagos’ distinctive personality is embodied in the sound of its streets.

In Manchester Ogboh has chosen to locate a market in Whitworth Park and bring the sounds of Lagos’ famous bus parks to the street outside Manchester Art Gallery. Unobtrusively installed the sound is encountered without prior warning, Ogboh is interested in prompting a split- second sensation of dislocation, transporting the listener thousands of miles in an instant. Initially interested in how these soundscapes would be encountered and responded to by non-Lagosian audiences, as an expression of the exotic, Ogboh has also become increasingly interested in reaching the Nigerian disapora and creating moments of reconnection with the familiar. Exploring the imaginative possibilities of a distinctive sound Ogboh’s Lagos Soundscapes also interrogate issues of migration, displacement and the homogenising forces of globalisation.

Hear Emeka's Lagos Soundscapes on his website.

1 Emeka Ogboh from http://www.14thmay.com/about.html accessed 2 May 2012

Biography

Born in 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria, Ogboh lives and works in Lagos. He obtained a BA in Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2001. He is the co-founder of the Video Art Network, Lagos and a member of the African Centre for Cities project on African Urbanism.

Recent shows include Invisible Cities, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, 2012, ARS11, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland 2011; Imag[in]ing Cities at the Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan 2011; The Green Summary, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos 2010; Afropolis at the Tauternstrauch-Joset Museum, Cologne, Germany 2010.

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