Akinbode Akinbiyi & Abrie Fourie - Passage – A song

Archive Books 2023

Publication based on an exhibition of work by Nigerian-British photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi and South African artist Abrie Fourie both based in Berlin, and curatorial collaboration between Musée de la Musique Georges Ouédraogo, Ouagadougou, and Der Projektraum Scharaun, Berlin. The curatorial emphasis turns the focus to the idea of sound in photography. 

What do we hear? Can we hear the stories that emanate from the visual information? Are we projecting from our memories or closing our ears to the cries? Can we hear the noise of the place or the deafening silence? What is the sound we hear in silence? In December 2021, Akinbode Akinbiyi and Abrie Fourie, in the run-up to a coup d'état in Burkina Faso, the artists worked parallel on a photographic investigation of the geography and social topography of Oubritenga & Ouagadougou—considering the dreams manifested by Thomas Sankara then and the reality of the economic malaise of the 21st century. Thomas Sankara is considered "Africa's Che Guevara". Despite Sankara's assassination (1987), the belief in revolutionary renewal is ever present in Burkina Faso. Through this Sankara lens, the project and collaboration listen and meditate on his heritage.

Texts by Tosin Otitoju, Anja Saleh, Bhavisha Panchia, Jaro Straub.