In Motion, my first solo exhibition in Lagos

rain dance 1, Oyo town, 2016, Edouard Blondeau

Three years ago, as I first came to Lagos, this blog started with the question "walking or not walking?" (on the streets of Lagos). Since then, every single day has been a new step of appropriation of the space. This process of familiarisation has been documented with photography and texts throughout this blog. I have also more recently decided to materialise this quest into a more artistic venture, namely an art exhibition called "In Motion", at 16/16 a hip space in Victoria Island. 16/16, led by Tushar Hathiramani, is a place where an ecclectic mix of people gathers around drinks or thai food during art exhibitions and performances. It is located in a flat traversed by light on the 8th floor of 16 Kofo-Abayomi street with a superbe view on the lagoon.
I approached Tushar with some of my works created over a lapse of 3 years and it transpired from it that the concept of movement was a recurring pattern. This led to the development of the concept of the exhibition which happened on March 9th-18th, 2018.

In Motion is about movement in time and movement in space

Movement in Space is explored through dance. I travelled severally in the Yoruba heartland and came, unprepared, across acts of dancing. This happened in different locations: first in the beautiful and captivating sacred Groves in Osogbo, then in a private house in Oyo and finally looking for shelter, in the palace of the Alaafin in Oyo, during a storm that turns the ground into a river.
The harmony of dancing, these ancestral moves transmitted from generation to generation, transcended the space into which the action was taking place. Difficult lighting conditions made long exposures a requirement to capture these scenes, hence the occasional motion blur which helped bring out the furtive essence of movement. Blur also brings out the essence of action by abstracting the background into a neutral and dreamy representation. The use of black and white was deliberate to focus attention on the performers of the dance.

Spinning, 2016, Edouard Blondeau

Movement in time came as a deeper investigation of movement capture. By extension, the blur is replaced by a juxtaposition of samples of an action on a two dimensional surface. The background of each samples has been removed to focus on the subject of the action performed. This is what we see in the Actionoscopes. On those the mind is free to reconstruct what has been deconstructed to create its own narrative. It is like putting several pieces of a puzzle together. For this series I chose to use material from the beach, except for the calabash fishing piece which took place on Kaduna river. I must say I was seduced by the flamboyance and glamour of people on the beach, watching it was like following a series of eye-catching elements of ordinary people's recreational moments. Snippets of moments that I synthesized in the actionoscopes.
More recently I have explored layering the background with African prints to convey the energy of colours that people wear into particular scenes such as Taking the ram by the horns.

Taking the ram by the horns, 2018, Edouard Blondeau

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The Ogiamien family in Benin City: about wood and history

Roland Ogiamien in his wood-carving workshop Wood Roland Ogiamien is a renown wood carver. He is now retired in his home town of Benin City and is now in his 80s. We met him in his simple workshop, a barn opened on the surrounding greenery. A part of the studio is used to store wood pieces and make sure they are well dried. He is using a collection of german ustensils to carve and polish the wood. He spent most of his career working out of Lagos before relocating to Benin. Roland was explaining that the wood he uses today is different that the one he worked on in his early days. Ebony has become rare and wood carvers have had to switch to other types of wood. Traditional heritage is a large part of his inspiration which he translates on wood with his own particular style, exploring various techniques for the finish of his pieces. Roland Ogiamien and two of his favourite masks History Ogiamien is the name of an important royal family in Benin Kingdom. Towards the end of the ...

Victor Uwaifo, the Highlife music legend from Benin City

Prof. (Sir) Victor Uwaifo playing Joromi Benin City is famous for its millenary culture that can be traced back to the beginning of the 10th century AD with a dynasty of about 30 rulers called Ogisos. They were followed by the Obas, that have been ruling until today. The city is famous for its bronze casting tradition and also for its music. Prof. Victor Uwaifo is one of the musical legends of Nigeria. He was the first African to win a Record Golden Disc in Africa with a music title called Joromi back in 1966. He spearheaded Highlife music in his own way and represented Nigeria at Festac, Black and Arts festival, in 1977 in Lagos. Music has always occupied a large part of his life but Prof. is also known to be a man of many talents. He was a good sportsman and he diversified his career by studying arts and sculpture in particular. He has taught for years at Uniben (the University of Benin City) and obtained a PhD in that field in the late 1990s. Victor Uwaifo representing...

Lagos Island - Balogun market

hot sales Lagos urban area is said to count around 20 million inhabitants. 1 million additional everyday. People say Lagos is like a giant market and one of its epicenter is Lagos Island. Besides former colonial administrative buildings and the banks and insurance who built skyscrapers along the Marina, there is a large area devoted to trading and markets. The densest one is probably Balogun market which is located between the central mosque and Tinubu square. Three or four floors of shops, people, goods all so tightly packed that cars are not welcome and motorbikes have a hard time moving. pick what you need During the day 4 million people are coming to Lagos Island to do business. They will rent a space for an hour, half a day, a day or longer and trade. hen lost in the clothes section One can find pretty much everything, one needs only know where things are. But generally organised by specialized clusters. There is so much happening that one can only get a small glimps...

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Nigeria, the land of plenty

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