Lagos State of Mind III

Info

• Title : Lagos State of Mind III

• Year : 2017/2020

• Medium : 18-channel sound installation, painted wall, galvanized steel and aluminum street sign, U-Bahn metro sign, concrete slab, vinyl wall graphic.

• Duration : Variable.

Details

Lagos State of Mind III is an immersive installation that explores memory, space, and time through the sonic and visual convergence of Lagos and Berlin. Drawing from Emeka Ogboh’s lived experience between both cities, the work brings their urban rhythms into dialogue, examining how place is shaped by movement, language, and everyday encounters.

The exhibition space is defined by cadmium-yellow walls encircled by two black horizontal stripes—visual references to public transport systems that structure daily life in both cities. In Lagos, the stripes recall the iconic Danfo buses; in Berlin, they evoke the U-Bahn and the circular logic of its transit network. Reimagined by Ogboh, Berlin’s ring route is symbolically extended to include key Lagos bus terminals, collapsing geographic distance and expanding ideas of home and belonging.

Sound animates the space through a layered composition that moves between both cities. Berlin metro announcements and station stops merge with the calls of Lagos bus conductors and itinerant street hawkers. These everyday voices, combined with other ambient urban sounds, form a visceral portrait of shared and divergent urban experiences. Interwoven recordings of African expatriates learning German further reflect the artist’s internalized hybridity.

A solitary signpost and a Berlin U-Bahn station sign punctuate the space, translating Lagos landmarks into a German context—Obalendeplatz, Lagosstrasse. Together, these elements invite viewers to encounter Lagos through Berlin, and Berlin through Lagos.

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