Sufferhead Original (Paris Edition), 2019
Sufferhead Original (Paris Edition), 2019, is a new series of photographs taken in Paris in different places related to the colonial history of France and the claims of the black community. The models wear T-shirts decorated with excerpts from statements made by French political figures on the theme of immigration.
Clockwise from top left: #7 – Au Planteur; #5 – Jardin d’agronomie tropicale; #4 – Fragments du monument à la gloire de l’expansion coloniale française; #2 – Monument à la mission Marchand; #1 – Monument à la mission Marchand; #6 – Fontaine Cuvier; #8 – Église Saint-Bernard de la Chapelle
All images by Emeka Ogboh as part of the Sufferhead Original (Paris Edition), 2019 series. 150×100 cm, Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, Edition of 5 + 1 AP.
© Emeka Ogboh, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Imane Farès, Paris
This series is a continuation of Sufferhead Original, a project launched in 2017 at documenta 14 in Kassel. In Paris, this project is embodied in many forms and continues the artist’s multi-sensory approach. In addition to the series of photographs, it combines the creation of a craft beer created with spices from Africa, the production of food (a menu specially designed by the chef Dieuveil Malonga for the opening of FIAC Projects), sound (the creations of the artist, also composer and DJ, redeploy sound landscapes recorded in Lagos with electronic music) and the creation of a large billboard that will occupy the fence installed in front of the Grand Palais. It is inspired by the food tastes and experiences of Africans living in France.
Emeka Ogboh uses the visual register of advertising and commercial photography to examine the experience of the black minority in France; the specific clichés and discriminations linked to this identity are invested and diverted to create what seems like to the ‘‘advertising’’ of this beer.
Visible in some of these images, the ‘‘danfo’’, an old Volkswagen combi painted in cadmium yellow, an archetype of the means of public transport in Lagos and a recurring element in the artist’s work, occupies a particularly strong symbolic place. Accompanied by various sound compositions, this ‘‘danfo’’ bus is an installation in its own right, LOS-CDG (Lagos to Paris), first presented as part of the exhibition Prince.sse.s des villes in 2019 at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. For more information, see below.
Sufferhead Original (Paris Edition), 2019
Installation – 132 bottles & accessories
Overall dimensions : approximately 350 x 352 x 12 cm
© Emeka Ogboh, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Imane Farès, Paris
LOS-CDG (Lagos to Paris), 2019
This work is a Lagos soundscapes installation that incorporates the Danfo bus, sounds associated with the Danfo and its bus stations, with electroacoustic music composed by Emeka Ogboh. The installation incorporates a 4-channel sounds of the Danfo bus conductors calling out Lagos bus routes on the outside of the installation, and a 6-channel immersive headphones installation of different sounds from Danfo bus stations and Lagos soundscapes inspired electronic music.
LOS-CDG (Lagos to Paris), 2019
Installation shot from Prince.sse.s des villes in 2019 at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Sound installation Medium: audio (4 surround channels outside & 6 headphone installation inside) + sculpture/object (Danfo bus) Duration: Variable (looped audio) Unique art work.
© Emeka Ogboh, courtesy of the artist and of Galerie Imane Farès, Paris. Photo: Marc Domage
