‘Mumu LP Vol.3: The Listening Room’ is a sculptural sound installation that foregrounds the ‘voice of the people’ in an ongoing artistic interrogation of political
engagements in the public realm. This art work is part of a long-term project called ‘Archiving the Future’ which began in 2016, collecting social media screenshots and
audio recordings of conversations at bus stops around Lagos. These conversations often took place at pivotal points in the political calendar and the archive organically
responds to citizens in the city, rather than prescriptive to a pre-conceived timeline.
This exhibition takes the The Jazzhole, Nigeria’s infamous book and record store, recognised as one of the world’s best record stores in the book, Around the World in
80 Record Stores, to present this audio-visual archival panorama – 19 sculptural sound pieces and 19 drawings.
The Listening Room is the third iteration of the Mumu LP series. This exhibition brings together a hybrid of sound collages from Mumu LP Vol.1 (2018) and Mumu LP
Vol.2: The Orchestra (2019). The first volume collated over one hour of audio recordings in a 19-track album recorded at newspaper stands in the city of Lagos,
collecting voices that reflect on Nigeria’s political landscape. This album was presented to the public as part of the artist’s solo exhibition at the Revolving Art
Incubator (RAI), on Nigeria’s independence day in 2018. The second volume, is a performance piece that was developed during an international residency at the
Fonderie Darling in Montréal, transforming the original recordings from the first volume into graphic scores on newspapers, which were then scored into 19 new
tracks in collaboration with five local musicians playing trumpet, bass clarinet, saxophone, guitar, and tuba.
Mumu LP Vol.3: The Listening Room uses The Jazzhole to look collectively into the archive, to listen to these contemporary voices, and the commentaries shaping our
political reality. The pieces will be installed in existing objects within the rooms of the venue. In this way, the sound sculptures, and the graphic drawings, will be in
dialogue with The Jazzhole’s own archives – collections of books and records – that have come to define this venue as the house of the “Nigerian sound.”
The exhibition takes place at The Jazzhole, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria and from 27 October – 10 November 2019. Friday till Thursday from 9am – 8:30pm.
Ayọ̀ Akínwándé is an artist, curator, and writer based in Lagos, Nigeria. He has an academic background in Architecture. His practice is multi-disciplinary, working
across lens-based media, installation, sound, and performance. He explores power dynamics, the relationship between the “powerful” and the “powerless,” as it
manifests in the multi-faceted layers of the human reality.
Akínwándé co-curated the 2017 Lagos Biennial, and was a participating artist at the exhibition held at the Nigerian Railway Museum. He was selected for the 2nd
Changjiang International Photography and Video Biennial, and was part of the “Chinafrika-under construction” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts,
Leipzig. In 2019, he presented solo exhibitions in Nigeria, Scotland, and Cuba for the 13th Bienal De La Habana.
He is a contributor to the book “Asiko: On the Future of Artistic and Curatorial Pedagogies in Africa” by the Centre for Contemporary Arts Lagos. His works and
writings have been featured in Art Africa, Contemporary, The Sole Adventurer, Somethingweafricansgot, People’s Stories Project (PSP), and other publications.
Akínwándé was awarded the Fonderie Darling’s 2019 Place Publique residency prize. He is both a 2018 ArtX and ABSA L’Atelier prize finalist. He has exhibited in
solo, and group exhibitions across Africa, and beyond.
www.ayoakinwande.com/thelisteningroom
