In Lagos, Music and DANCE render visible the multiple juxtaposition that shape daily life, in the process, it unconsciously become an archive, a relic of our experiences on the streets of Lagos. Signifying an experience that is constantly on the the move - from GALALA – TO MAKOSSA - TO SWO - TO KONTO - TO YAHOOZEE - TO ALANTA - All these accounts for the instability of reality and its dependance on the sounds and Dances that domesticates it, such domestication is possible only through combination of images and lyrics, words, sounds, melodies, dances, social codes and slogans that is locally accepted during a particular era. To tell the story of life in LAGOS, music and DANCE calls on and produces heterogeneity of representation.
So who is the man telling us that the cities of the future are still lying somewhere in Europe or America, or taking the directions of Tokyo or Beijing ! Hell no - the cities of the future are completed works in progress, cities in motion and adhering to contemporary needs of a city, made what it is by the resourcefulness of its creative and entrepreneurial citizens, producing intense proximity of loads of activities and performance of all sorts, from selling and buying, to fighting and praying, loading and unloading, road shows of all sorts, touting, crimes and daily minor violence, all working side by side with dirt, waste, skyscrapers, history, energy, slums, wide roads, and sweat and wealth, to sustain the everyday hustling that put a totally different light to their moments of merrymaking, worship and love.
All these are what the city of the future is made of and not solely defined by its architectural extravagant extravaganza. In wonder cities like Lagos, the rule of law, law of gravity and the formal pulls of life are brought to the lime light at the square everyday by the people, with full backing of the formal law breakers, to be assembled and demolished even before the end of the inaugural party and political shows, set in motion by the formal government, the informal government of the people, in turn takes from all that is visible and in present tense, to make the static informal, yet mobile government, through of course their creative energy, many thanks to their public reputation and street credibility that none of the statesmen and elite class can boast of.
In contemporary LAGOS, no one is promised tomorrow, one can change one's mind over night, life is easy and fast, we don't define ourselves based on other people's hallucination, we are a people bound to live life to the fullest and never ready to pay the price of death... and when a piece is "MADE IN LAGOS" you the audience can feel the heterogeneity of energy, mood and feel heat at 90°C!
So who is the man telling us that the cities of the future are still lying somewhere in Europe or America, or taking the directions of Tokyo or Beijing ! Hell no - the cities of the future are completed works in progress, cities in motion and adhering to contemporary needs of a city, made what it is by the resourcefulness of its creative and entrepreneurial citizens, producing intense proximity of loads of activities and performance of all sorts, from selling and buying, to fighting and praying, loading and unloading, road shows of all sorts, touting, crimes and daily minor violence, all working side by side with dirt, waste, skyscrapers, history, energy, slums, wide roads, and sweat and wealth, to sustain the everyday hustling that put a totally different light to their moments of merrymaking, worship and love.
All these are what the city of the future is made of and not solely defined by its architectural extravagant extravaganza. In wonder cities like Lagos, the rule of law, law of gravity and the formal pulls of life are brought to the lime light at the square everyday by the people, with full backing of the formal law breakers, to be assembled and demolished even before the end of the inaugural party and political shows, set in motion by the formal government, the informal government of the people, in turn takes from all that is visible and in present tense, to make the static informal, yet mobile government, through of course their creative energy, many thanks to their public reputation and street credibility that none of the statesmen and elite class can boast of.
In contemporary LAGOS, no one is promised tomorrow, one can change one's mind over night, life is easy and fast, we don't define ourselves based on other people's hallucination, we are a people bound to live life to the fullest and never ready to pay the price of death... and when a piece is "MADE IN LAGOS" you the audience can feel the heterogeneity of energy, mood and feel heat at 90°C!
