Dele Adeyemo

The Völklingen Ironworks flooded in red light
Copyright: Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

Dele Adeyemo

Dele Adeyemo
Copyright: Dele Adeyemo


lives and works in Kaduna, Nigeria, London, Great Britain and Lagos, Nigeria

Web presence

Website: https://www.deleadeyemo.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dele_adeyemo/

Works

A Dance of the Mangroves

Date
2022

Material
Projection, sculpture, sand, 34:16min

Description

In 1960, on the verge of Nigeria’s independence, the Nobel Prize–winning playwright Wole Soyinka wrote A Dance of the Forests—a foreboding warning of the future based on humanity’s propensity to repeat the sins of the past. At this critical juncture in West Africa’s history, as the effects of population explosion, urban expansion, and ecosystem devastations are being exacerbated by the global climate crisis, Wey Dey Move: A Dance of the Mangroves asks how we might escape a destiny of repeating past mistakes by learning from the lifeworlds of the mangroves surrounding the megacity of Lagos, Nigeria. Mangrove ecosystems nourish the ecological, social, and spiritual lifeworlds that remain invisible to the coloniality of the developer’s gaze. Taking inspiration from the traditional Yoruba spiritual practice of divination, Wey Dey Move: A Dance of the Mangroves opens a portal through the divination board into the lifeworlds of the mangroves of Lagos Lagoon.

Dele Adeyemo

Exhibitions