Ayọ̀ Akínwándé: All the World’s Protests

All the World’s Protest is a complex video and sound installation by the Nigerian artist Ayọ̀ Akínwándé, created especially for the Pulverturm as part of a yearly public art project curated by the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art.

Fascinated by the “Year of Protests”—as journalists around the globe called 2019—Akínwándé obsessively and meticulously collected news clips of demonstrations that took place all over the world, which he then combined in an installation with newly composed music.

The work is the fourth installment of Akínwándé’s ongoing artistic research project Archiving the Future. The series—an interrogation into political engagements in the public realm—was inspired by spontaneous gatherings and performative political events in Lagos, where the artist made audio and video recordings of conversations revolving around daily sociopolitical realities to evoke both intimacy and monumentality.

The carefully constructed video installation of the tumultuous news clips is accompanied by a collection of twelve compositions. The artist assembled this soundtrack from improvised jam sessions enacted as artistic responses to the original sounds of the demonstrations, played by six musicians sitting in their pandemic lockdown isolation rooms and collaborating with one another via Zoom. The architectural form within which the elements of the work are gathered evokes a weird sci-fi “situation room” aesthetic—growing into a metaphor for the incomprehensible tension between our incapacity to participate and our yearning for connection and understanding, all while the world is seemingly falling apart, even behind the meter-thick walls of the Pulverturm.

Artist, curator, and writer Ayọ̀ Akínwándé lives between Nigeria and the UK. He was the 2021 recipient of the Media Art Grant from the Foundation of Lower Saxony at the Edith-Russ-Haus.

The project was made in collaboration with Ida Toninato, Nastasia Louveau, Elena Rosauro, Xaver Rüegg, Leandro Irarragorri, Benjamin Udezi, Olasukanmi Abayomi, Lukas Mantel, Manfred Mildenberger.

The Pulverturm (Powder Tower) belongs to the former castle wall and is the only remaining building of the fortifications of Oldenburg. Its history goes back to 1529, when Count Anton I (1505–1573) renewed the city’s military facilities. Since 1996, the Pulverturm has been used for cultural purposes during the summer months.

Opening times:
Friday: 2–6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 11am–6pm
During Nacht der Museen (Night of the Museums), September 24: 11am–midnight