Artists

Fofana, Lamin

I'm Your Question, 2019
Courtesy: Lamin Fofana; (c) Creamcake; Foto: Ink Agop

Lamin Fofana works as an interdisciplinary musician, producer, and artist and founded his own label Sci-Fi & Fantasy. His instrumental electronic music contrasts the reality of our world with what lies beyond it, exploring issues of movement, migration, alienation, and belonging. In his minimalist multisensory installation, Fofana likes to invite us to experience interrelational dissonances as well as harmonies.
The sound intervention I’m Your Question, consists of the extended audio version of the opening track of his LP Black Metamorphosis released in 2019. The title and album is deeply inspired by Sylvia Wynter’s unpublished yet very impactful, manuscript of the same name, which centrally addresses the question:
"What happens when African people ... find themselves in the West, in America or Europe? We often find ourselves on the margins, in the outskirts or in the in-between spaces, where things are always in flux, nothing is permanent, and we are forced to improvise and find new ways to relate to ourselves, to each other, and to the world around us."1
“I am here”, ... “I am here, cause you were there.” A metallic voice is only partially understandable through the atmospheric sound waves. Most of the spoken words remain largely unintelligible and distorted, almost as if in a capsule underwater or as a message from a faraway place that only partially gets through to us. The sound signature of the track has a tonality that resists any concrete location.
I’m Your Question appears as an expression of the problem of not being understood or not being able to make oneself understood. Nevertheless, in the delicate sound fabric with deep resonances and sub-bass frequency, between the gaps, a Third Space is musically encoded, perhaps also as a reference to the Black Atlantic, the Middle Passage, Afrofuturism, and the ongoing Mediterranean crisis. As a remembrance and appreciation of those who came before him and went before him?
Is the causal connection of flight and migration with colonialism and racism as one of the basic conditions of global capitalism transferred and emphasized here as an electronic-musical commentary in the exhibition space?
The piece problematizes constructs of identity and attempts to shake them up and find a generative perspective on forced migration.
The complex interrelationships between all those present here who have come together to listen, be they beings or objects, are enigmatically brought into relation. The question remains not only how do we relate but how do we leave this experiential space and what we transfer from it to an outside of ourselves.
"I want to collapse the distinction between reflection and action. The world is falling apart. Who is taking a stand on this, and who is being passive?"2

1 Eoin Murray, “Fresh Kicks 109: Lamin Fofana”, DJMag.com, June 28, 2019, djmag.com/content/fresh-kicks-109-lamin-fofana
2 Haus der Kunst, “Tune. Lamin Fofana”, July 9, 2021-March 13, 2022., hausderkunst.de/ausstellungen/tune-lamin-fofana

Text: Nikola Hartl; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton

Lamin Fofana works as an interdisciplinary musician, producer, and artist and founded his own label Sci-Fi & Fantasy. His instrumental electronic music contrasts the reality of our world with what lies beyond it, exploring issues of movement, migration, alienation, and belonging. In his minimalist multisensory installation, Fofana likes to invite us to experience interrelational dissonances as well as harmonies.
The sound intervention I’m Your Question, consists of the extended audio version of the opening track of his LP Black Metamorphosis released in 2019. The title and album is deeply inspired by Sylvia Wynter’s unpublished yet very impactful, manuscript of the same name, which centrally addresses the question:
"What happens when African people ... find themselves in the West, in America or Europe? We often find ourselves on the margins, in the outskirts or in the in-between spaces, where things are always in flux, nothing is permanent, and we are forced to improvise and find new ways to relate to ourselves, to each other, and to the world around us."1
“I am here”, ... “I am here, cause you were there.” A metallic voice is only partially understandable through the atmospheric sound waves. Most of the spoken words remain largely unintelligible and distorted, almost as if in a capsule underwater or as a message from a faraway place that only partially gets through to us. The sound signature of the track has a tonality that resists any concrete location.
I’m Your Question appears as an expression of the problem of not being understood or not being able to make oneself understood. Nevertheless, in the delicate sound fabric with deep resonances and sub-bass frequency, between the gaps, a Third Space is musically encoded, perhaps also as a reference to the Black Atlantic, the Middle Passage, Afrofuturism, and the ongoing Mediterranean crisis. As a remembrance and appreciation of those who came before him and went before him?
Is the causal connection of flight and migration with colonialism and racism as one of the basic conditions of global capitalism transferred and emphasized here as an electronic-musical commentary in the exhibition space?
The piece problematizes constructs of identity and attempts to shake them up and find a generative perspective on forced migration.
The complex interrelationships between all those present here who have come together to listen, be they beings or objects, are enigmatically brought into relation. The question remains not only how do we relate but how do we leave this experiential space and what we transfer from it to an outside of ourselves.
"I want to collapse the distinction between reflection and action. The world is falling apart. Who is taking a stand on this, and who is being passive?"2

1 Eoin Murray, “Fresh Kicks 109: Lamin Fofana”, DJMag.com, June 28, 2019, djmag.com/content/fresh-kicks-109-lamin-fofana
2 Haus der Kunst, “Tune. Lamin Fofana”, July 9, 2021-March 13, 2022., hausderkunst.de/ausstellungen/tune-lamin-fofana

Text: Nikola Hartl; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton

I'm Your Question, 2019
Courtesy: Lamin Fofana; (c) Creamcake; Foto: Ink Agop