»The Open Boat« by Lamin Fofana

In his multi-sensory performance and installation »The Open Boat«, Lamin Fofana combines philosophical questions with electro-acoustic recordings and sound design. In this way, the US-based artist reimagines the geographies of the African diaspora in a fascinating way.

The open-ended performance installation uses the affective medium of sound to critically examine topics such as migration, displacement and African diaspora experiences. It uses a sophisticated blend of ambient soundscapes, field recordings, electronic textures, light, smells and ephemera. Fofana's work reflects on forced migration and the perilous journeys across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Influenced by post-colonial theory, the artist draws on the writings of poets and historians such as Kamau Brathwaite and Édouard Glissant to consider notions of identity, belonging, the submerged and the non-linear, cyclical movements and temporalities of oceanic space.