28/09/2026
What an absolute delight to visit Passage—a song, the current exhibition at Javett UP, with work from Akinbode Akinbiyi (UK/Nigeria) and Abrie Fourie (South Africa) The works are absolutely beautiful and the curation sublime.
“What happens when we listen to photographs instead of simply looking? And what stories emerge when images carry the quiet echoes of memory, history, and everyday life?
The traveling exhibition, Passage—a song, brings together the work of two Berlin-based artists - Akinbode Akinbiyi (UK/Nigeria) and Abrie Fourie (South Africa). It explores the connections between photography, sound, and political imagination and was developed during a joint residency in Burkina Faso, West Africa, in 2021. The body of work emerged from the photographers’ movements in the streets of the capital Ouagadougou and the surrounding landscapes of Oubritenga Province during a period of growing political uncertainty in the country.
Sharing an interest in place, memory, and listening, Akinbiyi and Fourie work independently yet in conversation with one another to capture the visual and acoustic landscapes they find themselves in. They slowly move through streets, markets, public spaces, and peripheral zones, capturing the everyday rhythms that shape the environments they pass through. Their photographs turn to the quieter details to everyday life, searching for traces of cultural memory, the enduring legacy of the revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara, and collective histories that continue to resonate today.
The photographic works are in dialogue with a sound installation, echoing field recordings in Burkina Faso, and recordings from archival music collections in Ouagadougou. Visitors are invited to navigate the space much as the artists navigated the landscapes of Burkina Faso - through walking, observing, and listening.”
Javett-UP
Akinbode Akinbiyi
Abrie Fourie
