Akinbode Akinbiyi

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Akinbode Akinbiyi (* 1946 in Oxford , England ) is a British - Nigerian photographer , writer and curator .

life and work

Akinbiyi grew up in England, where his parents studied, and in Lagos, Nigeria . He studied literature and English in Ibadan , Lancaster and Heidelberg . In 1972 he began autodidactic way to train for photographers. In a short time Akinbiyi developed into one of the most internationally recognized African photographers. His main focus is on the rapidly growing and rapidly changing megacities of the African continent, including Lagos, Kinshasa , Cairo , Dakar and Johannesburg . He concentrates on the unspectacular everyday life of people, apparently without a subjective interpretation of what is depicted. The artist himself describes his way of working with the words: “For 40 years I have been moving slowly and gently; I don't try to penetrate other people's personal space and take pictures at the same time. It's a kind of dance, a negotiation, a stroll - a very sensitive way of moving through all possible spaces. ” He captures his motifs with an analog medium format camera .

Akinbiyi's works have been shown at exhibitions and biennials in Frankfurt, Berlin, Dresden, Tokyo, Paris, Philadelphia, Johannesburg and Havana and have been published in various magazines. He was also the curator of various exhibitions at the Institute for Foreign Relations , including “STADTanSICHTEN Lagos” (2004) and “Spot on ... DAK'ART - The 8th Biennale of Contemporary African Art” (2009). In Bamako , Mali , he curated the German contribution to the “Rencontres de Bamako - Biennale de la Photography Africaine” (2003). Akinbiyi regularly writes catalog texts for exhibitions he oversees and in 2014 co-authored the book project “Just Ask!” On the contemporary African photography scene (2014, edited by Simon Njami ). In cooperation with the Goethe Institute in Nigeria, he founded an art center that is now part of a network of African photography schools.

In 2016 he was awarded the Goethe Medal.

In 2017, as part of documenta 14, he exhibited his work Passengers, Involuntary Narratives, and the Sound of Crowded Spaces (2015-2017) in Athens and Kassel.

In the Berlin art space SAVVY Contemporary he presented a comprehensive work in the group exhibition THAT, AROUND WHICH THE UNIVERSE REVOLVES: On Rhythmanalysis of Memory, Times, Bodies in Space.

Akinbode Akinbiyi lived temporarily in Munich after completing his studies and has lived in Berlin since the early 1990s .

Awards (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Five questions to Akinbode Akinbiyi , goethe.de, April 2013, accessed on August 29, 2016
  2. ↑ A Wanderer Between the Worlds Berliner Zeitung, August 26, 2016
  3. ↑ 62. Awarding of the Goethe Medals - Migration as a Motor . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . ( deutschlandfunkkultur.de [accessed on April 18, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Akinbode Akinbiyi . ( documenta14.de [accessed on April 18, 2018]).
  5. ^ That, Around Which The Universe Revolves. Retrieved April 18, 2018 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Akinbiyi, Akinbode
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Nigerian photographer, writer and curator
DATE OF BIRTH 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Oxford