Akinbode Akinbiyi sees, experiences, and captures cities that redefine them­selves by constantly changing, evolving, and growing. He has worked all over the world with a focus on sprawling mega­cities, especially those on the African continent.

Listening is a central part of his photographic pro­cess—“our ears perceive more layers of an event than our eyes can see”—which is a methodology for the visual grammar of listening. His attention is captured by the rituals of everyday politics, spirituality, and humani­ty that reside beyond the polished surface.

Attracted to lived rhythms and the social textures of places, Akinbiyi will present photographs in public spac­es in Borås, Vårgårda, and Bollebygd. Works presented include photographs from three ongoing series: African Quarter is about an area in Berlin the artist has been documenting since the 1990s, while Sea Never Dry, about the sea at Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria, and Lagos: All Roads have been ongoing since the 1980s. Lagos: All Roads shows the many different moods and faces of Akinbode Akinbiyi’s hometown, Africa’s largest metropolis. Akinbode Akinbiyi has, for the past thirty years, wandered up and down the streets of African cities, where he purposefully searches for the mani­festations of shared lives in everyday occurrences. His photographs depict cities that redefine themselves by constantly changing, developing and growing.

Akinbode Akinbiyi lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Recent exhibitions and projects include: The Measure of City Pathways: Some Photographs of Lagos, Bamako, Johannesburg at Västerås Konstmuseum (2021), Chicago Architectural Biennial (2019); and Three Photographers/Six Cities at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2016). In addition to his artistic and curatorial activities, he is also active as a writer, cura­tor, and educator. In 2017 he was invited to Documenta 14, where he presented the works Passageways, Involuntary Narratives, and The Sound of Crowded Spaces. In 2020 he opened a large solo exhibition at Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin titled Six Songs, Swirling Gracefully in the Taut Air.