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    • Temitayo Ogunbiyi

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, «You will hands up» (Detail), 2019, Varnished Japanese ink and acrylic on found fabric 54 x 34.8 in © Courtesy the artist

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi
    You will follow the Rhein and compose play

    18 October 2023 – 14 January 2024

    Playground installation in Solitude Park from 21 May 2023

    The artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi, who lives in Lagos/Nigeria, investigates the potential of playful interaction to explore topics such as migration and exchange, but also material and social cultures. A first part of her project is a «playground» that invites visitors to climb, swing and play in Solitude Park as early as May. The work links Lagos with Basel: the shapes of the steel bars trace the paths that connect the two cities. In October, a multimedia exhibition in the museum will follow on from this, presenting works on paper and interactive musical installations.

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, You will find a spirit within all that is living, 2019 Varnished Japanese ink and acrylic on found fabric, 54 x 34.8 in © Courtesy the artist

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, You will find a spirit within all that is living, 2019 Varnished Japanese ink and acrylic on found fabric, 54 x 34.8 in © Courtesy the artist

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi has lived in Lagos, Nigeria for over 10 years. She was born in Rochester, New York in 1984 and grew up in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania. She received her BA from Princeton University, New Jersey in 2006 and her MA in Curatorial Studies and Critical Art Theory from Columbia University, New York in 2011. Her work has since been shown in numerous exhibitions in St. Louis, Lagos, London, Brooklyn, Perm, Bratislava, Naples, and most recently in 2022 at the Berlin Biennale and in Eindhoven. The artist has received numerous grants and awards, including a Smithsonian Artist in Research Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Fellowship.

    As an artist, who also curates, Ogunbiyi explores the potential of playful interaction to explore themes of migration and exchange, as well as material and social cultures. She develops them along models of thought between environment, lineage, and representation. In doing so, she creates dialogues between global current events, anthropological histories, and botanical cultures. The systems that capture, mediate, and direct the movement of people and goods are often the subject of her investigations. Her work materializes in drawings, paintings, sculpture and installation.

    playground

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, You will follow the Rhein and compose play, 2023, Museum Tinguely

    In her first exhibition in Switzerland, Temitayo Ogunbiyi presents a two-part exhibition entitled You will follow the Rhine and compose play. The first part of the exhibition shows an interactive outdoor play structure made of plant fibers wrapped around steel rods. The shapes of these rods, inspired by plants and strands of hair, interpret lines that connect Basel to Lagos, and different communities in Basel to one another. Ogunbiyi sees the open experimental arrangement of a playground as an opportunity for children and adults to have new experiences, reconsider how bodies move in the world, and expand social interaction.

    The second part of the exhibition will feature Ogunbiyi's most ambitious musical instrument to date, incorporating new strategies of sound production through their lyrical forms. Composed of cooking pots and wooden culinary tools sourced by the artist in Basel and bent brass rods, the instrument explores the connections Basel has with other European countries, as well as the migration of people of other origins to Basel. Both references are suggested by the contours of the brass lines and the selected culinary objects. In addition to the immersive instrument, the artist attempts to deconstruct and reuse design elements that relate to her earlier playgrounds. This part of the exhibition will also feature works on paper–many of which have never been exhibited, that led her to playground design, as well as paintings that continue to inform the artist's use of lines. This part of the exhibition will span four rooms of the museum.

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Suonerai nel quotidiando, accelerando, 2021 Brass, concrete, bronze and olive wood spoons, dimensions variable Commissioned by Fondazione Donnaregina for contemporary art, Naples

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Suonerai nel quotidiando, accelerando, 2021 Brass, concrete, bronze and olive wood spoons, dimensions variable Commissioned by Fondazione Donnaregina for contemporary art, Naples

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, You will peel in patience and indulge in the sweetest bursts and seedlings, 2022 Acrylic and pencil on herbarium paper 16.5 x 11.5 in © Courtesy the artist

    Temitayo Ogunbiyi, You will peel in patience and indulge in the sweetest bursts and seedlings, 2022 Acrylic and pencil on herbarium paper 16.5 x 11.5 in © Courtesy the artist

    The exhibition is created in collaboration with Culturescapes 2023 Sahara, which focuses on the Saharan space as the one where reconnecting and reimagining Africa is possible.

    Curated by Roland Wetzel, Curatorial Assistant: Tabea Panizzi

    ln cooperation with: 
    Blaukreuz-Brockenhallen, Basel, Reinach
    Brockenbude Glubos
    Hiob International