Benzin (Petrol)

Oil, along with money, is still the most powerful universal equivalent for concluding global deals. A country’s economic prosperity, as well as the mobility, work and bare survival its inhabitants, necessitates an uninterrupted exchange of fuel. Take Lagos, Nigeria, for example, it is the scene, bottleneck and centre of local and global exchanges: a petrol station in Surulere, one of the busiest districts in the West African megacity.

This project relates exemplary economic exchange processes involving young Nigerians at a specific location: at the petrol station as an urban subsystem and as a hub of corruption, transport, traffic, private life, street trading, small talk, and economic and political interests.

Benzin translates this exchange system’s mode of operation into a multi-channel video-space installation. Using four cameras simultaneously, video artists Constanze Fischbeck and Daniel Kötter record life in real time at the petrol station and present stories on exchange told to Ayodele Argibabu by 16-year-old pupils from Lagos. Argibabu combines these stories with documentary and fictional elements. In addition, Nigerian trade unionists, local boys, politicians, middlemen, journalists and taxi-drivers will be reporting on circulation and stalemate.

‘Lagos is still a typical African living environment, but it has its own internal combustion that can explode any time. In the period of fuel scarcity Lagos is a dangerous place to be because everybody seems to be eating, drinking, sleeping fuel.’ (Jahman Anikulapo)

8-Channel-Video installation, 32 min., colour, sound, Lagos/Berlin 2008

artistic director: Constanze Fischbeck (Berlin); video, dramaturgy: Daniel Kötter (Berlin); text: Ayodele Arigbabu (Lagos); production: Katharina Dietz (Berlin)

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