Sound installation by MADEYOULOOK

Outside of Kunsthaus Hamburg, the main road’s buzzy noise is interspersed with singing, conversations and nature sounds. What passers-by hear is the four-channel sound installation Mafolofolo Revisited (2024), developed by South African artist collaborative MADEYOULOOK specifically for the location. The speakers from which the sound emanates extend along the facade of the institution—from the front door to the bus stop a little further down the road. In an eleven-minute loop, the sound accompanies the urban life from the arrival of the first bus to the departure of the last one at midnight.

Mafolofolo Revisited uses the potential of sound as a means of connecting contexts across geographical and temporal distances and borders. The piece is a sonic record of South Africa’s historical and contemporary relationship with the land and the ongoing longing for its preservation and care. In its surroundings in Hamburg, the work encourages its audience to reflect on and view everyday urban life from a new perspective. It draws attention to globally shared experiences of a loss of natural habitat and traditional ways of life and calls for collective efforts in finding solutions. 

The new long-term installation on the facade of Kunsthaus Hamburg is open to the public around the clock. A bench has been installed next to the entrance of the institution for passers-by to sit and listen. A reading corner in the foyer, which is accessible during the opening hours, invites visitors to learn more about land-related issues in South Africa.

MADEYOULOOK’s interdisciplinary approach is based on Black everyday practices and is characterized by long-term research projects and collaborative endeavours. It is centred on an in-depth examination of local spatial and social relationships—blurring boundaries between research and practice, content and form, artist and audience—in favour of the integration of art into everyday life.

The new sound piece is based on the work Mafolofolo, which was first shown at documenta fifteen in 2022. Besides documenta and the current presentation at the South African pavilion at the Venice Biennale, MADEYOULOOK’s works, publications and programmes have been presented at Njelele Art Station, Harare (2021); Primary, Nottingham (2021); Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (2018); Frac des Pays de la Loire, Nantes (2013) and various initiatives in South Africa. In 2012, MADEYOULOOK was nominated for the MTN New Contemporaries Award, in 2017 for the Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics of the New School in New York. In 2022, they were fellows of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme.

The installation at Kunsthaus Hamburg is supported by the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme with funds from the Federal Foreign Office and ifa—Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.