As part of Manchester Galleries We Face Forward programme this summer, Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh has installed a sound piece in Piccadilly Gardens.

Lagos Soundscapes is an ongoing project by Emeka Ogboh, capturing the ever-changing sounds of Africa’s most populous city and his own hometown, Lagos, Nigeria.

Described by Ogboh as a city shaped by globalisation – a ‘mélange of new and old, modern and archaic, first and third world – Lagos’ distinctive personality is embodied in the sound of its streets.

In Manchester Ogboh has chosen to locate the atmosphere of a market in Whitworth Park, and bring the sounds of Lagos’ famous bus parks to the streets outside Manchester Art Gallery and Piccadilly Gardens.

Unobtrusively installed, the sound is encountered without prior warning. Ogboh seeks to prompt a split-second sensation of dislocation, transporting the listener thousands of miles in an instant.

CityCo and Piccadilly Partnership helped to locate the piece in the Gardens.

We Face Forward is a city-wide exhibition of leading contemporary artists from West Africa including major new installations commissioned for galleries and parks, concerts by world-renowned musicians such as AfroCubism and Femi Kuti and further exhibitions of fashion, photography, football and storytelling.

View the full We Face Forward programme at www.wefaceforward.org

Image credit: Mic and the City, Ojuelegba 2012, Photograph by Emeka Ogboh