Toto's 'Africa' will now play in the Namib desert for "all eternity"

Blessing the rains down in Africa...

Toto's 'Africa' will now play in the Namib desert for "all eternity"
Stars Insider

16/01/19 | StarsInsider

MUSIC Art

A new installation truly pushing the bounds of what we consider art will play the famed song 'Africa' by Toto endlessly in the continent by which it was inspired. Is it poetic justice, or meme culture gone too far?

German-Namibian artist Max Siedentopf dreamed up this strange arrangement that consists of seven white plinths that stand out starkly against the smooth, beige sand of the Namib desert.

On top of the tallest plinth in the middle sits an MP3 player loaded with just one song. Six speakers surround the player, projecting the song into the vast quietude of the 81,000-sq-km desert, which also happens to be the oldest in the world.

That one song will play on an endless loop indefinitely, as the whole installation is powered by solar batteries, "to keep Toto going for all eternity," the 27-year-old artist explains.

Why Toto's 'Africa?' Siedentopf says the installation "pays tribute to probably the most popular song of the last four decades."
 

 
 
 
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A post shared by Max Siedentopf (@maxsiedentopf) on

But is this project really honouring Toto's greatest contribution to this world?

Siedentopf posted screenshots of a series of headlines about his installation on his Instagram Story, captioning the last one: "'Become an official meme.' Life goal achieved."

It seems, much like the world record egg, people are posting and creating more for the reaction than the content itself, which begs the question of where the art actually lies—in the plinths and MP3 and speakers, or in Siedentopf's keen knowledge of what makes viral news?

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