Eruku Lala

Eruku Lálá—a Yoruba phrase meaning "a lot of dust"—was Olanrewaju Tejuoso's first performance staged in Abeokuta. The work emerged directly from his return to the city at a time of intense urban reconstruction.

During this period, Abeokuta had effectively become a vast construction site. Road expansion projects led to the demolition of numerous buildings along major routes, and thick clouds of dust became a defining feature of daily life. The performance responded to this physical and psychological atmosphere—where progress, displacement, renewal, and loss coexisted in the same space.

Rather than documenting the transformation in a conventional manner, Tejuoso embodied it. Eruku Lálá functioned as both witness and critique, reflecting on what it means for a city to reinvent itself through destruction. The dust became metaphor: for change, for erasure, for development, and for the invisible costs carried by residents.

Staged in Abeokuta during the administration of Ibikunle Amosun, the performance situates itself within a specific historical moment in the city's urban evolution. Eruku Lálá stands as an early declaration of Tejuoso's commitment to site-responsive practice—using performance to engage directly with the social, political, and environmental realities of his immediate context.