Money Must Be Made

"Money Must Be Made takes us straight to the heart of the « Balogun Market » in Lagos, Nigeria. Continuing to explore themes such as globalization, urbanization, colonialism and capitalism, Vitturi has spent the past three years working on the project.

The many streets that host the « Balogun Market » sprawl from the shadow of the unoccupied twenty-seven-storey building still called the « Financial Trust House ». The crowd at the market swelled and multiplied by sheer osmosis over the years, and swallowed the area into its throngs. Real estate developers say the House will remain unoccupied for as long as the market is unregulated. Here we find the paradox that so interested Vitturi – where his previous publication Dalston Anatomy surveyed gentrification killing off local business in London, in Lagos he found quite the opposite: gentrification in reverse.

Returning to Lagos on many trips, Vitturi immersed himself into street market life and studied how the crowds merge into a frenetic, chaotic mass of bodies and objects. He photographed the things he saw – products, prayer mats, apparel – and the people he encountered – local shoppers, vendors and market stall owners. With most of the items on sale imported from China, he surveyed the extent of China’s economic hold on Africa within the context of the market. Through conversations with vendors, he learnt its status as a place people flock to, to make money.

Money Must Be Made is a hardcover publication, each cover is handmade and unique, collaged by Vitturi with recycled off-cuts of various fabrics, vinyl’s and leather. The Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma has written an accompanying glossary as a way to navigate through the book and it’s many voices, based on his experiences growing up in Lagos."