Today in quirky, not-at-all-what-we-were-expecting news, artist Max Siedentopf has a new art installation to introduce to the world—but you’ll have to go on quite the adventure to find it. Titled “Toto Forever,” Siedentopf has set up six speakers on top of pedestals that will play Toto’s famous song “Africa” for, well, forever.
According to the Smithsonian, the speakers are hooked up to a solar-powered mp3 player. The artist shared an approximate location for the installation on his website, but it won’t help you one bit: the entire Namib Desert is circled as the approximate location.
In an interview with NPR, Siedentopf shares a bit on the intent of his work: “The installation is supposed to be a bit like a treasure that only the most loyal of Toto fans can find.” Intrigued by what seems to be a global interest in the hit song from 1982, Siedentopf believes he has found the ultimate tribute with his work. “[I]... wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage and physically exhibit 'Africa' in Africa. The Namibian desert—which is, with 55 million years, the oldest desert in the world—seemed to be the perfect spot for this."
Just in case you can’t take off an undetermined amount of time to hunt down this installation and still keep your job, Siedentopf has shared a video of the speakers at work on his website. It’s actually quite eerie, the seemingly disembodied music struggling to play over the sandy wind. And the chorus of “I bless the rains down in Africa” seems especially funny given the location’s incredibly dry climate. And for a minute, once the song is over, you think it might be done. But you couldn’t be more wrong.
The best part of all of this might just be imagining a confused group of potentially lost hikers coming across this set-up. A mirage this surely is not.
