At the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden, Germany, contemporary artist Grada Kilomba presents a new exhibition entitled “Opera to a Black Venus”. The exhibition, which marks her first complete and individual presentation at a German institution, offers an exclusive glimpse into her singular approach to narrative until October 20. Through an immersive ballet of artistic media, she interrogates notions of violence and repetition in the post-colonial era.
Large-scale sculptural and sound installations, choreography, video and performance interweave to offer German visitors a journey through the different facets of his art. Perceived as a new form of post-colonial minimalism, his work consists of a harmony of forms, images and movements that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The title “Opera to a Black Venus” echoes the poignant history of black people, highlighting their resilience and resistance, while offering a nuanced reflection on colonial injustice and ecological collapse.
Returning to Grada Kilomba’s new commission, “Opera to a Black Venus (2024)”, and also the centerpiece of the exhibition, it takes the form of a striking video installation, in which a contemporary opera features a Black Venus. This female figure, situated in the depths of the ocean, rises as an oracle, telling tales of the resilience and memory of the black people. The artist has chosen a futuristic setting, evoking a desert environment reminiscent of the archaeology of human existence.
Enriched by an immersive ambience, Grada Kilomba’s work comes to life to the rhythm of a symphonic orchestration featuring tenors, contraltos and sopranos. Percussionists and ballet dancers blend into this already singular atmosphere, lending this timeless creation a rare uniqueness. The installation’s multimedia elements – boulders, sand, delicate plants and stones – evoke vestiges of a living nature, inviting reflection on ways of resistance and survival. The boat used by Grada Kilomba is a subversive visual metaphor and a mute interrogation by the artist to say, “What would the ocean floor tell us tomorrow, if it were emptied of water today?”
The “Opera to a Black Venus” exhibition also features a previously unseen work, the site-specific installation “Labyrinth (2024)”. This creation, composed of an aggregate of large-scale textiles forming rectangular figures, traces a path through the space of the Staatliche Kunsthalle gallery. With this new installation, the contemporary artist reveals an infinite perspective of eventualities and impossibilities, closely linking the transatlantic slave trade to the ongoing global struggle for freedom, space and movement.
The use of cotton fabric underlines the artist’s commitment to natural and ephemeral materials such as earth, stone and wood, inscribing the materiality of history and the sea as an archive of violent politics. Grada Kilomba stages these metaphorical elements to raise new questions about our common present and future, subverting time and space while disrupting the linearity of historical repetition.
Other landmark works by the contemporary artist will also be on show, including Table of Goods (2017), Illusions Vol. II, Oedipus (2018), Illusions Vol. II, Antigone (2019), 18 Verses (2022) and Sounds of Water (2023). These pieces will dialogue with new creations, establishing a continuity in the artist’s narrative policy.
A publication project in the form of a catalog will document the collaborative process between Grada Kilomba, the artist’s studio and the institution involved in producing the “Opera to a Black Venus” exhibition. This initiative will be enriched by contributions from guest writers Denise Ferreira da Silva (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), Tamsin Hong (Serpentine Gallery, London) and Ashish Ghadiali (Radical Ecology & Black Atlantic, London).
Opera to a Black Venus (2024) is the final chapter in a trilogy that began with the sculptural installation and performance O Barco | The Boat (2021), commissioned by the BoCa Biennial of Contemporary Art in Lisbon and the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Opera to a Black Venus” will premiere at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden until October 20, before traveling to the Museo Nacional Centro d’Arte Reina Sofía from November 19, 2024 to March 3, 2025 for a second exhibition.
