Artist:
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Title:
City Called Mirage
Year:
2013
Adress:
Somerset House (contemporary)
Website:
Void
Can we stand void? How long can we look at A City Called Mirage by Kiluanji Kia Henda? In 3D we see lines run untill great hight. We mostly see void.
In our society we are constantly stimulated. From the outside we receive messages via social media and we can tell others what we think and what we feel. Can we let loose these stimulation? To what extend are we stimulated from the inside? Our work ethic is encouraging us to achieve more. Can we let loose these appeals? Is there enough emptiness in our own day? A City Called Mirage, it is a daring artwork. Kiluanji Kia Henda has a large effect with the minimum of means. After seeing the lines she invites us to look at the void and to look which thoughts are given us.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
Leegte
Kunnen wij tegen leegte? Hoe lang kunnen wij kijken naar A City Called Mirage van Kiluanji Kia Henda? In 3D zien wij lijnen lopen tot grote hoogte. We zien vooral leegte..
In onze samenleving worden wij continu geprikkeld. Van buitenaf ontvangen wij berichten via sociale media of kunnen wij anderen vertellen waaraan wij denken en wat wij voelen. Kunnen wij deze prikkeling loslaten? In hoeverre worden wij van binnenuit geprikkeld? Door onze arbeidsmoraal worden wij aangespoord om m r te presteren. Kunnen wij dit app l loslaten? Is er voldoende leegte in onze dagen? A City Called Mirage is een gewaagd kunstwerk. Kiluanji Kia Henda heeft een groot effect bereikt met een minimale hulpmiddelen. Na het zien van de lijnen, nodigt zij ons uit om naar de leegte te kijken en te zien welke gedachten ons aangereikt wordt.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.read.dukeupress.edu:
Visual artist Kiluanji Kia Henda excerpts work from his exhibition A City Called Mirage, shown at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn from June October 2017. The work considers the birth, life, and death of cities. It challenges the use of Dubai, a city built in the desert without thought to history or environmental impact, as a model to project neoliberal desires in places like his hometown, Luanda.
www.contemporaryand.com:
In A City Called Mirage, Henda considers the birth, life and death of modern cities. The exhibition begins with a photograph of a rusty time-worn sign of the word Miragem (Mirage), found by the artist in the Namibe Desert. Acting as a catalyst for new work that contemplates humanity s drive towards urbanization, the sign spurred Henda to look at Dubai as a questionable archetype of the contemporary city, a byproduct of neoliberal desires. New cities such as Dubai are often built with little consideration of their historic or environmental characteristics, drawing parallels to the urban reconstruction of the artist s home city Luanda, Angola.
www,newafricanmagazine.com:
Part of the series in progress, A City Called Mirage , The Fortress stands as a reminder of the ephemeral nature of human constructions. The series was originally inspired by processes of erosion and transience the artist witnessed in the Angolan desert, culminating in an imaginary cityscape in which he investigates the contemporary global urbanisation, oscillating between virtuality and desertification. www,newafricanmagazine.com:
Kia Henda uses science, mythological fiction and irony as ways to transcend the pessimism of hyper-criticism and the aesthetics of the ruin, often deliberately creating new elements to interpret society. Humour and irony are essential elements of his own vision and practice, which attempts to investigate notions of identity, politics, and the perception of post-colonialism and modernism in Africa. Working in perverse complicity with the historical legacy, Kia Henda sees the process of appropriation and manipulation of public spaces and structures, and the different representations that makes up part of the collective memory, as a relevant complexion of his aesthetical construction. As a self-taught artist, raised in a household of photography enthusiasts actively engaged in politics, Henda could not but be part of that generation of young Angolan artists working in a country that suffered a long-term civil war, who are able to perfectly combine art and commitment, poetry and militancy, lightness and solemnity.
www.contemporaryand.com:
Kiluanji Kia Henda (born 1979, Luanda, Angola) is a Luanda-based artist, working with photography, video and performance. His work has been exhibited at institutions including Tate Liverpool, 2017; SCAD Museum, Savannah, 2016; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2016; National Museum of African Art www,newafricanmagazine.com:
Henda lives and works between Luanda, Angola and Lisbon, Portugal. He is represented by Goodman Gallery, the pre-eminent art gallery on the African continent, whose role has been pivotal in shaping contemporary South African art, bringing David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, David Koloane, Sam Nhlengethwa and Sue Williamson to the world s attention for the first time during the apartheid era. They will open a new space in London in October 2019.
Can we stand void? How long can we look at A City Called Mirage by Kiluanji Kia Henda? In 3D we see lines run untill great hight. We mostly see void.
In our society we are constantly stimulated. From the outside we receive messages via social media and we can tell others what we think and what we feel. Can we let loose these stimulation? To what extend are we stimulated from the inside? Our work ethic is encouraging us to achieve more. Can we let loose these appeals? Is there enough emptiness in our own day? A City Called Mirage, it is a daring artwork. Kiluanji Kia Henda has a large effect with the minimum of means. After seeing the lines she invites us to look at the void and to look which thoughts are given us.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com
Vertaling
Leegte
Kunnen wij tegen leegte? Hoe lang kunnen wij kijken naar A City Called Mirage van Kiluanji Kia Henda? In 3D zien wij lijnen lopen tot grote hoogte. We zien vooral leegte..
In onze samenleving worden wij continu geprikkeld. Van buitenaf ontvangen wij berichten via sociale media of kunnen wij anderen vertellen waaraan wij denken en wat wij voelen. Kunnen wij deze prikkeling loslaten? In hoeverre worden wij van binnenuit geprikkeld? Door onze arbeidsmoraal worden wij aangespoord om m r te presteren. Kunnen wij dit app l loslaten? Is er voldoende leegte in onze dagen? A City Called Mirage is een gewaagd kunstwerk. Kiluanji Kia Henda heeft een groot effect bereikt met een minimale hulpmiddelen. Na het zien van de lijnen, nodigt zij ons uit om naar de leegte te kijken en te zien welke gedachten ons aangereikt wordt.
Door Theo, www.artatsite.com
www.read.dukeupress.edu:
Visual artist Kiluanji Kia Henda excerpts work from his exhibition A City Called Mirage, shown at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn from June October 2017. The work considers the birth, life, and death of cities. It challenges the use of Dubai, a city built in the desert without thought to history or environmental impact, as a model to project neoliberal desires in places like his hometown, Luanda.
www.contemporaryand.com:
In A City Called Mirage, Henda considers the birth, life and death of modern cities. The exhibition begins with a photograph of a rusty time-worn sign of the word Miragem (Mirage), found by the artist in the Namibe Desert. Acting as a catalyst for new work that contemplates humanity s drive towards urbanization, the sign spurred Henda to look at Dubai as a questionable archetype of the contemporary city, a byproduct of neoliberal desires. New cities such as Dubai are often built with little consideration of their historic or environmental characteristics, drawing parallels to the urban reconstruction of the artist s home city Luanda, Angola.
www,newafricanmagazine.com:
Part of the series in progress, A City Called Mirage , The Fortress stands as a reminder of the ephemeral nature of human constructions. The series was originally inspired by processes of erosion and transience the artist witnessed in the Angolan desert, culminating in an imaginary cityscape in which he investigates the contemporary global urbanisation, oscillating between virtuality and desertification. www,newafricanmagazine.com:
Kia Henda uses science, mythological fiction and irony as ways to transcend the pessimism of hyper-criticism and the aesthetics of the ruin, often deliberately creating new elements to interpret society. Humour and irony are essential elements of his own vision and practice, which attempts to investigate notions of identity, politics, and the perception of post-colonialism and modernism in Africa. Working in perverse complicity with the historical legacy, Kia Henda sees the process of appropriation and manipulation of public spaces and structures, and the different representations that makes up part of the collective memory, as a relevant complexion of his aesthetical construction. As a self-taught artist, raised in a household of photography enthusiasts actively engaged in politics, Henda could not but be part of that generation of young Angolan artists working in a country that suffered a long-term civil war, who are able to perfectly combine art and commitment, poetry and militancy, lightness and solemnity.
www.contemporaryand.com:
Kiluanji Kia Henda (born 1979, Luanda, Angola) is a Luanda-based artist, working with photography, video and performance. His work has been exhibited at institutions including Tate Liverpool, 2017; SCAD Museum, Savannah, 2016; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2016; National Museum of African Art www,newafricanmagazine.com:
Henda lives and works between Luanda, Angola and Lisbon, Portugal. He is represented by Goodman Gallery, the pre-eminent art gallery on the African continent, whose role has been pivotal in shaping contemporary South African art, bringing David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, David Koloane, Sam Nhlengethwa and Sue Williamson to the world s attention for the first time during the apartheid era. They will open a new space in London in October 2019.