• Catalogue

GRADA KILOMBA

OPERA TO A BLACK VENUS

Cover of "Opera to a Black Venus" by Grada Kilomba, an exhibition catalog.
Long black curtains hang in parallel lines creating a corridor-like walkway.
Chalk formations arranged in a dry landscape, used as a film set in Portugal.
A group walks by a modern art installation with a handwritten music score beside it.
A group of people practicing drumming in an open, natural setting.
An art installation featuring scattered rocks and reflective structures in a minimalist room.
Handcrafted black bricks with gold text and fire branding process details.
This image shows a table of contents for a book with various contributions and page numbers.
A person in a red cloak bends over a circular design on a white floor.
A minimalist gallery with a large red art installation on the wall.

Artist

  • Grada Kilomba

Authors

Çağla Ilk , Misal Adnan Yıldız , Denise Ferreira da Silva, Ashish Ghadiali, Tamsin Hong

Year

2024

Price excl. packaging and shipment

Price

€38.00

What would the bottom of the ocean tell us tomorrow, if emptied of water today?

This catalog documents the first comprehensive institutional solo exhibition of the artist, author and thinker Grada Kilomba - Opera to a Black Venus, which was shown at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden from June 21 to October 20, 2024. It is also the artist's first comprehensive catalog.

With contributions by Çağla Ilk , Misal Adnan Yıldız , Denise Ferreira da Silva, Ashish Ghadiali, Tamsin Hong, and a conversation between Çağla Ilk and Grada Kilomba.

Opera to a Black Venus showcased her unique storytelling practice that questions concepts of violence and repetition - through performance, choreography, video, large-scale sculptural and acoustic installations. Her work has been described as a “new post-colonial minimalism”, using form, image and movement to blur the boundaries between disciplines. The staging of her works in the Kunsthalle spaces unfolded the title of the exhibition: Opera to a Black Venus referenced Black history of resilience and resistance and addressed the entanglement between ecological collapse and colonial injustice.

The catalogue was designed by Matter Of.