Kiluanji Kia Henda presents "This is my Blood" at Steirischer Herbst - Festival of new art
30 September – 16 October
Seggauberg Leibnitz
Blood is red and wine is red – a simple fact, which for millennia has been mentioned in biblical parables, texts, lyrics and popular everyday culture. However, in southern Styria Kiluanji Kia Henda has spotted another similarity: Between the patterns created by the metal barriers recently erected to seal off the country and the structures used to prop up grapevines. On his first trip to the border region the multimedia artist encountered idyllic grapevines, an entertaining musical evening in a Buschenschank and an astonishing number of crucifixes and wayside shrines.
Inspired by this experience and commissioned by steirischer herbst, Kia Henda, who lives in Luanda and Lisbon ( and was a visiting professor at the DAI in 2011), has developed one of his largest installations in a public space so far, in a field owned by Schloss Seggau. Consisting of hundreds of blood-red metal bars set up in the border region, the installation oppressively relates current fears in society, Catholic traditions and south Styrian winegrowing with the fences that mark out the country’s long invisible border with Slovenia.
“This is my Blood” symbolises to Kia Henda not only the pact between Man and God, but also the tragedy of thousands of refugees who are losing their lives in and around Europe.
An additional series of postcards accompanies the project.
steirischer herbst - Festival of new art
Seggauberg Straße,
between Naturparkzentrum Grottenhof and Schloss Seggau
8430 Leibnitz