Opening:
'Midnight' by Sandra Mujinga
19.09.2020
Public program: 17:00 - 19:00
Vleeshal, Markt 1.                                                                                                                                   Middelburg

Free entrance

As part of a generation of artists who seamlessly operate between online and physical spaces, Mujinga uses the exhibition space as one possible arena for artistic work, in addition to Internet and social media, the immaterial networks of music distribution, the social spaces of nightclubs, and activist organisational forms. Mujinga’s work is concerned with mechanisms of representation: the social agency of images and their use in the creation of identities. Drawing on Afro-futurist strategies, the exhibition proposes invisibility as a survival strategy, both as a speculative gaze at the unknown and in relation to the political reality of our time.

With a starting point in the science fiction genre’s idea of “world-building”, Mujinga outlines alternative worlds where the interplay between visibility and invisibility, the transparent and the opaque, reflection and camouflage, renders new modes of existence and identity. In a world that was not made equal for all bodies, and which is threatened with destruction, survival strategies for the future cannot build on the maintenance of an existing order but must reach out towards something else. Science fiction functions as a template for exploring imaginary worlds where humans are not necessarily at the centre. Mujinga is interested in how animals develop survival strategies and adapt to hostile surroundings, for example when elephants stop growing tusks or change from diurnal into nocturnal animals to avoid human poachers.

Book your ticket(s) now!
You can book a free time slot to visit the exhibition on the opening day via this link. A seperate reservation is required for the public program at 17:00. Send an email to office@vleeshal.nl mentioning the event, your name and the number of people. Please note that the amount of available seats for this evening is limited, as we have to take the required one and a half meter distance between all visitors into account.

Sandra Mujinga (b. 1989, Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a Norwegian artist and musician who lives and works in Oslo and Berlin. Her multidisciplinary practice spans from performances, videos and sculptures to her active work with public discourse and her own presence in social media. She studied at the Malmö Art Academy (Lund University) and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Recent solo exhibitions include 'SONW – Shadow of New Worlds', Bergen Kunsthall (2019); 'Seasonal Pulses', Croy Nielsen, Vienna (2019); 'Hoarse Globules', UKS, Oslo (2018); and 'Calluses', Tranen, Copenhagen (2018). She has been included in group shows at Kunstverein Hannover (2020); Lunds Konsthall (2019); Kistefos Museet, Jevnaker (2019); Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg (2019); and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2020).

Staci Bu Shea (1988, Miami, USA) is a curator, facilitator, archivist and writer. Together with the team, Staci has organized the exhibition program at Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons in Utrecht, The Netherlands since 2017. Staci is largely inspired by facets of social reproduction, and has embarked on an ongoing study trajectory with Rizvana Bradley called 'Poetics of Living' to explore already existing and emerging non-normative forms of living together in consideration of rapidly changing discourses around sexuality, health, communal life, and death. Staci was co-curator of 'Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies' (2017) at Leslie Lohman Museum of Art (NY) with Carmel Curtis, and graduated from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College with the group exhibition 'Emphasis Repeats' (2016) at Hessel Museum of Art (NY). Staci is a faculty member at the Dutch Art Institute and co-tutors the COOP study group 'All about my mother.' Staci is a volunteer at Stadshospice in Utrecht and training in end of life care.