Grada KilombaOpera to a Black Venus , 2024
'Opera to a Black Venus' adopts the title of an ambitious new project, which the artist has developed over the last two years as a result of a collaboration between the Museo Reina Sofía and the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden in Germany. Kilomba imagines a futuristic scenario of an arid landscape, where the sea has disappeared, revealing the traces of human existence. In the eyes of the artist, the ocean is the burial ground for millions of lives lost throughout centuries - from slave trade, to colonialism, to war, climate change and forced migration. “What would the bottom of the ocean tell us tomorrow, if emptied of water today?” asks Kilomba.
The work 'Opera to a Black Venus' (2024 - ongoing), is a large-scale video installation staging the first part of a contemporary Opera, dedicated to a Black Venus, who inhabits the grounds of the ocean and who becomes the oracle of narratives of remembrance and resilience.
