CARTA ABERTA
Artistic Residency
©️ Rui Magalhães, Pelo Poder, 2021, video still.
Artistic Direction:
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Artists in Residency:
› Mwana Pwo [ANG]
› Hélio Buite [ANG]
› Rui Magalhães [ANG]
Program conceived by the artist Kiluanji Kia Henda and HANGAR – Artistic Research Center, which gives him “carta branca” for this takeover of the space. Participating in the residency are the emerging Angolan artists Hélio Buite, Rui Magalhães and Mwana Pwo.
The program extends to artistic practices that communicate through creative processes that will be open to the public and that begin with a residency program preceded by an exhibition and performances.
More information about the full program coming soon.
Project inserted in the DGARTES program
ARTISTS
Rui Magalhães (Angola, 1985) lives and works in Luanda. Photographer, visual and video artist, he explores life on the streets of Luanda, observing the city’s population and their systems and scenarios of adaptation to urban life. Studying the use and occupation of spaces, his practice is a mixture of critical archive of Luanda’s recent architectural history and urban archaeology, documenting the city’s inoperable relationships and the phenomena of African urbanism. He has exhibited in Vidrul Photography (2016) and participated in Fuckin’ Globo 2020 and 2021.
Hélio Buite (Angola, 1992) lives and works in Luanda. A civil engineering graduate, he grew up in Luanda navigating and constantly switching between two different contexts: informal Luanda and formal Luanda. His artistic practice dives into different disciplines such as photography, video, installation, audio and documentation to analyze the ways in which families are central to African societies, as woven between the will to decolonization and the patent reality of their relationship of coloniality with the West – processing also the influences and effects of independence movements, neocolonialism, civil wars and the complexities of political system.
CURATORS
Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola, 1979) lives and works in Luanda. In his practice, he uses art as a method of transmitting and constructing history, exploring photography, video, performance, installation, object-sculpture, music and avant-garde theater as ways of materializing fictional narratives and shifting facts to different temporalities and contends. Using humor and irony, the artist represents the complexity of themes such as identity, politics, and perceptions of post-independence and modernity in Africa. Working in perverted complicity with historical legacy, he sees the process of appropriation and manipulation of public spaces and structures as different constructions of collective memory.