Inner Spirits and Outer Landscapes
Curated by Mistura Allison
Featuring artists: Dawit L. Petros, Dimakatso Mathopa, Helena Uambembe, Kapwani Kiwanga, Sandra Poulson, Tuli Mekondjo, Yinka Shonibare, and Zanele Muholi
November 23, 2024 – January 11, 2025
Opening: November 22, 2 PM to 7 PM
Hangar – Centro de Investigação Artística
Inner Spirits and Outer Landscapes is the first exhibition of the FAS Collection in Lisbon, focusing on the complex relationship between domesticity, spirituality, and self-determination. This exhibition challenges conventional views of confinement in domestic and spiritual spaces, highlighting how personal, spiritual, and material realms intersect to create zones of care, resistance, and creative freedom.
Inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s (1) exploration of domestic labor as both subjugation and autonomy, the exhibition transforms everyday environments—homes, landscapes, and bodies—into powerful sites of self-affirmation and spiritual practice. It presents the domestic sphere not as a place of confinement but as a space for radical transformation and spiritual renewal, where sovereignty and autonomy are cultivated. Deeply engaging with ideas of sovereignty, memory, and resilience, the artists in this exhibition reimagine traditional notions of domestic and external environments, turning them into powerful spaces of living archives. Their practices continually rethink the boundaries between the personal and the political, revealing how these spaces are interconnected and how they are constantly reshaped by those who inhabit them.
Inner Spirits and Outer Landscapes is curated by Mistura Allison, guest curator of the FAS Collection, and will be exhibited at Hangar CIA. The selection of artists includes Dawit L. Petros, Dimakatso Mathopa, Helena Uambembe, Kapwani Kiwanga, Sandra Poulson, Tuli Mekondjo, Yinka Shonibare, and Zanele Muholi. All works featured in this exhibition are part of the FAS Collection, except for Tuli Mekondjo’s Kalunga ka Nangobe, which was included following a special invitation from the curator. This exhibition is produced by the FAS Collection & Hangar CIA.
FAS – Forward Art Stories is a private art collection based between Lisbon and Luanda. Founded in 2016, FAS is driven by the curatorial exploration of its works and the ideas inherent in the diverse narratives and artistic expressions of the African continent and its diaspora. To foster new interpretations of the collection, FAS invites and supports artists, curators, writers, and critics to collaborate in its programming. Through international and institutional partnerships, FAS aims to promote and disseminate the contents of its collection.
FAS supports the recognition of artists as a member of the Network of Africa Patrons of the Delfina Foundation and the Yinka Shonibare Foundation, as well as through donations to institutions like TATE and the Centre Pompidou. Recently, FAS became a member of the World Art Foundations organization.
Other initiatives in recent years include partnerships with Gasworks, Greenhouse (official Portuguese representation at the Venice Biennale 2024), La Biennale de Lubumbashi, PhotoEspaña, and Kadist. The collection is associated with recent publications and editions such as Atlantica by Hangar Books and Opera to a Black Venus by Grada Kilomba, contributing to the expansion of the Western cultural canon and valuing the knowledge of African visual arts.
Mistura Allison is a researcher, curator, and art historian. She is the founder of ashikọ, a visual research platform focused on the plurality of contemporary visual and oral productions from the African diaspora. She is currently the curator and project coordinator at Villa Romana in Florence, where she is dedicated to transnational artistic practices centered on contemporary art and innovating methodologies for decentralized exhibition creation. She is also part of the curatorial collective Archive Ensemble, where she co-curates the Publishing Practices program.
Dawit L. Petros (Eritrea, 1972) is a researcher, professor, and visual artist living and working in Canada. His work is influenced by the places where he has lived—Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Canada—drawing inspiration from the diversity of cultures he has encountered. Fascinated by the concept of migration and diaspora, his work often explores displacement. Through photography, the artist seeks to study the motivations behind the current global movement of people.
Dimakatso Mathopa (South Africa, 1995) lives and works in Johannesburg. She was a finalist for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize and participates in art fairs, with her work included in collections across Europe and the United States. Dimakatso has a specific interest in printmaking techniques, including engraving, screen printing, stamping, and printing.
Helena Uambembe (South Africa, 1995) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Pretoria and Berlin. Using primarily photography, performance, printmaking, and stamping on various materials, Uambembe is a storyteller. Drawing on oral traditions passed down by her family, she reflects on erased histories and the traumas resulting from the armed conflict between South Africa and Namibia, whose consequences still persist today.
Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada, 1978) is a Franco-Canadian artist living in Paris. Kiwanga’s work traces the widespread impact of power asymmetries, intertwining historical narratives with contemporary realities, archival material, and future possibilities. Her work focuses on research, driven by marginalized or forgotten histories, and articulated through a range of materials and media, including sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance.
Sandra Poulson (Angola, 1995) is an interdisciplinary Angolan artist who grew up in Luanda. She holds a degree in Fashion Design from the Technical University of Lisbon and in Fashion Print from Central Saint Martins in London. Her artistic practice involves the use of materials such as fabric, wood, and cement, addressing social, political, and socioeconomic issues related to her home country, Angola, with a particular focus on the body and the legacy left by the colonial period.
Tuli Mekondjo (Angola, 1982) is a Namibian artist whose rich and multifaceted practice looks at Namibia’s socio-historical context as a place to reassess and reflect on ideas related to ancestry and identity. Mekondjo lives and works in Windhoek, Namibia. Known for her mixed media and embroidered paintings, Mekondjo’s rigorous practice reflects a deep desire to connect with and honor her Namibian heritage.
Yinka Shonibare (United Kingdom, 1962) is a visual artist who graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Art and holds a master’s degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths University in London. His interdisciplinary practice incorporates symbols from Western art and literature to critique and question contemporary culture and the repercussions of globalization. Addressing themes such as race, class, and cultural identities, the artist explores the complex connections between Africa and Europe, highlighting disparities in opportunity and wealth.
Zanele Muholi (South Africa, 1972) is one of the most prominent photographic artists of African descent. With a master’s degree in documentary photography from Ryerson University in Toronto, Muholi also teaches at the University of the Arts in Bremen. Their work has been featured in prestigious events such as Documenta 13, the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, and the 29th São Paulo Biennial.
