News from Angola – The exhibition entitled “Memories of a Poisoned River” by the Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda and the Zimbabwean Felix Shumba has been set up since Thursday (23), at the National Museum of Natural History and at the Hotel Globo, in Luanda, in a set of 15 works, including photographs and paintings.
With completion scheduled for January 19, 2024, the work challenges extractivism and its significant environmental impacts, such as the reduction of biodiversity, deforestation and pollution of soil and water sources, as well as suggesting a new approach to the topic.
By: Amilton Victor
Exclusively to Notícias de Angola, the host artist explained that the idea of the exhibition is to question the effects of extractivism and make people reflect on the benefits of rivers today.
“When we offend nature, we offend ourselves. The river is a place of history, wealth and life and extractivism contaminates them, so we have to have a very deep idea about this. What do we want with our rivers? What do we want about this water we drink?”, concluded the artist.
Zimbabwean Felix Shumba, in this which is his first exhibition in a Portuguese-speaking country, emphasizes the decomposition of the subsoil and death, as consequences that can arise from the excessive practice of extractivism.
In relation to collective work, the artist reveals that it was a fruitful partnership and exchange of a lot of knowledge, although he highlights a slight difference between the techniques used, highlighting the fact that in his country charcoal painting is more common, while in Angola photography and video stand out.
Opened in two spaces, the exhibition is a set that portrays two realities, one more linked to the landscape and the other to fauna and for its execution, the two visual artists used various materials, such as charcoal drawings, murals and installation using mixed techniques.