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Grada Kilomba, O Barco {the Boat), 2021, Installation view at the MAAT - Musuem of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, for the BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts 2021
Performance
Grada Kilomba: O Barco/the Boat
13 Oct 2022 – 14 Oct 2022
Regular hours
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 20:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 20:00
Free admission
Address
- Strand
- WC2R 1LA
- London
- WC2R 1LA
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 77a, 91 and 176, while the River Bus Service can be taken to Embankment and Savoy Piers.
- Temple, Covent Garden, Charing Cross and Embankment.
- Charing Cross, Waterloo and Blackfriars.
Displayed in the UK for the first time, interdisciplinary artist Grada Kilomba brings her critically acclaimed installation O Barco/The Boat, to Somerset House this Autumn.
About
Displayed within the centre of Somerset House’s main courtyard, the striking 32-metre-long installation is composed of 140 wood blocks, the configuration of which outlines the ‘hold’ of a historical European slave ship. The blocks have been individually charred by the artist, granting each piece of wood making up O Barco/The Boat a powerful materiality that speaks to the traumas of colonial history.
Poems translated into several African languages, including Yoruba, Kimbundu, and Creole from Cabo Verde, as well as Portuguese, English and Arabic, are intricately inscribed into the textured surfaces of several of the blocks. Together, the rectangular and uniform shapes engraved with poems, act as metaphorical tombs, giving a place of recognition and rest to the millions of African people enslaved. As visitors bend to read the inscriptions, they bow, evoking a sign of respect.
The installation will be activated by two live performances on the 13 and 14 October, designed and directed by the artist, with musical production by award-winning writer and musician Kalaf Epalanga. Through live music, song, and dance, an ensemble of different generations of artists of African descent act as central interpreters of the work, both acknowledging the memories of the past and looking toward the future. The hour-long performance encompasses movement, poetry and songs of lamentation, with the ensemble of performers becoming the voice, body and storyteller of forgotten histories.
29 September - 20 October 2022
