Invited by BoCA, Kiluanji Kia Henda creates a project that takes on two distinct formats: first, a theatre performance, presented in partnership with Teatro Nacional D. Maria II; followed by a large-scale installation featuring occasional performative activations, presented in collaboration with MAAT.

In the Angolan desert, originally the bottom of an ocean, travellers who return to their homeland are sometimes the target of ““pemba/mbindi””, spells intended to keep them in their community and prevent them from leaving again. “Coral dos Corpos sem Norte” considers migration as a process of pemba. Leaving as returning.

This installation by Kia Henda, an enormous metallic fence, is a receptive stage with pathways formed by railings of various geometric patterns, such as those placed over windows to prevent break-ins. This prison with entrances, exits and dead ends is simultaneously an ode to segregation and a call for its end. Twelve heads are scattered on the floor of this labyrinth. Heads that lie far from their bodies at the bottom of the sea. The installation, conceived as a large inhabitable maze, is composed of railings of differing patterns, in a direct allusion to urban architecture and the so-called “geometry of fear”. By creating a maze in which the audience is invited to walk around and dwell, the installation by Kiluanji Kia Henda suggests a poetic game: visitors become strangers as they pass through this unknown territory, embarking on a wandering journey where the path chosen will not always carry one’s body to the desired destination, or to the freedom represented by the other side of the crossing.

In what is the largest project by Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda in Portugal, the installation will be open to visitors from October 4 to November 3, with three performative activations, free of charge, on October 5, 12, and 19.