Kiluanji Kia Henda (b. 1979, Luanda, Angola) employs a surprising sense of humour in his work, which often hones in on themes of identity, politics, and perceptions of post-colonialism and modernism in Africa. Kia Henda brings a critical edge to his multidisciplinary practice, which incorporates photography, video, and performance. Informed by a background surrounded by photography enthusiasts, Kia Henda’s conceptual-based work has further been sharpened by exposure to music, avant-garde theatre, and collaborations with a collective of emerging artists in Luanda’s art scene.
Kia Henda currently lives and works between Luanda and Lisbon.
Artist: https://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/kiluanji-kia-henda
Publisher: Steidl
Travelling to the Sun through the Night assembles photographs predominantly of Angola and its elusive capital, Luanda, from 2005 to 2013. It was only in 2002 that the civil war ended that tormented Angola since its independence in 1975, and the early years of the new millennium were a particular post-war moment. During this time Luanda and Angola were engaged in unstable processes of re-making, remembering, and re-inventing themselves.
Kia Henda chronicles these happenings in a strong theatrical and narrative gesture, creating inventive histories of his country, on the interval, as he puts it, “between history and fiction.”
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Kiluanji Kia Henda – ‘I Wanted to Create a Trap’ | Artist Interview | TateShots
Books Specs: Kiluanji Kia Henda; Travelling to the Sun through the Night; English; Book design: Steidl Design / Bernard Fischer; 236 pages; 29.5 x 21 cm; Hardback / Clothbound; € 40.00; ISBN 978-3-86930-800-5. Available here.
