Bildmuseet: Ângela Ferreira / Pan African Unity Mural

Ângela Ferreira is interested in post-colonial issues and how architecture bear traces of history, politics and ideology. In Pan African Unity Mural, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Scandinavia, she presents sculptures and murals in different spaces inside Bildmuseet.

Welcome to a press preview of Pan African Unity Mural on Thursday 15 November at 10:00 (RSVP) and to its opening on the Friday evening at 17:00-21:00. Preview and opening of Entangle / Physics and the Artistic Imagination on the same occasions.

What is a home and what does belonging mean for a person who is constantly on the move? Can a feeling of displacement be used as an asset? In her exhibition, Ferreira references South African singer Miriam Makeba and US fugitive George Wright, interweaving their life stories with her own. The exhibition is inspired by philosopher and theoretician Achille Mbembe’s ideas about meaningful intersections; places where our paths cross and where we share experiences and thoughts with one another, crucial moments in our lives where we decide to take a different road.

Makeba was banished from her homeland for taking a stand against apartheid, and was also later forced to leave the USA together with her husband, who was involved in the Black Panthers. George Wright, now a Portuguese citizen, was sentenced for murder in his home country, became politically active during his time in prison, and later fled to Algeria in an infamous plane hijacking incident. Ferreira herself was born in Mozambique, a Portuguese colony at the time, and moved to South Africa as a six-year-old in connection with the war of independence. She is now based in Portugal.

In her artistry, Ângela Ferreira constantly returns to the common history of Africa and Europe. She scrutinizes the relationship between the two continents and reminds us of the colonial history, portraying it in a new light through different people and stories. The exhibition concerns world politics and exile; creating home and identity between countries and continents. The title of the exhibition, Pan African Unity Mural, refers to a mural which Ângela Ferreria created together with thirteen other artists in 1986–87 in Cape Town, South Africa, in protest against the apartheid regime.

Ângela Ferreira (b. 1958, Mozambique) works with sculpture, video, drawings and installations and is today based in Lisbon. She represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale 2007 and has also exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale (2018), the Taipei Biennal (2016) and the Göteborg International Biennal for Contemporary Art (2015). Her latest solo exhibitions include Zip Zap and Zumbi, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago (2017); South Facing, Johannesburg Art Gallery (2017); Messy Colonialism, Wild Decolonization, Zona Maco, Mexico City (2015), and A Tendency to Forget, Museu Berardo, Lisbon (2015).

Pan African Unity Mural has been produced by Bildmuseet in collaboration with MAAT: Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon. This is Ângela Ferreira’s first solo exhibition in Scandinavia.

Press preview / Thursday 15 November at 10:00–12:00 (RSVP)
Participating at the press preview are artist Ângela Ferreira, museum curator Anders Jansson and director Katarina Pierre. On the same occasion there will be a preview of the exhibition Entangle / Physics and the Artistic Imagination with its curator and artists participating.

Press images / www.bildmuseet.umu.se/press-images

Opening / Friday 16 November 17:00–21:00
Pan African Unity Mural will be presented at 19:00 through a conversation between artist Ângela Ferreira and museum curator Anders Jansson, after which there will be opening talks in conjunction the exhibition Entangle / Physics and the Artistic Imagination, which is also opened this Friday evening.

Artist Talk / Sunday 18 November 14:00–15:00
Ângela Ferreira gives a talk on her artistic practice and Pan African Unity Mural.

For further information
Anders Jansson, museum curator Bildmuseet
anders.jansson@umu.se, +46 72-083 66 16