Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology’s fall programme on 18 September 2024, ‘Black Ancient Futures’ brings together a group of African artists and members of the African diaspora to Portugal’s capital for an exhibition that reimagines the past, present, and future of the black artistic experience on a transcontinental scale. Participating artists are invited to speculate on utopian dreams of abundance and well-being, challenging geographical hierarchies.
April Bey, We Learned To Love Ourselves Until We Were Full Until We Did Not Need Yours Untill We Realized Our Own Was Enough, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and MAAT.
The participating artists include Jota Mombaça (she/her), Jeannette Ehlers (she/her), Evan Ifekoya (they/them), Nolan Oswald Dennis (they/them), Sandra Mujinga (she/her), April Bey (she/her), Gabriel Massan (they/them), Tabita Rezaire (she/her), Kiluanji Kia Henda (he/him), Lungiswa Gqunta (she/her), and Baloji (he/him). These artists represent diverse communities from around the world, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Brazil, Trinidad, The Bahamas, and more.
The show will feature a range of interdisciplinary works, including large-scale immersive and interactive installations. Notably, Lungiswa Gqunta’s Sleep in Witness (2024) is a site-specific installation that seeks to explore the intangible world of dreams as a space of learning. For this piece, Gqunta invited black women to step onto a clay ground, shaping it with their movements and becoming integral to the creation of the work by momentarily living within it alongside the artist.
Additionally, the opening will feature the performance We’re Magic. We’re Real #3 (These Walls) by Jeannette Ehlers, which uses hair as a significant identity marker among the African diaspora, presenting a simple yet powerful gesture.
The exhibition will be on view from the 18th of September, 2024, until the 17th of March, 2025. For more information, please visit MAAT.
