A landmark exhibition tracing material memory, extraction and the poetics of relation.
At the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, ‘I dreamt of you in colours’ presents a major exhibition devoted to the work of Otobong Nkanga, unfolding as a layered and expansive exploration of material histories and ecological entanglement. Conceived in close collaboration with the artist and developed by MCBA in partnership with the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, the exhibition offers a significant survey of Nkanga’s practice across time, foregrounding both continuity and transformation within her work.
Bringing together emblematic installations, photographic series, recent works and a substantial body of drawings, the exhibition traces the depth and evolution of Nkanga’s engagement with land, labour and memory. Notably, it includes early drawings shown for the first time, offering insight into the formative stages of a practice that has consistently interrogated the politics of materiality. These works reveal the artist’s longstanding interest in the relationship between the human body and the earth, a concern that continues to resonate throughout her more recent installations.
Nkanga’s work resists containment within a single medium. Across textiles, sculpture, drawing and immersive environments, she constructs what might be understood as a living archive of matter. Materials such as pigments, minerals, and organic substances are not passive components but active agents, carrying within them traces of extraction, displacement, and exchange. In this context, colour becomes a critical language, one that holds both sensorial intensity and historical weight.
The exhibition unfolds as a constellation of interconnected gestures rather than a chronological narrative. Large-scale installations operate alongside intimate works on paper, creating a rhythm that oscillates between immersion and reflection. Nkanga’s textiles map complex geographies of movement and transformation, while her installations invite viewers into spaces where material and narrative remain in flux.
Central to the exhibition is an attention to process and relation. Nkanga’s practice often extends beyond the visible object, engaging broader systems of production and circulation that shape contemporary life. In Lausanne, this expanded field is palpable, as the exhibition positions itself not only as a site of display but as a space of ongoing inquiry.
Developed across institutions and geographies, ‘I dreamt of you in colours’ reflects the transnational scope of Nkanga’s work. It draws attention to the interconnectedness of ecological and economic systems, while also opening up possibilities for reimagining our relationship to the material world. In doing so, the exhibition offers a compelling meditation on how histories of the earth remain inscribed in the present.
This exhibition will be on view at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne until 23 August 2026.
