Grada Kilomba | A tour of 1-54 London 2022

We are delighted to present @grada.kilomba showing us her work O Barco/The Boat, displayed in the @somersethouse’s courtyard!
Displayed in the UK for the first time, the large-scale installation and performance will be specially presented by Somerset House on the occasion of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s tenth anniversary.
The striking 32-metre-long installation is composed of 140 wood blocks, the configuration of which outlines the lower ‘hold’ of an historical European slave ship. Charred by the artist, the blocks contain poems in 6 different languages, intricately inscribed into their textured surfaces. Directly addressing the history of European maritime expansion and colonisation, the piece invites the audience to consider forgotten stories and identities.
Grada Kilomba is a Portuguese, Berlin-based transdisciplinary artist, whose work draws on memory, trauma, gender and post-colonialism, interrogating concepts of knowledge, power and violence.