Kiluanji Kia Henda is a conceptual artist working across multiple disciplines, including photography, videography, performance and installation. Born in Luanda Angola, four years after the country won its independence from Portuguese rule, his work raises questions and possibilities of reinventing identity and politics, both for Angola and in relation to contemporary sites of migration, refuge and decolonization around the world. In March 2022, Kiluanji presented Now That We Found Freedom, What Are We Going To Do With It? An exhibition co-curated by Anna Sophie Salazar, resulting from a residency collaboration with artists from Angola. In this conversation, Kiluanji discusses the intention of the exhibition, the distinction between art and activism, humour as a language of resilience, the importance of correcting historical narratives and the need to acknowledge the ongoing strategies of colonisation.

Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola, 1979) lives and works in Luanda. In his practice, he uses art as a means of transmitting and constructing history, exploring photography, video, performance, installations, object-sculpture, music and avant-garde theatre as ways of materialising fictional narratives and shifting facts to different temporalities and struggles. Using humour and irony, the artist represents the complexity of themes such as identity, politics, and perceptions of post-independence and modernity in Africa. Working in perverted complicity with historical legacy, he sees the process of appropriation and manipulation of public spaces and structures as different constructions of the collective memory.

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