Artist
Born in 1979, Kiluanji Kia Henda lives and works in the Angolan capital of 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 theater as ways of materializing fictional narratives and shifting facts to different temporalities and struggles.
Using humor and irony, he represents the complexity of themes such as identity and 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.
He is also the co-founder of KinoYetu, an association in Luanda that promotes arts, focusing on filmmaking. Aiming to foster platforms where cinema and the visual arts are a vehicle for the production of knowledge, KinoYetu finances specific projects and seeks strategic partnerships to promote cinematography and visual arts.
Mr. Kia Henda’s work has been exhibited in myriad prestigious locations around the world, including the 60th Venice Biennale; Serpentine Galleries, London; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; the Pompidou Center, Paris; Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich; the International Film Festival of Rotterdam; 2nd Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of Congo; 12th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; Tate Modern, London; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; 3rd New Museum Triennial, New York; Dak’Art: 11th Biennale of Dakar, Senegal; Bergen Assembly – 1st Bergen Biennial; Tamayo Museum, Mexico City; 29th São Paulo Biennial; the African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale; and the Luanda Triennial, among others.
In 2012, he won the National Prize for Culture and Arts, awarded by the Angolan Ministry of Culture, and in 2014, he was featured among Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers. He won the Frieze Artist Award 2017 and was selected for Art Basel’s Unlimited project in 2019.
