Otobong Nkanga. Cords Curling around Mountains

September 25, 2021 – January 30, 2022
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia – 10098 Rivoli (Torino) – Italia
tel. +39/011.9565222 – e-mail: info@castellodirivoli.org
www.castellodirivoli.org

Exhibition drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Marcella Beccaria

Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea presents the solo exhibition devoted to Otobong Nkanga (Kano, Nigeria, 1974), among the most important international contemporary artists of African origin who tackles urgent issues related to the ecological crisis and the environment, the exploitation of resources and sustainability, from a point of view that takes into account the history of colonialism with the consequent inequalities and repercussions on the social fabric.

Otobong Nkanga: Lined with shivers sprouting from the rock. The project is the winner of the public announcement PAC2020 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Photo Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

In 2017 the artist participated in the exhibition The Emotion of COLORS in Art held at Castello di Rivoli and at GAM in Turin when in the Manica Lunga she exhibited the work Kolanut Tales: Slow Stain, 2012-2017, which subsequently became part of the Museum Collections thanks to the gift of the Supporting and Benefactor Friends of Castello di Rivoli.

Otobong Nkanga
detail of the work in progress for the exhibition at Castello di Rivoli

Specially conceived for the galleries on the third floor of the Castello, the exhibition consists in a large site-specific project. Drawing an unprecedented landscape, the installation includes works-carpets whose irregular shape is inspired by the shape of minerals, such as quartz and malachite, whose healing properties have been known since ancient times. The carpets extend into the space through very long hand-woven cords which in turn connect multiple concave sculptural objects that suggest manipulation by visitors. Made of wood, glass and terracotta, they host additional organic materials or convey sounds, endowing the work a performative and sensually relational component. Therefore, the artist develops at floor level her exhibition that winds through five large galleries of the third floor of the Castello, intentionally rejecting the verticality of the museum walls to embrace the horizontality, associated with the notion of geography and travel understood as transit and connection between distant points. The installation brings into dialogue the different cultural traditions that are intertwined in the biography of the artist: born in Nigeria and raised in France, currently living in Antwerp.

Otobong Nkanga
detail of the work in progress for the exhibition at Castello di Rivoli

While the presence of objects, including minerals such as malachite and other organic materials, refers to the amulets that in some African traditions are given on the occasion of the birth of a child, or to the herbs used for their healing properties since ancient times, the carpet is also linked to the historical skill of European Flemish weaving. During her studies in Paris, Nkanga was pupil of the artist Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, 1947): in her work, attentive to materials and their transformations, in fact, the heritage of Arte Povera is highlighted at the level of the most current international developments in contemporary art world.

The exhibition is part of a collaboration project with Villa Arson, Nice, where the first retrospective dedicated to Otobong Nkanga in France was presented. Curated by Eric Mangion, the Nice exhibition focused on the artist’s main works to date.

Otobong Nkanga
detail of the work in progress for the exhibition at Castello di Rivoli

On the occasion of this double exhibition, Castello di Rivoli and Villa Arson co-edit a new scholarly catalog which includes new texts and interviews by the curators, documentary images relating to the exhibitions in the two institutions, entries relating to the works and an end matter section dedicated to the artist’s exhibition history, from the beginning to the present.
The exhibition is made possible thanks to the contribution of the Regione Piemonte.
The project is the winner of the public announcement PAC2020 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture

Otobong Nkanga
detail of the work in progress for the exhibition at Castello di Rivoli

Biographical notes

Otobong Nkanga (Kano, Nigeria, 1974; lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium) is considered one of the most outstanding artists working today. She is an alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, DasArts Amsterdam and she was awarded with a residence at DAAD in Berlin. Her work is part of the collections of numerous international institutions including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin and many others. She has participated in exhibitions and biennials around the world, as well as solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago; Tate Modern and Tate St. Ives, UK.
In 2015 she was awarded the 8th Yanghyun Art Prize and in 2017 the Belgian Art Prize. Nkanga’s project, Carved to Flow, was presented that same year at documenta 14, Kassel – Athens. Her most recent solo exhibitions took place at Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town, and Tate St. Ives (2019-2020), and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) in UK (2020-2021).

Otobong Nkanga in her studio, working on Castello di Rivoli exhibition, July 14, 2021
Courtesy Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino
Photo Marcella Beccaria

Nkanga was the 2019 artist-in-residence at Gropius Bau in Berlin, Germany, where she further developed the project Carved to Flow, culminating in her solo exhibition There’s No Such Thing as Solid Ground in 2020.In 2019, Nkanga received a Special Mention Award at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia; she was awarded the Prize for Best Permanent Installation at the 14th Sharjah Biennial (with Emeka Ogboh); she won the prestigious Peter-Weiss-Preis, and she was also the recipient of the Flemish Cultural Award for Visual Arts – Ultima.
In 2019 she was the initial recipient of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme and in the fall of 2020 she presented the solo show Uncertain Where the Next Wind Blows at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Høvikodden, Norway.
In June 2021 the artist presented the retrospective When Looking Across the Sea, Do You Dream? at Centre d’art contemporain of Villa Arson in Nice, organized in collaboration with Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea.

Captions Photo gallery:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Installation view of the exhibition Otobong Nkanga. Of Cords Curling around Mountains
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino (September 25, 2021 – January 30, 2022)
The project is the winner of the public announcement PAC2020 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture  
Photo © Andrea Guermani, Torino