For her first major exhibition in Scandinavia, the internationally renowned artist Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978) explores social mechanisms and power dynamics through large-scale installations of plants, foliage, sand, colour and light. Just below the surface of Kiwanga’s seductively beautiful works lurk critical themes. Plants tell toxic stories of power imbalances, colours have manipulative effects and light is investigated as a political instrument.

The Marias (2020)

The Length of the Horizon presents a delicate flower on a pedestal bathed in a vibrant yellow environment. The vivid yellow alludes not only to the sunlight required for a plant to grow, but also to stereotypical representations of cheerful tropical sunshine. Showcased are Kiwanga’s two paper versions of the peacock flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), with its characteristic green leaves, orange-yellow flowers and long, red stamens. Meticulously rendered at two different stages of growth, they reveal the contrasting historical uses of the flower. Reputed to induce abortion, the decorative plant was a means of resistance and self-determination for people living in the conditions of slavery and indigenous populations in Suriname. Beautifully crafted in paper, Kiwanga’s work alludes also to a pastime in Victorian England, where women of means would craft paper flowers, to decorate their homes. Spotlighting this ornamental plant, Kiwanga lays bare the stark contrast in living conditions between women in imperial England and those living in a colonial territory like Suriname.

Preference for overwhelming experiences

The exhibition spans over CC’s two largest halls, totaling 1600 m², flowing as a fluid movement created by Kiwanga’s elegant manipulation of materials and their mysteries. With a preference for experiences that are overwhelming yet not static, she employs fluidity as a sculptural principle. Her work is imbued with an idea of continual recreation and adaptability.

Trained as an anthropologist and religious studies scholar, Kiwanga explores in her poetic works how objects are detached from their original function and given new life in the exhibition space—handled, displayed, and distanced from their everyday use and their role in production.

Can colors influence our behavior?

Another piece features two walls of colors forming a 16-meter-long corridor. A recurring theme in Kiwanga’s works is disciplinary architecture—spaces designed to influence human behavior. In the large installation “pink-blue,” one part is painted with Baker-Miller Pink, reputed to reduce stress and lower heart rates, and has been used, among other applications, to calm prison inmates. The other part is bathed in fluorescent blue light, used in public toilets to obscure veins and make injecting drugs more difficult, serving as an indirect tool for monitoring public spaces. In this installation, visitors are exposed to these influences and can personally experience their disorienting effects.

Kapwani Kiwanga masters aesthetic seduction. Her works allow for a transcendence beyond sensory and visual pleasure, revealing upon closer inspection historical socio-political dimensions that amplify their impact and leave a lasting impression.

The exhibition is created in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany and is accompanied by a comprehensive, richly illustrated catalog in Danish and English, featuring texts by Cecilia Alemani, Uta Ruhkamp, Julie Pellegrin, Andreas Beitin, and CC’s director, Marie Laurberg. It is internationally distributed by Verlag der Buchhandlung Wather und Franz König and available for sale at CC’s shop.

Kapwani Kiwanga (b. Hamilton, Canada) is French and Canadian, she lives and works in Paris. Kiwanga studied Anthropology and Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal and Art at l’école des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Kiwanga’s work traces the pervasive impact of power asymmetries by placing historic narratives in dialogue with contemporary realities, the archive, and tomorrow’s possibilities. Her work is research-driven, instigated by marginalised or forgotten histories, and articulated across a range of materials and mediums including sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance.
Kiwanga co-opts the canon; she turns systems of power back on themselves, in art and in parsing broader histories. In this manner Kiwanga has developed an aesthetic vocabulary that she described as “exit strategies,” works that invite one to see things from multiple perspectives so as to look differently at existing structures and find ways to navigate the future differently.

In 2022, Kiwanga received the Zurich Art Prize (CH). She was also the winner of the Marcel Duchamp Prize (FR) in 2020, Frieze Artist Award (USA) and the annual Sobey Art Award (CA) in 2018. She will represent Canada at the 60th International Venice Art Biennale in 2024. Solo exhibitions include Serralves Foundation, Porto (PR); Bozar, Brussels (BE); Remai Modern, Saskatoon (CA); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (DE); Capc, Bordeaux (FR); MOCA, Toronto (CA); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (CH) ; New Museum, New York (USA); State of Concept, Athens (GR); Moody Center for the Arts, Austin (USA); Haus der Kunst, Munich (DE); Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel/Bienne (CHE); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (USA); Albertinum museum, Dresden (DE); Esker Foundation, Calgary (CA); Power Plant, Toronto (CA); Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago (USA); South London Gallery, London (UK) and Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR) among others.
She is represented by Galerie Poggi, Paris; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Cape Town and London and Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin.