Kiluanji Kia Henda
Concrete Affection
"Concrete Affection " is inspired by the book by the Polish journalist and writer Ryszard Kapuscinski entitled "Another Day of Life - Angola 1975 ". A text that documents the last days of Portuguese colonial rule in 1975 and which testifies a time of great unrest and changes experienced even in the "body" of the city of Luanda and of the whole country, followed by a long period of civil war before reaching independence. In particular, from the book by Kapuscinski, Kia Henda gets back the description of the exodus of the many Portuguese people leaving the country, which corresponds to the arrival in Luanda of thousands of Angolans forced by necessity to move from remote and rural areas to the capital city. In the midst of these movements - metaphorically between full, empty and full again - these rank "Concrete Affection" which emphasizes this "delicate and painful" step of the history of Luanda and the whole Angola.
The Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda who lives and works in Luanda (Angola's capital) and Lisbon, is one of the protagonists of the aesthetic wave that joins art and commitment, poetry and militancy. Different languages and tools - sculpture, video, photography, light boxes, to environmental sized works - trace, between truth and fiction, the history of his country, Angola, from 1975 year in which the Portuguese rule ends and Angola achieves independence to a long period of civil wars ended in 2002.
