Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
Manifesta 15 Barcelona took place in Barcelona and 11 surrounding cities ot its metropolitan region.
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Nnena Kalu, GB
Installation view, 2024 © Nnena Kalu. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Ivan Erofeev.
Nnena Kalu lives and works in London. In her artistic practice, which is rooted in two-dimensional works, sculptures and installations, Kalu binds and wraps materials, exploring space, scale and materiality through repetitive sculptural processes. Her installations often begin with multiple compact ‘cocoons' of textiles and paper tightly packed in tape. With an emphasis on colour and volume, these spheres are clustered together around frameworks and structures. Kalu’s installations become an extension of her physical movements, focusing on the relationship between the artist’s body, space and sculptural forms.
Kalu’s two-dimensional works are also explorations of space and a continuous line dictated by the reach of her arm and the size of her paper. Drawings and paintings are frequently produced in pairs, the second an echo of the first, where a rhythm is built up and multiple layers of complex evolving forms are constructed. Nnena Kalu has developed her practice at ActionSpace’s studio in Studio Voltaire since 1999.