Ulrike Ottinger

What would the bottom of the ocean tell us tomorrow, if emptied of water today?

This catalog documents the first comprehensive institutional solo exhibition of the artist, author and thinker Grada Kilomba - Opera to a Black Venus, which was shown at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden from June 21 to October 20, 2024. It is also the artist's first comprehensive catalog.

With contributions by Çağla Ilk , Misal Adnan Yıldız , Denise Ferreira da Silva, Ashish Ghadiali, Tamsin Hong, and a conversation between Çağla Ilk and Grada Kilomba.

Opera to a Black Venus showcased her unique storytelling practice that questions concepts of violence and repetition - through performance, choreography, video, large-scale sculptural and acoustic installations. Her work has been described as a “new post-colonial minimalism”, using form, image and movement to blur the boundaries between disciplines. The staging of her works in the Kunsthalle spaces unfolded the title of the exhibition: Opera to a Black Venus referenced Black history of resilience and resistance and addressed the entanglement between ecological collapse and colonial injustice.