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.
This installation by South African artist Lungiswa Gqunta sought to interpret the Orto Botanico garden as a volatile space layered with complex histories of oppression, sacred rituals and memory. In the context of South Africa’s colonial history of the relationship of Black people to the land is tied to brutal exploitation, and simultaneously a sense of transcendence.
