Guest Room Series: Nshinga mula kawutu utapuluka – Stretching Threads, Connecting Knowledges

Born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and currently living and working in Kinshasa, Nada Tshibwabwa engages deeply with his Congolese heritage in his artistic practice. His work focuses on objects and myths of the Luba community, exploring their historical context, colonial legacies, and contemporary significance.

The project Nshinga mula kawutu utapuluka aims to connect stories and people. Tshibwabwa highlights that ethnological collections are often only partially accessible to the communities that created the objects, and that these artifacts frequently remain silent for many visitors. The project opens new perspectives for decolonized knowledge exchange and creates space for the fantastic and imaginary.

Nada Tshibwabwa is a CoMuse Fellow at the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art.

Participants

Nada Tshibwabwa (* 1990, Lubumbashi, D. R. Congo) is a multidisciplinary artist from Kinshasa, working in painting, performance art, sculpture and music. His practice deals with the violence inherent in contemporary power relations, entangled with his own biography, addresses environmental issues, and sets out to create counter-narratives. He connects with ancestral artistic and social practices and focuses on their ability to restore balance in moments of crisis. Tshibwabwa reinvents these practices by infusing them with his own imagination and a repertoire of symbols that he expands as he works.

Partner

CoMuse – The Collaborative Museum is an initiative by the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst that aims to develop multi-perspective approaches to collection-based research and to test new formats of international collaborative processes in order to intensify the decolonization and diversification of museum practices in sustainable ways.

The CoMuse Fellowship programme is supported by Künstlerhaus Bethanien, which provides a studio for artistic and scientific research.

- free of charge
- Language: English
- Location: Mechanical Arena, ground floor