Dancing with Winnowers, 2022
Mixed Media Installation by Pamela Enyonu
Njabala Foundation Guest showcase in the Empowerment exhibition at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
September 10, 2022 - January 8, 2023
Installation shot. Dancing with Winnowers, Mixed Media Installation, Empowerment exhibition, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
At the bottom of the world’s social hierarchy is the black woman. While universally seen as ‘strong and enduring’, she is truly the most vulnerable and unprotected of all women. She has been forced to bear innumerable burdens in a way that continues to be profoundly culturally toxic and abusive to her psyche. Pamela Enyonu seeks to reclaim the woman’s story from the invisible hands that write, rejecting the prevailing narratives and fictionalized, fetishized versions of women and give lead to more powerful versions of womanhood.
According to the writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, “myths and folktales are coded texts that a person with the right tools can decode to shed light not only on life in the past, but the present and future as well. At the same time, they allow our imagination to leap back into the past and bring it with us to the present.” For the guest space invitation by Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, we are presenting the work of Ugandan artist Pamela Enyonu who has decoded the Njabala Folklore to create Dancing With Winnowers.
Dancing with Winnowers, 2022 is a collection of visual metaphors inspired by the ordinary act of winnowing to monumentalize healing, choice, and meditation. The installation comprises of ropes sewn into discs and joined together to form a tapestry embellished with circular forms of glass beads. The tapestry is suspended in midair like a cascading waterfall. At the bottom of the cascade is a bowl-like artefact with grain resting on the odero (winnowing plate). The installation is accompanied by a sound piece made of audio footage from the act of Winnowing. By using the odero to represent the choice one can exercise and the half-filled grain bowl to represent the things we hold dear to us, the installation invites its viewers to take stock, sort and hopefully cast off the things that no longer serve them. In the shish of the wind, the sway of the waves, oderos lifted and grains dropped, hypnotic movements of the work, one is reminded of what it feels like to feel light and unburdened.
Empowerment exhibition
Duration: September 10, 2022 - January 8, 2023
Venue: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Curators: Andreas Beitin, katharina Koch, Uta Ruhkamp
Curatorial Assistants: Regine Epp, Dino Steinhof
Laetitia Ky, pow’hair, 2022, © Courtesy the artist and LIS10 Gallery
Yes, we want all people to have the same rights and opportunities! Yes, we want to use art to
raise awareness and to enable sustainable and effective encounters! Yes, we want to contribute
to equality and to encourage and empower people who are marginalized or affected by
discrimination. And yes, the world would be a better place if we were all feminists: "
We ShouldAll Be Feminists!“ (C. N. Adichie).
The exhibition Empowerment brings together diverse
feminist approaches and understands these as a progressive methods to analyze the societies of the world
with the means of art and to show possible ways out of the global crises. For the first time,
around 100 artistic positions offer a comprehensive global overview of art and feminisms of the
21st century - from around 50 countries from all continents.
Participating Artists
Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Stacey Gillian Abe, Heba Y. Amin, Maja Bajević, Natalie Ball,Yael Bartana, Mehtap Baydu, Alexandra Bircken, Benedikte Bjerre, Monica Bonvicini, Andrea Bowers, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Candice Breitz, Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova, Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo, Susana Pilar Delahante, Birgit Dieker, Zehra Doğan, Anita Dube, Anna Ehrenstein, Ndidi Emefiele, Nona Faustine, Keltie Ferris, Regina José Galindo, Ellen Gallagher, Goldendean, Gabrielle Goliath, Wynne Greenwood, Jenna Gribbon, Shilpa Gupta, Nilbar Güreş, h.arta, Hyphen-Labs, Irena Jukić Pranjić, Patricia Kaersenhout, Gladys Kalichini, Šejla Kamerić, Mari Katayama, Yuki Kihara, Seo-Kyung Kim & Eun-Sung Kim, Laetitia Ky, Jakob Lena Knebl, LASTESIS, Kitso Lynn Lelliott, Pixy Liao, Ann Lislegaard, Xiao Lu, Mary Maggic, Senzeni Marasela, Teresa Margolles, Aline Motta, Shana Moulton & Nick Hallett, Zanele Muholi, Kresiah Mukwazhi, Marina Naprushkina, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Tanja Ostojić, Pushpamala N, Rosana Paulino, Lisa Reihana, Elianna Renner, Tabita Rezaire, Pipilotti Rist, Boryana Rossa, Mariela Scafati, Berni Searle, Selma Selman, Lerato Shadi, Tejal Shah, Melati Suryodarmo, Elena Tejada-Herrera, Mathilde ter Heijne, The Pacific Sisters, Bussaraporn Thongchai, Tianmiao Lin, Wu Tsang, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Leafa Wilson & Olga Hedwig Krause, Anna Witt, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, Raeda Saadeh, Shevaun Wright, Ming Wong, LEI Yan, Cao Yu, Mia Yu sowie die Kollektive AXA projects, Nacional TROVOA, Njabala Foundation, Sandbox und What the hELL she doin!
The exhibition project Empowerment is under the patronage of the Minister of State for Culture and Media, Claudia Roth MdB