Grada Kilomba is an interdisciplinary artist, philosopher and writer based in Berlin. Her work draws on memory, trauma and post-colonialism, interrogating concepts of knowledge, power and violence. She is best known for her subversive writing and her unique practice of storytelling, in which she gives body, voice and image to her own texts using staged reading, performance, choreography, video and installation.
In her contribution to Bildmuseet’s anniversary forum, Grada Kilomba will answer the question ‘What Do We Need Art For?’ in a conversation with director Katarina Pierre.
Kilomba's highly thought provoking and poetic works have been presented at the Bienal de São Paulo, documenta 14 and the Lubumbashi Biennale, among others. Bildmuseet co-commissioned Illusions Volume 2: Oedipus which premiered at the Berlin Biennale in 2018 and Illusions Volume 3: Antigone which premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin. In her solo exhibition Grada Kilomba / A World of Illusions at Bildmuseet in 2019, the two new works were presented along with the earlier work Illusions Volume 1: Narcissus and Echo as a trilogy.
Welcome by the director of Bildmuseet and host of the anniversary forum What Do We Need Art For?.
Artist Katarina Pirak Sikku gives a personal account of art’s significance for herself and people around her.
Professor Gavin Butt considers the history of "art-pop" music and the world-making capacities of art today.
Dramatist and writer Stina Oscarson talks about the importance of art in reminding us that we are human.
Artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah answers the posed question in conversation with director Katarina Pierre.
South African photographer Cedric Nunn talks about the context in which he is a politically active artist.
Curator Maria Lind on contemporary art as a form of understanding and tool for relating to existence.
Musicians Sofia Jannok and Dennis Lyxzén on what art and culture have meant in their lives.
Curator Tone Olaf Nielsen discusses artistic and curatorial responses to the refugee crisis.
Artist Jumana Emil Abboud performs a reading about walking in the Palestinian landscape.
Artist Mats Caldeborg reflects on the significance of art and the human ability for abstract thinking.
Artist Grada Kilomba gives her answer to the question posed in a conversation with director Katarina Pierre.
Curator and director Antonia Alampi addresses the multifaceted roles that art and cultural practices play.
As his contribution to the online forum, Naeem Mohaimen shows us the new film work Against Regret (23 min).
