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Sandra Mujinga
Sandra Mujinga
ILYNL (It’s Like You Never Left)
March 6, 2018 – April 1, 2018
If a projection could represent us, the real us, in multiple locations at any given time, would we really be anywhere? ILYNL (It’s Like You Never Left) begins with a split screen: one side is the hustle and bustle of a chaotic street – perhaps in the artist’s birthplace of the Democratic Republic of Congo – as told via the freedom and agility of a motor bike. The car horns, the weaving traffic, vendors under umbrellas, everything remains in continuous motion. The second half of the screen shows multiple images of the artist wearing a futuristic grey suit pacing within a green monochrome backdrop. Wandering, she appears to be reasoning with someone, reasoning with herself. The neutralness of the space should elicit calm, but instead furthers an emotional isolation as she and her avatars strain to explain themselves on numerous fronts. There are always these fragments of videos gathered from places far, far away maintaining their little space of the screen as reminders. Mementos former homes and keepsakes from current ambitions. When the scene jumps to the calm of a swimming pool, there is a short-lived serenity, the world has spotted spinning, before the camera pans to a barbed wire fence that keeps the outside world at a real distance. It’s difficult to make a house a home, when attempting to fully live online. No matter where you go, there you are.
Bio
Sandra Mujinga
Sandra Mujinga, b. 1989, is a Norwegian artist and musician based in Berlin, as well as working in Malmö and Oslo. Recent exhibitions include the Norwegian Sculpture Biennale, the Vigeland Museum, APPARAT - Technologies of Persuasion, Kunstverein Braunschweig, and Subjektiv, Malmö Konsthall. The artist has performed as NaEE RoBErts since 2012. In 2017 NaEE RoBErts was selected as one of the winners of Incubator, arranged by Berlin Community Radio (Where Mujinga also hosts a bi-weekly show). Recent shows include Online Radio Festival, Amsterdam, as well as the upcoming Wysing Festival, Cambridge, curated by Nkisi (NON collective).