Onyeka Igwe's Secession exhibition probes colonial archives
Onyeka Igwe takes a unique look at colonial archives, seeing them not just as old records but as places filled with conflict and unresolved issues. Through her films and installations, she brings attention to what’s often missing or hidden, using materials like celluloid film and old visual documents. Her work captures the complexities of colonial violence, suggesting it still affects us today. At the First Floor Gallery of Secession, you can find two video pieces from her upcoming series, No Archive Can Restore this Chorus of (Diasporic) Shame (2024/26), showcased together, with one piece prominently featured in the window.
Key facts
- Onyeka Igwe's practice excavates the colonial archive as a site of friction, opacity, and unresolved violence.
- Her films and installations attend to what is missing, suppressed, or rendered inaudible.
- Igwe reactivates materials such as celluloid reels and visual records of past bureaucracies.
- The work presents colonial violence as a persistent condition of the present.
- Two video works from No Archive Can Restore this Chorus of (Diasporic) Shame (2024/26) are shown at Secession's First Floor Gallery.
- One video is presented on the window front.
- The exhibition is at Secession in Vienna.
- The series title includes the years 2024/26.
Entities
Artists
Institutions
- Secession
Locations
- Vienna
- Austria