ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Black Quantum Futurism's time-bending installations at documenta 15

exhibition · 2026-04-27

At documenta 15 in Kassel, the Philadelphia-based collective Black Quantum Futurism (BQF), founded by Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) and Rasheedah Phillips, presents three projects that manipulate space-time through quantum physics and African cultural traditions. The largest, Clepsydra Stage (2022), is an interactive water clock installation on the Fulda River featuring three interlocking circles set in motion by water, serving as a floating stage for concerts by the collective and Camae Ayewa's jazz ensemble Irreversible Entanglements. A second work, Black Grandmother Clock (Oral Futures Booth) (2021), installed in an underpass in central Kassel, collects visitor audio testimonies and future visions via a questionnaire, incorporating them into an evolving soundscape played through Sonic Shades (2021) sculptures. The works aim to recover and preserve communal memories, creating a new space-time consciousness that merges local histories with emerging future visions.

Key facts

  • Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) is a collective founded by Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) and Rasheedah Phillips.
  • BQF is based in Philadelphia and consists of two queer Black women.
  • The collective's practice draws on quantum physics and Black/African cultural traditions of time and space.
  • At documenta 15, BQF presents three projects in Kassel.
  • Clepsydra Stage (2022) is an interactive water clock installation on the Fulda River.
  • Clepsydra Stage consists of three interlocking circles set in motion by water.
  • The installation serves as a floating stage for concerts by BQF and Irreversible Entanglements.
  • Black Grandmother Clock (Oral Futures Booth) (2021) is installed in an underpass in central Kassel.
  • Black Grandmother Clock collects visitor audio testimonies and future visions.
  • Sonic Shades (2021) are sound sculptures that play an evolving soundscape of archive sounds, song fragments, and neighborhood voices.

Entities

Artists

  • Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa)
  • Rasheedah Phillips
  • Black Quantum Futurism
  • Irreversible Entanglements

Institutions

  • documenta 15
  • Black Quantum Futurism

Locations

  • Kassel
  • Germany
  • Philadelphia
  • United States
  • Fulda River

Sources