Grada Kilomba's Decolonial Thought Explored in Interview on São Paulo Biennial Projects

In a Skype conversation published by Arte Brasileiros, artist and writer Grada Kilomba discusses two projects for the São Paulo Biennial, framing her work as a transdisciplinary practice central to the decolonization of knowledge. Kilomba, whose artistic name incorporates ancestral family names like Quilomba, details 'O Projeto Desejo' (The Desire Project), a video installation exploring silenced narratives through text, rhythm, and voice without images. A second work, 'Ilusões' (Illusions), is a lecture-performance drawing on African oral tradition and Greek mythology to critique colonial and patriarchal narcissism. The interview, conducted by Suely Rolnik, delves into Kilomba's personal history, including the colonial erasure of African names within her family in São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola, and her inability to officially reclaim them due to Portuguese legal structures. Kilomba explains how her work uses sound, silence, and storytelling to address the dialectic of speaking and being heard, connecting colonial violence to contemporary political realities. The conversation positions her artistic process as a spiritual and reflective trajectory aimed at giving voice to fragmented histories.