William Kentridge's 'Sharpen Your Philosophy' Opens at Lia Rumma Milan

William Kentridge's exhibition 'Sharpen Your Philosophy' at Lia Rumma in Milan explores themes of migration, identity, and historical trauma through a multimedia installation. The show features black-and-white cardboard masks of figures who fled Europe for Martinique in 1941, including André Breton, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Wilfredo Lam, Trotsky, and Léon-Gontran Damas. The eponymous screen 'Sharpen Your Philosophy' (2025) depicts tropical plants around a lake mirror with a domestic lamp. The video installation 'To Cross One More Sea' (2024) uses shadow play, Afro-pop music, and avant-garde notes to evoke journey and memory. 'Fugitive Words' (2024) shows Kentridge flipping through notebooks as reservoirs of ideas. A diorama employing Pepper's Ghost technique stages a performance of 'Majakovskij: Una Tragedia'. The exhibition also includes the drawing 'Seven Kitchen Objects' (2025) referencing Morandi, sculptures from 'Paper Procession' (2023), and works related to the 'Triumphs and Laments' frieze in Rome (2016) with music by Philip Miller.