Otobong Nkanga at the Musée d’Art Moderne : The Art of Land and Memory

The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris hosts “I Dreamt of You in Colours”, a major exhibition dedicated to Otobong Nkanga (born 1974 in Kano, Nigeria, and currently based in Antwerp, Belgium). This is her first solo museum retrospective in Paris, presenting her work from the late 1990s to her most recent creations.

Otobong Nkanga explores in her works the complex relationships between humans, the land, and the environment

Trained at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife-Ife (Nigeria), the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Nkanga examines in her works the complex relationships between humans, land, and the environment. She interrogates, in particular, the impact of natural resource exploitation, the resulting social and political connections, and the ways the human body interacts with landscapes and materials.

The exhibition brings together a wide variety of pieces — installations, drawings, photographs, tapestries, paintings, and iconic works such as From Where I Stand (2015) — sourced from public and private collections in France and internationally, as well as from the artist’s studio. Some works, including drawings rarely or never shown before, trace the genealogy of her central themes, such as mining and the cultural values attached to natural resources.

The concept of strata at the heart of Otobong Nkanga’s work

The notion of strata is central to Nkanga’s practice: she uses it as a metaphor to consider exchanges and transformations between body and territory, and as a structural principle in her sculptures and installations. By combining forms, materials, and ideas, the artist offers a visual poetics that evokes memory, the scars of landscapes, and the possibilities of a more harmonious future.

Beyond the exhibited pieces, the programming also includes performances, such as Solid Maneuvers — a choreographed intervention inspired by industrial labor and extraction gestures — and moments of interaction between the artist and the public, inviting reflection on our own relationship with land and natural resources.

This project was conceived in collaboration with the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, where the exhibition will continue after its Paris presentation, from April 3 to August 23, 2026.

The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to immerse oneself in the rich and engaged universe of a major African artist, whose reflection addresses universal issues — ecology, exploitation, memory, and transformation — while weaving sensitive connections between cultures, territories, and human experience.

For more information : https://www.mam.paris.fr/fr/expositions/exposition-otobong-nkanga