Exhibitions
Changing states between matter, power and time in Kapwani Kiwanga
The Fundació Joan Miró exhibition reviews colonial, geological and technological flows through a rigorous and expansive artistic practice.
The Fundació Joan Miró presents Changing States , the first solo exhibition in Spain dedicated to Kapwani Kiwanga, artist recently awarded the Joan Miró Prize. The exhibition, open until September 13, articulates a journey that synthesizes some of the most relevant lines of research in her practice: the relationship between matter and power, colonial imaginaries and the forms of control that shape the spaces we inhabit.
Kiwanga's work, developed through installations, video, sound and performance, is constructed from a deeply investigative perspective. His work does not limit itself to representation, but rather interrogates the systems that order reality: from economic and political devices to the invisible infrastructures that condition the circulation of resources, bodies and knowledge. In this sense, his practice is situated at the intersection between Afrofuturism, the critique of the colonial legacy and the analysis of the collective beliefs that sustain contemporary structures.
Kapwani Kiwanga, Dosser, 2023, TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection. Photograph: Jake Seal, Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London / Galerie Poggi, Paris © Kapwani Kiwanga, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2026.
Changing States unfolds as a journey conceived in close collaboration with Martina Millà, head of exhibitions at the Fundació Joan Miró and curator of the project. The dialogue with the artist has allowed the articulation of a proposal that combines works from his recent career with three new productions, conceived specifically for the exhibition space. The whole configures an immersive experience that puts into tension the notions of transformation, duration and circulation.
The exhibition discourse is organized around three main axes. First, the transformation of materiality linked to technological development, which shows how innovation processes redefine the very nature of materials and their perception. Second, the history of economic and cultural exchanges derived from territorial occupations, a critical reading of the global circuits of power that have structured modernity from the first maritime expeditions to current dynamics. Finally, the relationship between human historical time and geological scales, which introduces an expanded temporal dimension and displaces the centrality of the human being as the unique measure of the world.
Kapwani Kiwanga Jealousy, 2018, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Poggi, Paris © Kapwani Kiwanga, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2026.
The exhibition begins with pieces that work from raw materials and evolves towards works that point to deep and stratified temporalities. This progressive displacement reinforces the central idea of the project: reality is not fixed, but is in a constant state of transformation, traversed by material, political and historical forces that operate simultaneously.
Changing States presents the work of Kapwani Kiwanga and proposes a way of looking at the world. A look that questions the structures that organize contemporary life and that places matter—and its mutations—at the center of a reflection on power, memory, and time.
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