Portable Identity

Inga Gallery is pleased to announce Portable Identity, a group show with works by Francisco Vidal, Mimi Cherono Ng’ok and Binelde Hyrcan. Their works are exhibited in Israel for the first time.
Whether native to the African continent or from elsewhere, the artists whose works are presented here deal with notions related to migratory and nomadic movements that have led them, through their personal trajectories, to cast a new look on Africa as a recurring anchor in their work. The narratives arising from their respective bodies of work evoke both private and collective memories, experiences that testify to ongoing political and existential unrest.
Departing from the personal experiences of migration within Africa and outside it, they address the continent’s colonialist and post-colonialist past both directly and indirectly, alluding to the many social and political complexities of a place whose soil is tainted with a long history of slavery and exploitation, of civil wars, bloodshed and hard-won struggles for independence. These themes are manifest in a multitude of ways, in artistic practices that touch on present realities and past devastations through fantastical landscapes, a compelling visual language and an intermingling of irony, humor and hope.
The title of this exhibition was borrowed from the catalogue of the Angolan Pavilion at the recent 56th Venice biennale, "On Ways of Travelling", where it references to the work of Binelde Hyrcan. Hyrcan represented his country together with three more artists, among them Francisco Vidal.