The Rising Sun in the Land of Fear

The sculpture “The Rising Sun in the Land of Fear”, is part of a series of works that Kia Henda has been exploring since 2015, inspired by the railings of buildings and houses in Angola. The social “dissimetry” has profoundly changed the physiognomy of the city, homes that have become authentic private and self-inflicted prisons. The piece made of iron and red opaline acrylic plates is an interpretation of the semi-circle railings installed on the balconies of modernist buildings in Luanda, with the aim of preventing intruders and meliants from entering, in order to guarantee the safety of supposedly privileged spaces and bodies. The two semicircles are intended to recreate a sun divided into two equal parts. In this sculpture there is an attempt to romanticize and fantasize an urban reality in many parts of the planet, through extremely repulsive elements. The light of a sun that shines equally for all, in a world where the phenomenon of globalization and savage capitalism make it increasingly clear that we are not all equal under the sun.

Technical Details

The Rising Sun in the Land of Fear, 2020

Author: Kiluanji Kia Henda
600 x 250 x 10 cm
Iron and Acrylic
Fontelo Woods / 40.6587310, -7.8993310

Author's Word

Kiluanji Kia Henda

He was born in 1979 (Angola), where he lives and works. Kia Henda’s interest in the visual arts comes from having grown up among photography enthusiasts. His connection with music and avant-garde theatre was part of his conceptual training, as was his collaboration with artists’ collectives in Luanda.
In 2012, Kia Henda won the National Prize for Culture and Arts (Angolan Ministry of Culture). In 2014 he was included in the “100 Leading Global Thinkers” list (Foreign Politics magazine). In 2017, he won the Frieze Artist Award.

More

https://www.tate.org.uk

Location

Fontelo Woods
Viseu, Portugal
40.6587310, -7.8993310