Kiwanga co-opts the canon; she turns systems of power back on themselves, in art and in parsing broader histories. In this manner Kiwanga has developed an aesthetic vocabulary that she described as “exit strategies,” works that invite one to see things from multiple perspectives so as to look differently at existing structures and find ways to navigate the future differently. In this artist talk Kiwanga will share some of her working methodologies and the role of the archive in her practice.

Kapwani Kiwanga is a Franco-Canadian (b. 1978, Hamilton, Canada) artist based in Paris. Kapwani Kiwanga's work is research-driven, instigated by marginalised or forgotten histories, and articulated across a range of materials and mediums including sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance. She studied Anthropology and Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal and Art at l’école des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 2018, Kiwanga received the Frieze Artist Award (USA) and was also the winner of the annual Sobey Art Award (CA); in 2020 she won the Prix Marcel Duchamp (FR). Solo exhibitions include MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (USA); Albertinum museum, Dresden (DE); Artpace, San Antonio (USA); Esker Foundation, Calgary (CA); Tramway, Glasgow International (UK); Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudengo, Turin (IT); Power Plant, Toronto (CA), Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago (USA); South London Gallery, London (UK); and Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR).

Kapwani Kiwanga is the keynote speaker in the 2020-21 MVS Proseminar series. Other speakers this winter include: Filipa Ramos (Jan 26), Irenosen Okojie (Feb), Rui Amaral (March) and a book launch of Autofiction by Lauren Fournier in conversation with Pamila Matharu (Mar 9, in partnership with MIT Press and Type Books).