Wangechi Mutu: black soil poems

Abstract

The title of this rich publication, published on the occasion of the solo exhibition of the Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu at the Galleria Borghese - the first time in the century-old history of the Villa for a living female artist - evokes the dual nature of Mutu's practice: poetic and mythological, yet deeply connected to contemporary social and material contexts. "Black soil" - rich and malleable under the rain, almost like clay - appears across multiple geographies, including the Secret Gardens of the Galleria, which resonate with the artist's imagination. From this soil, the sculptures seem to emerge, as if molded by a primordial force, giving shape to stories, myths, memories, and poems. The metaphor underscores the generative and transformative power of her work: rooted in materiality, yet open to multiple future interpretations. Wangechi Mutu's intervention introduces a new vocabulary into the historical and symbolic architecture of the Galleria Borghese. Through sculpture, installation, and moving image, the artist proposes an innovative approach to the museum space - one that challenges hierarchy, permanence, and fixed meaning. Her works question the visual weight and authority of the collection through strategies of suspension, fluidity, and fragmentation. In doing so, the museum is no longer presented as a static container of objects, but as a living organism, in continuous transformation, shaped by loss, adaptation, and reconfiguration. Accompanied by a text by curator Cloé Perrone analyzing the context and themes that informed the exhibition's conception, the volume is enriched by four additional essays by Adrienne Edwards, Ekow Eshun, Francesco Freddolini, and Ilaria Puri Purini, as well as a conversation between Eshun and the artist. A rich selection of illustrations allows the readers to retrace the exhibition, which unfolded in the Gallery's sumptuous rooms and gardens, all the way to its extramural presence at the American Academy. -- Lenz Press.

Contents

From the museum to the poetry of the soil: Wangechi Mutu and the Galleria Borghese / Francesca Cappelletti -- Through suspended lines: transcending fixed histories / Cloé Perrone -- Raising the moon: Wangechi Mutu at the Galleria Borghese / Adrienne Edwards -- Wangechi Mutu / in conversation with Ekow Eshun -- Weaving through history: Wangechi Mutu's baskets and mats / Ilaria Puri Purini -- A matter of gaze: visual representations of Africa in early modern atlases and portraits / Francesco Freddolini -- Works in the exhibition / Cloé Perrone.