Kiluanji Kia Henda was born in Luanda in 1979, four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal and the country’s civil war began. Three works by Kia Henda are presented at the Biennale Arte. Despite being made over a span of seven years, they are closely connected. The Geometric Ballad of Fear (2015) consists of nine photographs documenting white- painted protective metal railings found in buildings and houses in Angola, which are a prevalent feature in big cities in the Global South with significant disparities amongst their populations. The Geometric Ballad of Fear (Sardegna) (2019) also consists of nine photographs, this time in black and white, with the same grids in black superimposed as a graphic element over views of the Sardinian landscape, overlooking the Mediterranean. A Espiral do Medo (2022) uses the actual metal railings taken from the buildings and houses in Luanda that interested the artist in 2015. Although made of metal railings that once offered robust protection to those inside, the large-scale sculpture now seems permeable and rather unstable – resembling a ruin of sorts – and serving as a mere emblem of fear.
—Adriano Pedrosa
