Opening: Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński: Respire (Liverpool)
Phileas, Opernring 17, Vienna
Wednesday 31 January 2024, 7pm
We are pleased to announce the exhibition opening of Respire (Liverpool) by Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, a collaboration with the 12th Liverpool Biennial, on 31 January at 7pm.
During a research trip to Vienna in May 2022 at the invitation of Phileas, curator Khanyisile Mbongwa met Kazeem-Kamiński and invited her to participate in the Biennial. Over the course of the next year, the artist produced Respire (Liverpool), which refers to the precariousness of Black breath as an act not just of existence and escape, but also of liberation and community building. For the video, the artist filmed residents of Liverpool of different ages and genders breathing into a red balloon. The sound moves in waves from the individual to the collective and back again, creating a meditative space in which to process the legacy of traumatic pasts.
The work is accompanied by the sound installation Keep On Keepin’ On (for Nile), developed in collaboration with artist Bassano Bonelli Bassano, and a second video work titled Openings (Red, Black and Green) whose colours commemorate liberation struggles on the African continent and in the African diaspora in general.
The 12th Liverpool Biennial was titled uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things, drawing on the Zulu word for spirit, soul, breath, air, wind and the conflation between past and present.
Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, still from Respire (Liverpool), 2023. Photo: courtesy of the artist