“THE FIVE CONTINENTS OF ALL OUR DESIRES”
Tuesday 02nd August 2022 - Tuesday 25th July 2023
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa
Zeitz MOCAA welcomes a new, site-specific commission of monumental scale by Joël Andrianomearisoa. The Five Continents of All Our Desires celebrates relations and connections. Constructed from Andrianomearisoa’s signature material, black silk paper, six large-scale sculptures form a suspended archipelago in a poetic reference to land masses and geographies of the imagination. For Andrianomearisoa, the work speaks to both migration and language — and the ongoing search for zones of engagement and desire. He constructs a view of the world that is fragile, ambiguous, open-ended and about new possibilities for human contact.
The work is conceived in dialogue with the concrete interior of the museum, and what remains of the original silos of the building; it is both in play and in visual tension with its surroundings. Whilst appearing as large black masses, the thin and soft materiality of the work allows for subtle atmospheric responses to become visible — such as paper rustling due to airflows caused by human movement.
Andrianomearisoa’s practice encompasses working in multidisciplinary ways—with materiality and scale as important considerations. Imbued with complex emotional experiences, his delicate, often ambiguous works are an ongoing series of ever-evolving exercises that consider the aesthetic and architecture of feelings that all perceive yet cannot put a name to.
The Five Continents of All Our Desires is accompanied by a sound installation, and a display of 40 drawings—a first, significant showing of the artist’s graphic works. Andrianomearisoa has further collaborated with the Zeitz MOCAA curatorial team and retail partners of the museum to develop an exclusive range of objects that will be on sale. All proceeds from the sale of these items will go towards supporting the work of the museum.
This commission was made possible through a grant from Fonds Yavarhoussen, Madagascar.
September 1, 2022
