Nicholas Grafia in conversation with Francesca Altamura

Francesca Altamura (FA): Your upcoming solo presentation at KOENIG2 by_robbygreif in Vienna is titled “Soul Burner,” and will be on view from March 26–May 22, 2021. Whose soul are you burning in this exhibition?

Nicholas Grafia (NG): Hopefully everyone’s! [laughs]. To be honest, the title sets the meditative tone for the exhibition, and alludes to those “burning questions,” as well a certain kind of restlessness in the soul, that is, both, involuntarily experienced by some and willfully inflicted by others who played a role in the show’s formation and conceptual framework.

The works in the exhibition were first presented in 2019, as part of my graduation installation at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (DE), which consisted of two paintings and a video documentation of the core performance, It’s 10PM. Do You Know Where Your Children Are? (2019), previously showcased at Dortmunder Kunstverein (DE) and conceived alongside my artistic collaborator Mikołaj Sobczak from Poland. In addition to that, the paintings served, both, as storyboards and scenography to a series of performances enacted within my installation throughout graduation week, each lasting between thirty to forty minutes. The performances were mainly reflective of post-colonial trauma, the experience of slavery, global folklore and mythological archetypes.