Sandra Mujinga (b. 1989 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo) lives and works in Oslo. Her multidisciplinary practice spans installation, sculpture, photography, performance, video, and music. The central themes in her work revolve around the visibility of Black bodies in public space as well as the way in which opacity and ambiguity harbor the possibility of agency and self-protection.

At the center of Skin to Skin is a group of 55 identical larger-than-life figures. Swathed in heavy fabrics, they seem like creatures from another time—at once archaic and futuristic. Mirrored elements in the space multiply their presence, while a specially composed electronic soundtrack acoustically supplements the sculptural staging. Sandra Mujinga’s installation occupies the exhibition space of Belvedere 21 and invites visitors to immerse themselves in these different visual and auditory levels.

From avatars to clones and ghostly apparitions to unknown species, Mujinga’s hybrid figures invite a variety of associations. The artist develops speculative worlds where spatial and temporal layers overlap. In her newly produced work, she takes up themes from science fiction, Afrofuturism, and posthumanism, which she combines with reflections on animal survival strategies, such as camouflage and nocturnal activity, as well as an interest in bodies and identity. Repetition and camouflage function in the exhibition as means of self-empowerment and protection against external control and the imposition of stereotypes.