Tuli Mekondjo
"A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art"
Museum Rietberg, Zurich
Until 6 September 2026
We're delighted that both new and loaned works by Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo
@tuliphoenix are included in this new exhibition in Zurich.
A beautiful and rigorous publication accompanies the show, including essays by Patricia Hayes
@patriciahayes3308 , Paul Basu
@pittriversmuseum , Saidya Hartman, Sandrine Colard
@sandrine.colard and Julia Rensing
@julerens among others.
Curator and Editor Nanina Guyer
@nanina_guyer_ writes: "An increasing number of artists outside Europe, or from the diaspora, are engaging with photos from the past. A Kind of Paradise is the first comprehensive publication to shed light on this phenomenon. Using photos from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, artists from the “Majority World” interrogate their own history and origins, linking them to collective experiences of colonization, exploitation, and exclusion. Their works seek to restore broken timelines, memories, and identities..."
"Throughout the project, the power of dialogue among artists, curators, and scholars became evident when engaging with colonial-era photographic archives. Our shared affection for the people depicted and their stories binds us together. As the custodian of a vast archive of colonial-era photographs, my own work revolves around two core questions: how to bring hidden narratives to light and how to navigate the ethical complexities of potentially harmful images.... "
"It is no coincidence that the title, "A Kind of Paradise", is a quote from Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She reminds us that we regain a piece of paradise when history is told in many voices: “When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”
Buy your copy at
@spectorbooks
@museumrietberg @halesgallery 
