Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s)
Josèfa Ntjam
Fotografiska | New York, US; Berlin, DE; Stockholm, SE; Tallinn, EE
Institutional
02.02.24 - 03.05.26Solo exhibition at Fotografiska
New York, US; Berlin, DE; Stockholm, SE; Tallinn, EE
Josèfa Ntjam’s solo exhibition Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s) first opened in the United States at Fotografiska New York (02.02.24–25.05.24), before travelling to Berlin, Stockholm, and Tallinn. Jessica Jarl curated the exhibition in collaboration with the artist.
“What are the stories that shape your perception of the world and yourself? Who determines them, and how can we create alternative narratives within our communities to mobilize change? Josèfa Ntjam’s exhibition Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s), seeks to deconstruct these dominant narratives. Ntjam explores collective histories, as well as her own memories and personal and family archives, through images of African mythologies, ancestral rituals, Cameroonian independence movements, and freedom fighters such as the Black Panthers – highlighting the transformative power of community to create new realities.
The exhibition is conceived as a visual and intellectual odyssey, asking us to challenge conventional perceptions of matter, space and time, embracing thereby new paths of thinking and understanding, says Jessica Jarl, Global Director of Exhibitions.
Futuristic Ancestry invites you into a multi-sensory experience featuring biomorphic sculptures, video installations, and photomontages on plexiglass and aluminum. Her work frequently references biology, using microscopic views of plants and marine life to parallel historical resistance with the resilience of microorganisms. Plankton and fungi, for example, have the ability to establish subterranean communication networks to activate healing and resilience. Those are only a few examples of survival and resistance techniques mirrored in nature, reminding us of our own communal power for change.
In Ntjam’s alternative ecosystem, references to Battlestar Galactica and the works of Octavia E. Butler blend with African diasporic science fiction, imagining new possibilities beyond old labels and constraints. The fluidity of her interspecies characters challenge rigid structures of domination, and highlight that liberation lies in continual transformation and adaptation.
The exhibition invites you to immerse yourself in Josèfa Ntjam’s visionary world, where the past and future converge, and the power of community drives change.”
Josèfa Ntjam (b. 1992) is a French artist, performer, and writer whose practice combines sculpture, photomontage, film, and sound. Collecting raw material from the internet, books on natural sciences, and photographic archives, Ntjam uses assemblage – of images, words, sounds, and stories – as a method to deconstructing the grand narratives underlying hegemonic discourses on origin, identity, and race.
Throughout her work, Ntjam blends memory with historical fact and speculative fiction (from Battlestar Galactica to the novels of Octavia E. Butler) to produce new interpretations of radical liberation movements around the world, from the battle against white supremacy led by the Black Panther Party in the U.S., to the fights in Cameroon and Nigeria against colonial rule.