Conversation : Bianca Baldi & Matteo Lucchetti (EN)
Artist Bianca Baldi joins curator, art historian, and writer Matteo Lucchetti for a screening and conversation on her new body of work, Sicomoro Centenario. They will discuss how the work has unfolded across the exhibition Magical Realism at WIELS and in the Botanical Garden of Meise, as part of the Publiek Park programme.
Bianca Baldi, Hear her calendar system a year of thirteen months, 2025. Photo: Eline Willaert.
In her work, Baldi explores the role of narrative as a means of knowledge production in both fictional and historical contexts. Appropriating a found photograph of a Ficus sycomorus from her grandfather’s personal archive, her most recent film takes us from Ethiopia’s long history of resistance to the fig tree as a more-than-human witness to cycles of time, resistance, and regeneration. Together, Baldi and Lucchetti will explore the artist's research project, starting with a photograph from the 1930s and leading to recent travels to Ambo, Ethiopia, and Rome, Italy, where she carried out a research residency in 2023.
Bianca Baldi (b. 1985, South Africa) is a Brussels-based artist whose work deals with the role of narrative as a means of knowledge production in both fictional and historical contexts. She is interested in the staging of identity and history and explores these themes in photography, film, writing, and publishing. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 2007 from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, and completed her studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Her work has been featured in large international exhibitions, such as MOMENTA Biennale de l’Image, Tiohtià:ke/ Mooniyang/Montreal (2023); 11th African Biennale of Photography, Bamako (2017); 11th Shanghai Biennale (2016); and 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014). Recent solo exhibitions include Patina, Photoforum Pasquart, Biel (2022); Cameo, Grazer Kunstverein (2021); Versipellis, Superdeals, Brussels (2018); Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof (2017); and Pure Breaths, Swimming Pool, Sofia (2016).
Matteo Lucchetti is curator, kunsthistoricus en schrijver. Hij is curator voor hedendaagse kunst en cultuur bij het MUCIV- Museum of Civilizations in Rome. Sinds 2011 is hij samen met Judith Wielander curator van Visible, een onderzoeks- en ondersteuningsproject voor maatschappelijk geëngageerde artistieke praktijken in een mondiale context, dat wordt uitgevoerd door Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto en Fondazione Zegna en dat heeft geleid tot de samenstelling van een immateriële collectie van meer dan 200 artistieke projecten. Hij is ook gastcurator voor het Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters-project. Van 2017 tot 2018 werkte hij als curator van tentoonstellingen en publieke programma's bij BAK in Utrecht en was hij curator van de 16e Quadriennale van Rome. Zijn curatorprojecten omvatten: Gala Porras-Kim: A Recollection Returns With a Soft Touch, Museum of Civilization, 2024; Museum of Opacities, Museo delle Civiltà, 2023; DAAR: Ente di Decolonizzazione – Borgo Rizza (winnaar van de Gouden Leeuw op de Biënnale van Venetië), voor La Loge in Brussel, Madre in Napels en de Biënnale van Berlijn, 2022–2023; Sammy Baloji. Other Tales, Lunds Konsthall en Kunsthal Aarhus, 2020; First Person Plural: Empathy, Intimacy, Irony, and Anger, BAK, Utrecht, 2018; De Rerum Rurale, 16e Quadriennale, Rome, 2016. Enkele van zijn meest recente publicaties zijn: Visible: Art As Policies for Care, met M. Angelotti en J. Wielander, Nero editions, 2024; Marzia Migliora: Seven Imaginative Exhibitions, met A. Cestelli Guidi, Nero editions, 2024.
In collaboration with Publiek Park.
Supported by the Italian Council program (2025), promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.