Abolition Garden
Opening & Lecture Performance by muSa Michelle Mattiuzzi with Garden Walk & Study Display

Abolition Garden is a growing garden and living anti-monument by Brazilian artist muSa Michelle Mattiuzzi. Planted this spring in the garden of KHI's Palazzo Capponi-Incontri to grow for the next two years, the installation is dedicated to Black radical thought and resistance stories throughout the process of Abolition of Slavery in Brazil. On 20 September 2024 at 5pm the KHI is pleased to introduce this collaborative research project between Mattiuzzi and the institute, and invites the public to a lecture performance by the artist at Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai, followed by a garden walk and an exploration of the temporary study display at the Kunsthistorisches Institut.

In the lecture performance muSa Michelle Mattiuzzi will sketch out her artistic practice, marking the Abolition Garden as an important step in her creative development. Instead of incorporating into and subverting colonial wounds and scars through her own female black body, she started to transfer her performative gesture towards a set of intangible elements of resistance. The growing Abolition Garden reveals the significance of popular performative epistemology in preserving culture and writing history. The lecture and following garden walk will open up the conversation for a critical examination of the entanglements of colonial history and presence, popular knowledge and institutional archives, ancestral power of plants and garden representations.

Additionally, on three consecutive afternoons the study display and garden installation can be visited at the Kunsthistorische Institut in Via Giuseppe Giusti 44. For selected times the artist, curators and research collaborators will be present. Please refer to the open hours below for a detailed schedule.

Artist Biography

muSa Michelle Mattiuzzi is a Brazilian interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin, Germany. Her research and artistic practice unfold in performances, writings, photography, and artistic films. Mattiuzzi has performed and exhibited internationally, including the Biennale of São Paulo 2026 and 2018, the Documenta 14 – Capacete Residence Programme in Athens, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. She has been artist-in-residence at the Villa Romana in 2021, as fellow of artistic research of KHI. She currently is artist-in-residence at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht (2023/24). https://www.studiomusa.art/en/

About the Research Collaboration

The art installation is part of the institute’s ongoing engagement with artistic research by contemporary artists and the collaboration with Villa Romana, Florence. It is realized in collaboration with Hannah Baader, Costanza Caraffa, Dorit Malz, Gerhard Wolf and KHI’s Garden Commission, and curated by Angelika Stepken and Tina Plokarz. The study display is kindly supported by KHI Library. Abolition Garden is temporarily (2024 - 2026) placed in the garden of KHI's Palazzo Capponi-Incontri and will be accompanied by a series of public events and conversations.

Schedule

All events will be held in person only.

Fri 20 Sept 2024, 5:00pm:

Opening Reception with Lecture Performance, Garden Walk and Visit of Study Display. Welcome with light refreshments. Palazzo Grifoni & Kunsthistorisches Institut.

Mon 23 Sept + Tue 24 Sept 2024, 3:00-6:00pm:
Open Hours Abolition Garden Installation & Study Display. Garden of the Kunsthistorisches Institut.

Wed 25 Sept 2024, 4:00-6:00pm:

Public Conversation between artist MuSa Mattiuzzi and curator Angelika Stepken. Garden of the Kunsthistorisches Institut.