Kiluanji Kia Henda

Kiluanji Kia Henda (Luanda, Angola, 1979) is an Angolan visual artist whose work explores historical memory, architecture, politics and postcolonial narratives across Africa and the Global South. Born shortly after Angola’s independence and during the country’s civil war, his artistic practice reflects on the social and urban transformations of Angola as well as the imaginaries surrounding power, fear and history. Working primarily with photography, installation and sculpture, Kia Henda investigates how architectural and urban spaces reflect political and social tensions. Among his most recognized projects is The Geometric Ballad of Fear (2015), a series of photographs documenting the protective metal security bars commonly found on buildings and houses in Luanda, symbols of inequality and systems of protection and control in cities of the Global South. In The Geometric Ballad of Fear (Sardegna) (2019) he transferred this visual language to Mediterranean landscapes, while A Espiral do Medo (2022) transforms these metal structures into a large-scale sculptural installation that questions the idea of security, revealing the fragility and ambiguity of protection systems in contemporary society.