Sandra Mujinga – Skin to Skin
Sandra Mujinga presents her most ambitious work yet: Skin to Skin. The Norwegian artist transforms the Stedelijk’s lower-level gallery into a stark, otherworldly realm. Sound, light, mirrors, and sculptures conjure an unearthly space where 55 identical figures in textile supported by Kvadrat occupy the space.
The fabric for the sculptures was supported by Kvadrat with 550 meters of Arda – a knitted upholstery textile by Swedish design studio Front for Kvadrat Febrik. The textile recreates complex natural forms, structures, surfaces and colours found deep in the wild. The double-knitted textile replicates textures and tones discovered, photographed, and 3D-scanned by Front.
In Skin to Skin, Mujinga’s otherworldly space vibrates to the artist’s compositions of light and sound. Mutating green light plunges us into a shapeshifting landscape. Reality bends and warps. Skin tones disappear, the fabric gain another texture, shadows pulsate. From time to time, Mujinga’s soundscape grounds the space with an enveloping electronic presence.
Mujinga investigates concealment through multiplication. Identical at first glance, their multiplication could evoke a single form in transformation—perhaps reflecting different stages in a single body’s life—or suggest a hidden society, or even an entirely new species. They become mute witnesses to a speculative or dystopian world.
Are they human beings, deep sea creatures or entities from another solar system? Some spectral figures loom on pedestals. Others are almost swallowed by the shadows. Strategically placed mirrors multiply their numbers, filling the space with an army of reflections. As you navigate the green, murky landscape, the light shifts and the sound displaces. Soon, you lose all sense of direction. Mujinga’s installations play with opposites – immobility and movement, visibility and disappearance – drawing you deeper into her liminal narratives.
Mujinga’s hybrid creatures recall avatars – almost human, eerily alike, like echoes of a single being. In Skin to Skin, she uses science fiction to explore what happens when our identities are copied and scattered across digital space. Her creatures ask: who are you when your ‘self’ is copied, multiplied, or turned digital? And when you’re seen everywhere, can you still be seen at all—or do you end up hidden in plain sight? At the same time, her installation challenges how Black bodies are perceived—constantly watched and under surveillance, yet rarely truly acknowledged or represented in public spaces or positions of power.
This tension lives within her sculptures. Like bodyguards, her towering, humanoid figures give off a feeling of both protection and threat. Through them, Mujinga reveals the uneasy balance between being looked at and remaining invisible.
Notes to Editors
Exhibition dates:
September 13, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Address:
Main entrance:
Museumplein 10
1071 DJ Amsterdam
For more information and images, please contact the Press Office of the Stedelijk Museum, pressoffice@stedelijk.nl
For more information and images concerning Kvadrat and the textile, please contact Duffne Kinabo, PR Manager at Kvadrat, duki@kvadrat.org
The exhibition Sandra Mujinga – Skin to Skin is organized by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Belvedere, Vienna, and is curated by Melanie Bühler (Stedelijk) and Axel Köhne (Belvedere).
For more information, please contact:
Trendgruppen PR
Helena Walfridsson Ekblad
helena.walfridsson-ekblad@trendgruppen.se
Tel: +46 73 663 76 12
About Sandra Mujinga
Sandra Mujinga (b. 1989, Goma, DRC) is one to watch: groundbreaking and radically contemporary. She is an artist, DJ, and musician. Her interdisciplinary practice combines visual art and performance, music, and online platforms. Her work includes performances, sculptures, installations, film, and sound, through which she creates alternative realities that question our view of the world. In 2021, she won the Preisder Nationalgalerie. Her work has been shown at institutes including the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, the Yokohama Triennale, and the Venice Biennale (The Milk of Dreams, 2022). She has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel (Time as a Shield, 2024), MdbK Leipzig (Fleeting Home, 2023), Hamburger Bahnhof (BMSWR: I Build My Skin With Rocks, 2022), Malmö Konsthall (Closed Space, Open World, 2022), Swiss Institute New York (Worldview, 2021), and Vleeshal Middelburg (Midnight, 2020), among others
About South into North
South into North is a curatorial and art-advisory agency specialising in contemporary art commissions. Founded by curators Francesca Astesani and Julia Rodrigues in 2013, South into North has been working with Kvadrat since 2015 on their ambitious program of art collaborations and commissions.
Art projects include, amongst others: Kapwani Kiwanga, Plot at Haus der Kunst München (2020), Pipilotti Rist, Open My Glade at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2019); Adelita Husni-Bey, Chiron at New Museum, New York (2019); Karl Holmqvist, Untitled (WHAT? WHEN? WHY? WHO?) at Kvadrat HQ, Denmark (2018); Roman Signer, House at Kvadrat HQ, Denmark (2017); Philippe Parreno, Anywhen at Tate Modern, London (2016); Goshka Macuga, To the Son of the Man Who Ate the Scroll at Fondazione Prada, Milan (2015), amongst several others.
About Kvadrat
Kvadrat was established in Denmark in 1968 and has deep roots in Scandinavia’s world-famous design tradition. A leader in design innovation, Kvadrat produces high-performance, design textiles, rugs, window covering and acoustic solutions for both commercial and residential interiors.
Our products reflect our commitment to colour, quality, simplicity and innovation. We consistently push the aesthetic, technological and functional properties of textiles. In doing so, we collaborate with leading designers, architects and artists including: Patricia Urquiola, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Margrethe Odgaard, Alfredo Häberli, Doshi Levien, Giulio Ridolfo, Peter Saville, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Demand and Olafur Eliasson.