Tabita Rezaire. Calabash Nebula

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation present Calabash Nebula, the first solo exhibition by the French artist Tabita Rezaire in Spain. The exhibition, curated by Chus Martínez, brings together the installations Des/Astres and Omi: Yemoja Temple, co-produced in 2024 by TBA21 together with the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris) and Schering Stiftung (Berlin), respectively. 

Rezaire (París, 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist and activist exploring the intersections between technology, spirituality, decolonization and healing. She uses video, performance art and the creation of immersive spaces to challenge hegemonic narratives and advocate a holistic understanding of the world in which realities are interconnected. Her work salvages ancestral knowledges and practices and merges indigenous, African and non-Western knowledges with digital technologies to explore how spiritual and healing practices can be used as tools for resistance, emancipation and reconstruction of identities and communities. 

In Des/Astres, the artist delves into Amazonian astronomical traditions and French Guiana’s strategic position amid global space challenges. It is an installation that is reminiscent of the buildings of the Caribbean people of the Wayana and their "maluwana" or house of heaven, a meeting place for assemblies, celebrations, exchange, transmission and collaboration. 

Omi: Yemoja Temple is an immersive installation dedicated to the Orisha Yemoja, mother spirit of rivers and oceans, symbol of the origin and perpetuity of life. The work explores the intersection of biology and spirituality, focusing on water as its main motif, and invites visitors to connect with an environment inhabited by physical and spiritual beings. The installation is the result of a research trip to Tanzania undertaken by the artist together with the architect Yussef Agbo-Ola and the biologists Alex Jordan and Anja Wegner, from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, with the aim of studying the flora and fauna of the coral reefs and the ecosystem of Lake Tanganyika. The alignment of biology, ecology, spirituality and architecture offers new perspectives on aquatic dimensions and the origin of life.