A Lingering Lusotopia: Thinking the Planetary from Angola

The article considers two art works made in recent years in Angola: the exhibition Lion & Ox, which featured art works by António Ole and Art Orienté objet, and the installation Icarus 13 by Kiluanji Kia Henda. Both draw on twentieth century utopias still present in Angola and refer to Agostinho Neto, the poet who became Angola’s first Marxist-Leninist president. While Lion & Ox explores Angolan nature structured through colonial taxonomies, Icarus 13 tells sci-fi narrative of an Angolan space mission to the Sun, suggesting a shift to a planetary imaginary. What does it mean, in the present conjuncture, to think the planetary from Angola?

Content for this article is available at MIT Press. It is available as: No Access/Subscription Only . Click here for more information.