In This Valley of Dying Stars

New Work by Jess Atieno
African Arts Trust
12.6.-16.8.2026

We are haunted not only by the lingering weight of the past, but also by futures that were once imagined and never realized.

At the heart of the exhibition lies Jess Atieno´s investigation of brutalist architecture in the context of post-independence Africa. Once envisioned as monuments to liberation, progress, and collective futurity, these structures now persist as spectral forms suspended between utopian aspiration and historical rupture. These architectural studies become an entry point into a psychic and temporal landscape where time folds in on itself: a valley of the undead in which the past remains unresolved and the future in constant flux. 

The show was developed from collective research and an ongoing exchange with the artist. Working within a white cube, the exhibition design emphasizes the materiality and spatial presence of the work, while creating an ongoing dialogue between archival images and architectural forms.