A Healing Path for Phantom Pain (2022) and other works

Overview

Shaped by the experience of coming of age during the post-independence Angolan Civil War, Kiluanji Kia Henda reflects on the ruptures of colonial rule and conflict while framing Angolan identity within broader global historical narratives. In Phantom Pain - A letter to Henry A. Kissinger (2020)—filmed in part at the Neves Bendinha Orthopedic Centre in Luanda, Angola, on the street where the artist grew up— Kia Henda confronts former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for his role in exacerbating the
27-year-long Angolan Civil War. He alludes to the resultant ‘phantom pain’ of countless victims of personnel landmines and unexploded bombs who sought care at the Orthopedic Centre. In conversation with the video work, the sand sculpture A Healing Path for Phantom Pain (2022) replicates a life-size rehabilitation apparatus used by Neves Bendinha patients, materialising notions of fragility and recuperation.