Moridja Kitenge Banza: Chiromancie-hors-série-4 n1 & n2

Chiromancie is a series of paintings in which the hand becomes a sensitive map, a living territory marked by lines of fate, the invisible borders of history, and the imprints of memory. By diverting the tradition of palmistry, these works reframe the hand as a political site: a place of labour, oppression, transmission, resistance and exploitation. Each painted palm evokes both personal narratives and the broader geopolitical issues tied to displaced bodies, erased knowledge, fragmented lands, and extracted resources.

The presence of forms reminiscent of aerial views of open-pit mines anchors the series in a reflection on resource extraction, particularly mining, and the dependencies it generates between the Global North and South. Chiromancie thus becomes a poetic device for exploring the tensions between individual identity and collective history, between intimate gestures and grand historical narratives.

Chiromancie-hors-série-4-n1 / Chiromancie-hors-série-4-n2 are new entries into Moridja Kitenge Banza’s Chiromancie series, developed in response to the production Copperbelt.

On view in the Soulpepper Theatre Atrium at 50 Tank House Lane from February 7 to March 1.

about the artist

Moridja Kitenge Banza (Kinshasa, 1980) is a Canadian artist of Congolese origin. A graduate of the Académie des beaux-arts de Kinshasa, the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole, and the University of La Rochelle, his practice explores memory, history, identity, and territories through archives, cartographies, and critical narratives. Winner of the Grand Prize at Dak’Art 2010 for the video Hymne à nous and the installation De 1848 à nos jours, he also received the Sobey Art Award in 2020. His work has been shown at the Musée Dauphinois, the Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde, Arndt Gallery and NGBK (Berlin), the International Biennial of Casablanca, the Attijariwafa bank and Blachère Foundations, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Projet Casa, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and the National Gallery of Canada. More recently, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Musée d’art de Joliette (MAJ), and the PHI Foundation have presented exhibitions of his work.

Inquiries about the exhibition can be directed to Jacqui Arntfield, Public Programming Lead at jacqui.arntfield@soulpepper.ca