Heaven's truth
May 3–July 26, 2026
Reggio Emilia
Italy
“… if someone seems to be confident in what they say, it doesn’t mean what they say is true, so take the time to doubt and think about things, time is always your biggest ally, so take your time…”
(N. Kouagou, from the video Heaven’s Truth, 2026)
In conjunction with Festival Fotografia Europea 2026, titled Ghosts of the Moment, Collezione is presenting Heaven’s truth: the first solo exhibition in Italy by the French artist Ndayé Kouagou, it brings together recent pieces and a sequence of works made specifically for the occasion.
Kouagou’s ambitious new project, which also lends its title to the show and occupies the first few rooms, is inspired by the narrative device of photo comics; it includes a video, three-dimensional elements and wall pieces.
Conscious of how impossible it is to summon enough detachment to remain completely objective, impartial, and uninfluenced by context, Kouagou uses wry humour to reveal the inevitability of personal opinions and our inability to achieve true distance from the world around us.
Kouagou’s creative practice, which ranges between visual art and performance and is often inhabited by the artist’s alter ego, is born out of language. The texts he creates—which seem familiar, jumbled and sardonic, all at the same time—become the catalyst and core of videos, installations and live appearances that gradually yet forcefully reveal the instability of language, the opacity of words, and the shifts in meaning that are intrinsic to communication in the media and among individuals. Through dialogues, monologues, questions and statements that elude any clear definition of their own subject, Kouagou touches deep chords in the conscious and unconscious mind, exploring individual and collective choices and attitudes toward the world.
Through a disorienting narrative experience that is both playful and existential, the artist takes visitors on a journey with no destination, where all the landmarks appear hazy or completely illogical.
His works prompt a meditation on truth (real, potential or imaginary), vulnerability, malaise and power dynamics, probing the intricate contradictions of subjectivity and the paradoxes of today’s world.
A book published in conjunction with the show will feature texts by Ndayé Kouagou, by the researcher and curator Rita Ouédraogo, and by Natalia Sielewicz, curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
The production of the new works on view was supported by Collezione Maramotti in partnership with Heidelberger Kunstverein. A second iteration of the exhibition will open at Heidelberger Kunstverein on 5 September 2026.
Plese visit our website for futher information.
Free admission during the opening hours of the permanent collection.
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