Simnikiwe Buhlungu will present her first institutional solo exhibition in the Netherlands at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, from May 17 to September 21.
hygrosummons (iter. 2) is the second iteration of her project hygrosummons, whose first iteratation took place at Chisenhale Gallery, London, in 2024. hygrosummons (iter.02) transforms the building of Kunstinstituut Melly into a porous, responsive site. Spanning multiple floors—from basement to rooftop, the installation features water samples collected from puddles in Rotterdam, Italy, and South Africa, as well as sonic sculptural instruments tuned to humidity and materials that warp, leak, and shift. These components gather into a constellation that treats the puddle not as a minor detail, but as a generative site of accumulation, contradiction, and relation.
The exhibition is accompanied by her new publication: besides Puleng; dontsa-ring and roving preoccupations (Mousse, 2024), which will be launched at Melly on Saturday 28 June in conjunction with North Sea Around Town.
