Skin to Skin

Sandra Mujinga presents her most ambitious work yet: Skin to Skin. The Norwegian artist transforms the Stedelijk’s lower-level gallery into a stark, otherworldly realm. Sound, light, mirrors, and sculptures conjure an unearthly space where 55 identical figures occupy the space. Mujinga investigates concealment through multiplication. Identical at first glance, their multiplication could evoke a single form in transformation—perhaps reflecting different stages in a single body’s life—or suggest a hidden society, or even an entirely new species. They become mute witnesses to a speculative or dystopian world. Are they human beings, deep sea creatures or entities from another solar system? Some spectral figures loom on pedestals. Others are almost swallowed by the shadows. Strategically placed mirrors multiply their numbers, filling the space with an army of reflections. As you navigate the green, murky landscape, the light shifts and the sound displaces. Soon, you lose all sense of direction. Mujinga’s installations play with opposites – immobility and movement, visibility and disappearance – drawing you deeper into her liminal narratives. Mujinga’s hybrid creatures recall avatars – almost human, eerily alike, like echoes of a single being. In Skin to Skin, she uses science fiction to explore what happens when our identities are copied and scattered across digital space. Her creatures ask: who are you when your ‘self’ is copied, multiplied, or turned digital? And when you're seen everywhere, can you still be seen at all—or do you end up hidden in plain sight? At the same time, her installation challenges how Black bodies are perceived—constantly watched and under surveillance, yet rarely truly acknowledged or represented in public spaces or positions of power. This tension lives within her sculptures. Like bodyguards, her towering, humanoid figures give off a feeling of both protection and threat. Through them, Mujinga reveals the uneasy balance between being looked at and remaining invisible.0ßlo,