Contemporânea

My Center is Not in the Solar System
Contemporânea Performance Programme 2026

Missa Utica is a new chapter in Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues, a long-term project by Sammy Baloji that brings together several years of artistic research and production. The work engages with a wide range of Congolese objects collected in Europe over the past five centuries and now held in museum collections. Following earlier chapters in Florence, Paris, and other key cities in the history of the Kongo, this chapter takes the artist to Utica, in Tunisia. There, in the 16th century, the first African bishop was appointed, marking a period of intense exchange between Christian Europe—particularly Portugal—and the Kingdom of Kongo. In Missa Utica, historical research provides the foundation for an interdisciplinary work that brings together a poetic text by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, a musical composition by Pytshens Kambilo and Barbara Drazkov, a performance by Bwanga Pilipili, and a scenographic installation by Sammy Baloji. These elements unfold in continuous dialogue, resulting in a hybrid work that operates between concert, installation, and performance.

Sammy Baloji

CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian

Inspired by the words of the Lebanese artist and poet Etel Adnan, whose work reflects on conflict, migration, exile, and hybrid identities, and invoking a geological timeframe beyond the human scale, My Center is Not in the Solar System lends its title to this performance programme curated by Alexandra Balona. The programme forms part of Contemporânea’s broader project On Hybridity and The Poetics of Resistance, under the artistic direction of Celina Brás.

My Center is Not in the Solar System brings together performances by Sammy Baloji, Ali Cherri, Noor Abed, Shahd Wadi, Ana Isabel Castro, and Marcelo Reis, tracing a route from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean across a fluid territory connecting Europe, West Asia, and North Africa. This territory is approached not merely as a shared geography, but as a relational field shaped by differing regimes of power, mobility, and visibility. The programme seeks to challenge Eurocentric historicities and hegemonic, colonial narratives, examining the erosion of ideological and geopolitical borders while proposing, through performance, alternative temporalities attentive to mutability, impermanence, and the limits of perception.

The programme unfolds in three parts. The first takes place on 19 September at the Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre, presenting Missa Utica (2024) by Congolese artist Sammy Baloji. Drawing on a Latin-Congolese mass, the work revisits the history of slavery and the evangelisation of the Congo by the Portuguese. The second part takes place on 3 October at the São João National Theatre, with Palestinian artist Shahd Wadi's I Killed the Bird (2026). This is followed by Nothing Will Remain Other than the Thorn Lodged in the Throat of this World (2025), a performance by Palestinian artist Noor Abed in collaboration with Lebanese artist Haig Aivazian. Combining sound, text, and voice, it transforms the body into a site of resonance, resistance, and memory. Lebanese artist Ali Cherri also presents The Book of Mud (2025), a performance rooted in a fascination with mud as both material and metaphor. Exploring mud as a symbol of the continuous transformations that shape nature and history alike, the work proposes a reflection on power, geology, and memory. The evening concludes with a moment of celebration and conviviality.

The third and final part takes place on 10 October at Rampa, presenting performances by Portuguese artists Marcelo Reis and Ana Isabel Castro.

My Center is Not in the Solar System 
Contemporânea Performance Programme, 2026

Centro de Arte Moderna, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Saturday, 19 September
8:00 pm — Sammy Baloji, Missa Utica (2024)

Mosteiro de São Bento da Vitória, Porto
Saturday, 3 October
4:00 pm — Opening
4:30 pm — Shahd Wadi with James Newitt, I Killed the Bird (2026)
5:30 pm — Noor Abed and Haig Aivazian, Nothing Will Remain Other than the Thorn Lodged in the Throat of this World (2025)
6:30 pm — Ali Cherri, The Book of Mud (2025)

Rampa, Porto
Saturday, 10 October
3:00 pm-7:00 pm — Ana Isabel Castro, street tease (2026)
7:00 pm — Marcelo Reis, Barragem dos Minutos (2026)