Onyeka Igwe Exhibition: No Archive Can Restore this Chorus of (Diasporic) Shame

This exhibition features the work of Onyeka Igwe, whose practice delves into colonial archives through embodied and rebellious research. Her films and installations engage with the absences and silences within archival material, using performance, voice, and soundscapes to reveal the political charge of seemingly inert media.

Onyeka Igwe's practice is deeply engaged with the sediments of colonial archives, employing a research methodology that is both embodied and rebellious. Rather than merely using archival material, her films and installations converse with it, highlighting its absences and giving voice to its silences. Through performance, vocalization, and intricate soundscapes, Igwe revitalizes the political resonance of what is often considered inanimate media—such as celluloid rolls, bureaucratic film footage, and field recordings. Her work thrives on the tension between what is documented and what is discarded, making the archive tremble under the weight of what it threatens to reveal. In this way, she reframes historiography not as a linear retelling, but as a sensory and contested terrain where colonial violence remains active, merely shifting its locus. Igwes art resists easy resolution, staging encounters with the archive as spaces of discomfort where knowledge is felt to be physically unstable and relational. Her installations, characterized by visual restraint and sonic richness, render visible the affective and spatial architectures of imperial power while simultaneously signaling their decline. Movement—of the camera, of the breath, of the voice—is crucial, unsettling the supposed solidity of historical truth and opening up a space for alternatives: opacity, speculation, and testimony that does not seek possession. For Igwe, research becomes an ethical and poetic practice, one that does not aim to master the past but rather to seek a careful approach to its remnants.

Information regarding tickets for the exhibition can be found via the provided link. A selection of Onyeka Igwe's films will be shown in cooperation with Secession at the Österreichisches Filmmuseum on May 29, 2026, at 8:30 PM, with separate ticketing likely managed by the Filmmuseum or the Vienna Shorts festival. Visitors are directed to the Secession's ticketing portal for general exhibition admission details not specified here. General museum opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM, with the museum being closed on Mondays. The exhibition is scheduled from June 12 to August 30, 2026. No pricing or specific booking requirements for the main exhibition are detailed on this page; visitors should consult the official ticketing link for comprehensive information. A related film screening event is mentioned with specific date and time details at the Austrian Film Museum.