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This exhibition was previously held in Sharjah in the autumn of 2023 under the title "Time Intertwined / Deep Waters". The current presentation at MUDAM has been re-envisioned to reflect the social and cultural dynamics of Luxembourg, a country known for its diverse migrant community and shifting identities.
The exhibit showcases over ten years of collaboration between Lubaina Himid (born 1954, Zanzibar), an influential British painter and a leading figure in the British Black Arts Movement, and Magda Stawarska (born 1976, Ruda Śląska, Poland), a multidisciplinary artist who works across moving images, sound, and screen printing.
"Himid and Stawarska designed "Nets of Night and Day" as a performative installation that unfolds like a musical composition. The exhibition integrates multiple media, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, silkscreen prints, photography, and sound works, inviting visitors to experience a total immersion into the artists' world. The exhibition features more than 50 works produced since the late 1990s, encouraging the audience to embark on a journey through ships, carriages, and dreamlike realms that reflect the artists' creative visions.
Through a complex interaction between memory, colour, sound, and motion, the exhibition aims to reconstruct both lived and recalled experiences, evoking emotions tied to nostalgia, belonging, loss, and the power of memory in reviving history and identity. One notable piece, "Zanzibar" (1999–2023), includes a series of nine double paintings by Himid that depict both real and imagined journeys to and from Zanzibar, accompanied by a soundscape by Stawarska that alternates between male and female voices, evoking memories and sorrow.
The exhibition delves into the significant issue of migration and movement, presenting it through screen prints and paintings of ships and boats. These boats, depicted as vibrant and dynamic objects, symbolise diverse human experiences, industries, and intertwined histories. They reflect a wide array of human experiences, including travel, work, refuge, and tragedy.
Himid explains:
"The inclusion of boats in this narrative is essential. They're not just modes of transport, but workspaces, rescue platforms, temporary homes, and spaces of entertainment. Boats also carry deep associations with tragedy, suffering, and loss. Some see them as sanctuaries; others escape from them. For me, they represent mobile, temporary homes."
Visitors are invited to engage with the works in an immersive environment, experiencing both real and imagined narratives of migration, whether due to forced displacement, professional movement, or artistic exploration.
Lubaina Himid, an artist, curator, and educator, has carved out a distinctive path in art, challenging the limits of figurative painting while expanding its potential. She initially trained in theatre design and cultural history, later developing a deep interest in opera and offering a new perspective on a traditionally male-dominated field of painting.
Her work brings to life imagined figures, depicted in everyday objects such as carriages, drawers, doors, or interior and maritime scenes, drawing the viewer into hidden worlds and people often overlooked in historical narratives. As one of the most influential figures in the British Black Arts Movement, Himid’s diverse practice, including painting, installations, exhibitions, sound, and writing, reclaims the contributions of the African diaspora, presenting an innovative artistic voice that challenges historical erasure and redefines collective cultural memory.
For nearly two decades, Polish-born artist Magda Stawarska, based in the UK, has focused on exploring the thresholds of memory, historical forms, and active listening experiences. She incorporates sound, performance, moving images, photography, painting, and printmaking to reveal forgotten and contested histories through her practice based on "inner listening."
Stawarska often begins her art-making process by exploring cities and navigating streets freely, much like a wanderer moving effortlessly between locations. This process allows her to uncover a harmonious musical mark that reveals the complex urban topography. These scenes become the foundation for a unique linguistic form, connected to the realm of evoked imaginations. Stawarska, along with her carefully selected collaborators, dismantles layers of the sonic landscape, using language and personal reflection to create installations that evoke vibrant emotions.
The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM Luxembourg) houses some of the most significant works of contemporary art, making them part of its permanent collection. Through its exhibitions, publications, and artistic and educational programs, the museum fosters research and dialogue, focusing on the ever-changing nature of art and society. MUDAM seeks to be a leading institution in contemporary art, embodying excellence across artistic, architectural, and cultural fields.
MUDAM collaborates with artists and cultural producers from around the world, offering a program characterised by diversity, experimentation, and transcending geographical and disciplinary boundaries. The museum, inspired by both ancient and contemporary art, aims to present a vision of the modern world that enriches both thought and emotion. It encourages the establishment of new connections between ideas, individuals, communities, generations, and narratives.
The museum is committed to supporting creativity, pluralism, and cultural participation for all. Situated in the heart of Europe, much like Luxembourg itself, MUDAM has an open vision of the world, contributing to building a more inclusive, tolerant, and responsible world. It plays a crucial role in preserving and transmitting cultural heritage for future generations.
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