Large-scale tapestries capture the ghost-like imprints of collective dance, weaving South African history into monumental textile abstractions.
Look closely at the clouds floating near the tapestries; these small, woven fragments are meant to represent the dust kicked up during a dance, turning a momentary physical reaction into a tangible sculpture.
Move around the works rather than viewing them frontally. Adams’ textiles hold traces of bodies, gestures and domestic patterns, so the exhibition changes as your own body moves through it.
Inside the exhibition
Igshaan Adams transforms the humble textures of his childhood in apartheid-era South Africa—linoleum patterns and frayed ropes—into profound meditations on identity and movement. By translating the physical energy of dancers into monotypes and large-scale weavings, he creates an archive of the body that feels both fragile and resilient.
You're watching a forest of suspended tapestries that invite you to wander between their textured surfaces. Light catches the curves of woven clouds and the intricate details of beads and wire, while the scale of the hangings creates an immersive landscape where the memory of a performance feels permanently etched into the fabric.
The exhibition presents a site-specific project by Igshaan Adams, a Cape Town-born multidisciplinary artist whose work moves between weaving, sculpture and installation.
Worth travelling for?
What makes the Bilbao presentation distinctive is its relationship with space. Shown in Galleries 204 and 208, the suspended works invite visitors to move between woven surfaces, fragments and shadows. The result is not simply textile as object, but textile as a record of memory, displacement, repair and shared movement.
Experience as an Artlover
Take your time navigating the narrow gaps between the hanging works, noticing how the light changes as you move. After absorbing the physical weight of Adams' history, walk out onto the Nervión riverbank to watch the shifting reflections on the museum's titanium skin, letting the city's own industrial past resonate with the artist's exploration of memory.
in situ: Igshaan Adams. Unsettling Dust: The Body’s Archive
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