Bianca Baldi
Hear her calendar system a year of thirteen months
Hear her calendar system a year of thirteen months is a layered installation that combines video, a wall drawing and a choral composition. At the centre of the work stands a sycamore fig tree (Ficus sycomorus), imagined as a witness to cycles of time, resistance and regeneration. Photographed by Baldi’s grandfather in Ethiopia in 1939, the tree anchors a reflection on colonial memory and imagined futures. The work evokes Ethiopia’s defiance against Italian occupation and its symbolic victory at the Battle of Adwa. A poem by Baldi is given voice through a (recorded) vocal interpretation by Gabi Motuba, allowing the tree to speak through song. The result is a layered meditation on land, lineage and imagined futures, where a tree becomes archive, symbol and voice all at once.
Credits
Film Credits
Vocals: Gabi Motuba
Camera: Keegan Nicol (Lion Mountain Media)
Editing: Liyo Gong and Bianca Baldi
3D Artist: Lukas Archives
Graphic Design: Vlad Boyko
Sound Design: Andrei Van Wyk
Colourist: Maxime Tellier
Filmed in the Timbavati Game Reserve at Tanda Tula Lodge
Supported by the Italian Council program (2025), promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Bianca Baldi (1985, South Africa) lives and works in Brussels. Her work explores the role of narratives as a form of knowledge production in both fictional and historical contexts. She focuses on the staging of identity and history, investigating these themes through photography, film, writing, and publishing, often combining these media into installations. Baldi earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2007 from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, South Africa, and completed her studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Her work has been featured in major international exhibitions such as the African Biennale of Photography (Bamako), the Shanghai Biennale, and the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. She has also participated in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp, Kunstverein Braunschweig, and Kunstverein Frankfurt.