Finissage weekend: When We See Us
28 August – 30 August
28 August – 30 August
Over the final weekend of When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, we celebrate the closing of the exhibition with a packed programme featuring guided tours, artist talks, DJs and much more. Welcome!
Here you can find the full programme for the finissage weekend. Please note that several of the events have limited capacity and require advance booking.
Finissage Party
Friday 28 August, 5–8 pm
Extended opening hours and free admission. Join us as we round off the exhibition with a festive evening in Blå Porten’s garden, with music and refreshments (we will serve a free drink to the first 200 guests). The When We See Us exhibition will stay open until 8 pm especially for this evening, so take the opportunity to see it if you haven’t had the chance yet—or visit it again if you’ve already been.
Finissage Symposium
Saturday 29 August, 1–5 pm
Marking the conclusion of When We See Us, the symposium brings together artists and curators to consider what a century of Black figuration means within our contemporary times. Curated by Tawanda Appiah, it extends the histories, artistic lineages and conceptual nuances that run through the exhibition. It opens a space for reflection on painting as self-authorship and embodiment, alongside archival memory, ancestral presence and imagined futures. Attending closely to the material and formal qualities of painting, a series of artist talks and curatorial conversations will emphasize how Black artists have shaped and expanded the possibilities of figuration across generations.
Participants: Tawanda Appiah, curator; Ayan Farah, artist; Eric Magassa, artist; Kayo Mpoyi, artist; Heavens Okwuego, guide; Kambui Olujimi, artist; and Joanna Sandell Wright, Director of Liljevalchs.
The symposium will be held in English. It concludes with a DJ-set by Eric Magassa and mingle at café Blå+.
The full programme will be announced shortly.
Limited capacity. Buy your ticket in advance here to make sure you get a spot.
Sunday 30 August, 11 am–5 pm
On the final day of When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, we are offering extra guided tours of the exhibition. The tours will be held by Heavens Okwuego, who joins Liljevalchs from Bozar in Brussels, where the exhibition was presented last year. In English.
12 pm Brief introduction (20 min). Free admission. No advance booking. First come, first served!
2 pm Guided tour (60 min). Limited capacity. Buy your ticket in advance here.
4 pm Brief introduction (20 min). Free admission. No advance booking. First come, first served!
About the exhibition
When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting has been highlighted and acclaimed internationally as one of the most significant exhibitions in contemporary art. The exhibition features over 148 works from institutional and private lenders located across 16 countries, bringing together artworks from the past 100 years, created by Black artists worldwide. The exhibition places these works in dialogue with Black thinkers, writers, and poets active today. When We See Us is the largest exhibition of Black figuration that is underpinned by joy.
The exhibition is conceived and organized by Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA).
Photo: Jean-Baptsite Béranger
