The Secession in Vienna, Austria recently held Achievement, an exhibition of work by Cuban artist Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, who lives and works in Havana. The show ran from June 21 - September 8, 2024, and featured an installation, a performance and an intervention by the artist that together delivered a re-imagination of Black History. Achievement was organised by Bettina Spörr, curator, Secession, who joined the artist in an interview with STIR, shedding light on Delahante Matienzo’s representation of Black women and the politics of reconsidering history.

Achievement featured three distinct works by Delahante Matienzo. The first was a series of 70 supposed photographs of Black female subjects, spread throughout various desks and cabinets within a room of the Secession. As the exhibition note tells us, the sitters in these photographs are wearing attire that is commonly associated with women from Europe, during the 16th and 19th centuries, the era of the transatlantic slave trade (around 1526 - 1867). Unusually, the subjects are depicted owning businesses and participating in leisurely social gatherings. Upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that these are computer-generated images, created by the artist with artificial intelligence (AI). The second of Delahante Matienzo’s major works was an art installation that temporarily modified the exhibition hall’s iconic dome, made of nearly 2500 golden ‘leaves’ (giving the dome the moniker ‘golden cabbage’). Delahante Matienzo adorned each leaf with a black sheath, transforming the dome to be reminiscent of the knotted Bantu hairstyle made famous by the Zulu peoples in South Africa. Finally, the artist delivered a spoken-word performance art piece during the opening of the solo exhibition, addressing Black identity and the racial barriers that typify human society.

Delahante Matienzo’s reconception of Black women during the height of the transatlantic slave trade flies in the face of common perceptions around Black history. As the artist mentions in a conversation with Paris-based journalist Adiaratou Diarrassouba, “Black people were not only slaves. They did so many things.” Indeed, there are prevailing stereotypes of Black people in this era that are quite reductive and diminish their achievements and agency. Delahante Matienzo’s images provoke us to reimagine Black women from history

Delahante Matienzo has not only put her female figures in the ‘costumes’ of white women. For me, the power of the work lies in the element of confusion and the process of blurring… – Bettina Spörr, curator, Secession

To Delahante Matienzo, the lifestyle depicted in these faux-photographs was created through the exploitation of her ancestors and therefore, one may extrapolate she is connecting them to a legacy that they had a right to. In her words, “A lot of people died to maintain the few who directly or indirectly benefit from slavery.”

The curator turns our attention to the role of AI in the creation of the artist’s digital art. She notes, “Delahante Matienzo has not only put her female figures in the ‘costumes’ of white women. For me, the power of the work lies in the element of confusion and the process of blurring: We all know that both algorithms and AI software reflect the worldviews and also the prejudices of the people who were involved in the programming. Achievement counters stereotypical ideas with alternatives and counter-images. I see this as a form of ‘correction’; ‘of diversification’.”

Spörr also brings our attention to a critical aspect of reading this body of art, being the dubious nature of historicity itself. As she points out, “History was and is always written by people in positions of power.” She explains that there is a distinct lack of historical records surveying the lives of the artist’s ancestors as a result of colonial oppression. Spörr tells STIR, “Historiography is always individual and does not embody any ‘truth’. Who speaks with what intention? The artist's speculative archive can open our eyes to this…”

Delahante Matienzo’s provocative practice exploring the experiences of Black people is grounded in feminist art and advocates for material reparations. The art exhibition highlights the pressing need for alternative accounts of human history.

‘Achievement’ ran from June 21 - September 8, 2024, at the Secession in Vienna, Austria.