Yola Balanga

Angola

"Rooted in performance and expanded across multiple media, Yola Balanga’s practice explores spirituality, the body, territory, and memory — often centering the experiences and representations of Black feminine identity. Through gestures, ritual, and presence, she investigates the intersections between the personal and the ancestral, creating poetic spaces where vulnerability and power coexist.

Her work is both intimate and political, offering a sensorial dialogue between body and land, spirit and image — a continuous act of remembering, reclaiming, and reimagining what it means to inhabit one’s own history.
"

MEET

Yola Balanga

Yola Balanga (b. 1994, Luanda) is an Angolan visual artist and transdisciplinary performer whose practice moves fluidly between performance, installation, photography, painting, video, and writing. She began her creative journey in theatre and fashion before earning a degree in Visual and Fine Arts from the University of Luanda.

Currently based in Madrid, she is pursuing a Master’s in Artistic Research and Creation at the Complutense University. In 2022, she was awarded the Prince Claus Seed Award, recognizing her growing impact on contemporary art from the African continent. Her work has been exhibited in Angola, Spain, Nigeria, South Africa, and Brussels.

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