上海外滩美术馆 Rockbund Art Museum

“（在潮汐里）困于流动中”是艺术家约塔·蒙巴萨（1991年生于纳塔尔）的首场亚洲机构个展。展览标题与概念源于艺术家2023年撰写的同名文章，并将会以一场从人类中心集体意识进化成由行星运动所指引的‘地理情感观’的实验歌剧的形式在美术馆展开。作品的核心是一段浩劫余波中开始的故事，围绕着一群以 “她”（一位以地质与声音形态存在着、不属于这个星球的外来者）为中心的角色们，随之为伴的还有“齐唱团”（一群哀悼者）和“风”（声音与物质元素的承载者）——这三者在作品的框架内构成了一种关系生态，在超越人类范式的语境中协商与探讨着悲伤、归属感与非归属等概念。

蒙巴萨现生活与工作于葡萄牙与巴西之间，其创作跨越雕塑、声音、装置、表演、诗歌及批判性写作等多种形式。在这些艺术实践中，文字不仅仅作为语言，而是以一种能量通过嘈杂、多声部及低频震动动摇人类中心主义的感知与认知方式。本次展览汇集了一件沉浸式雕塑歌剧，以及相关笔记、乐谱与研究资料，也调用了巴西北部和东北部的民间建筑技艺，指向由种族化与被压迫社区历史塑造的居住形式与关系模式。通过这一实践，“（在潮汐里）困于流动中”提出一种以行星节律、精神共鸣及反殖民抵抗为基础的共存伦理，邀请观众倾听、停留，并忘却人类认知的界限。

“约塔·蒙巴萨：（在潮汐里）困于流动中”是一场分为四个部分的非线形歌剧，该项目由艺术家约塔·蒙巴萨与上海外滩美术馆、伯尔尼美术馆、2026年阿纳姆松斯贝克户外雕塑展、以及布鲁马迪纽因赫泰姆当代艺术中心共同长期对话中产生创作，在上海外滩美术馆的展览由馆长兼首席策展人朱筱蕤（X Zhu-Nowell）策划，助理策展人及研究员王馨茹提供支持。

RAM will present works by Natal- and Almada-based Brazilian artist Jota Mombaça. Titled stuck in movement (in the tide), the exhibition is developed from Mombaça’s 2023 text of the same title and unfolds as a raw, fragmented opera that traces a transition from human-centered consciousness toward entangled geo-emotional sensibilities guided by planetary movement. Set in the aftermath of catastrophe, the work follows a cast of characters centered around She (the planet’s foreigner)—a geological, sonic figure—alongside the Choir, an assembly of grievers, and Wind, an elemental carrier of sound and matter. Together, these entities form a relational ecology in which grief, belonging, and un-belonging are negotiated beyond the human paradigm.

Living and working between Portugal and Brazil, Mombaça moves across sculpture, sound, installation, performance, poetry, and critical writing. Across these forms, words operate not only as language, but as force—resonating through cacophony, polyphony, and low frequencies to unsettle anthropocentric ways of sensing and knowing the world. This exhibition brings together an immersive sculptural opera with notes, scores, and studies. Drawing on vernacular building techniques from north and north-eastern Brazil, it gestures toward forms of dwelling and relationality historically shaped by racialized and subjugated communities. In doing so, stuck in movement (in the tide) proposes an ethics of co-existence grounded in planetary rhythms, spiritual attunement, and anti-colonial refusal—inviting viewers to listen, linger, and unlearn the limits of the human.

stuck in movement (in the tide) is one of four chapters of a non-chronological opera series produced in conversation between the artist and Rockbund Art Museum, Kunsthalle Bern, Sonsbeek 2026, and Inhotim. At the Rockbund Art Museum, Jota Mombaça: stuck in movement (in the tide) is curated by X Zhu-Nowell, Executive Director and Chief Curator, with the support of Karen Wang, Assistant Curator and Researcher.