GEMAAL OP ZUID28 nov 2025, SD#03 The Throes/De Naweeën, Spiritual disobedience
Spiritual Disobedience #2 The Throes/De Naweeën: evoking earth’s body by Pelumi Adejumo
The Throes/De Naweeën: evoking earth’s body
Opening: 28 November 2025
public programme: sign up via bit.ly
Locatie: Gemaal op Zuid
The Throes / De naweeën
Gemaal op Zuid proudly presents the exhibition The Throes // De naweeën, in which Pelumi Adejumo explores how Yoruba mythology and culture engage with mourning, mortality, and desire. At the heart of the exhibition lies the myth of Ibeji (the twins), alongside traditional cosmologies and the transmission of knowledge, approached through myths and musical traditions.
This new work is part of Adejumo’s ongoing research in image, sound, and language. As part of this process, she traveled to archives and markets in Lagos in search of books and conversations with people about the suppressed indigenous religion and cosmology Ifa, rituals surrounding birth and death, and the ways in which mythology functions as a balm to speak about the inexplicable or the taboo surpassing the scientific knowledge.
Mythology is seen through different works and materials, appearing in variations across sound works, performance, and photography. For the sound works, Adejumo, in collaboration with Gleb Maiboroda, created two “wombs”: cocoon-like sound installations made of raw wool dyed with onion skins. Visitors are invited to sit inside and become enveloped in sound. Here, fabric, color, and sound are approached as carriers of spirit.
Through public programs, including writing workshops, a shared interest in Yoruba mythological history comes together. Knowledge that is often difficult to access for members of the diaspora is collectively studied and discussed, opening pathways toward new understandings.
At the opening on 28 November, a new performance will be presented, developed in collaboration with performers Serah Doku Meijboom and Maïte Egeolu. This performance retells the myth of the twins Ibeyi in a new form: one twin has left the physical earth early but remains in contact with the other. What begins innocently evolves into a turbulent dynamic, as the deceased twin attempts to draw the living one into the spirit world. The performance reappears in the exhibition as a video work.
The exhibition The Throes // De naweeën will run until mid February 2026.
Join us for the opening The Throes/De Naweeën
As the third chapter of the exhibition series Spiritual Disobedience: parallel portals of crossing curated by Yusser al Obaidi and Leana Boven.
For more info about the public programs in January 2026 please check and sign up via this link:
bit.ly
Opening: 28 November 2025
public programme: sign up via bit.ly
Locatie: Gemaal op Zuid
The Throes / De naweeën
Gemaal op Zuid proudly presents the exhibition The Throes // De naweeën, in which Pelumi Adejumo explores how Yoruba mythology and culture engage with mourning, mortality, and desire. At the heart of the exhibition lies the myth of Ibeji (the twins), alongside traditional cosmologies and the transmission of knowledge, approached through myths and musical traditions.
This new work is part of Adejumo’s ongoing research in image, sound, and language. As part of this process, she traveled to archives and markets in Lagos in search of books and conversations with people about the suppressed indigenous religion and cosmology Ifa, rituals surrounding birth and death, and the ways in which mythology functions as a balm to speak about the inexplicable or the taboo surpassing the scientific knowledge.
Mythology is seen through different works and materials, appearing in variations across sound works, performance, and photography. For the sound works, Adejumo, in collaboration with Gleb Maiboroda, created two “wombs”: cocoon-like sound installations made of raw wool dyed with onion skins. Visitors are invited to sit inside and become enveloped in sound. Here, fabric, color, and sound are approached as carriers of spirit.
Through public programs, including writing workshops, a shared interest in Yoruba mythological history comes together. Knowledge that is often difficult to access for members of the diaspora is collectively studied and discussed, opening pathways toward new understandings.
At the opening on 28 November, a new performance will be presented, developed in collaboration with performers Serah Doku Meijboom and Maïte Egeolu. This performance retells the myth of the twins Ibeyi in a new form: one twin has left the physical earth early but remains in contact with the other. What begins innocently evolves into a turbulent dynamic, as the deceased twin attempts to draw the living one into the spirit world. The performance reappears in the exhibition as a video work.
The exhibition The Throes // De naweeën will run until mid February 2026.
Join us for the opening The Throes/De Naweeën
As the third chapter of the exhibition series Spiritual Disobedience: parallel portals of crossing curated by Yusser al Obaidi and Leana Boven.
For more info about the public programs in January 2026 please check and sign up via this link:
bit.ly
