Opening tentoonstelling: Spiritual Disobedience #3 The Throes/De Naweeën: evoking earth’s body by Pelumi Adejumo

Join us for the exhibition opening of Spiritual Disobedience #3 The Throes/De Naweeën: evoking earth’s body by Pelumi Adejumo. Curated by Yusser al Obaidi and Leana Boven. 

Language carries not only meaning, but also history—often burdened, sometimes suppressed. It holds traces of subjugation, religion, loss, but also of resistance, imagination, and healing. As the poet and artist Pelumi Adejumo rediscovers the language of her ancestors, unexplainable grief finds its home in the story of Ibeyi — the sacred twins of Yoruba mythology. Their story promises us a (re)union of spirit and matter, and exposes the myth of Separation. In the upcoming exhibition at Gemaal op Zuid The Throes/De Naweeën Pelumi Adejumo explores how Yoruba mythology and cultural memory engage with grief, mortality, and desire.

A new performance made by Adejumo and performed by Serah Doku Meijboom and Maïté Egeolu, will premiere during the opening on 28 November 2025. It retells the myth of the twins: one moving through hurdles on earth, while the other has passed into the realm of spirit. Although residing in different realms, they remain tethered to one another, leading to a haunting, evolving connection between these two realms. Adejumo asks us: what other-worlds can we access through the stories and myths that have been passed down to us? 

In The Throes/De Naweeën Pelumi Adejumo views mythology as a balm to speak about the unbearable, a language beyond the scientific, rooted in rituals. Through public programs like writing workshops, the exhibition opens up Yoruba mythological history to wider conversation, especially for those in the diaspora seeking reconnection.

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.

Program:

• 18:00 doors open 
• 18:30 word of welcome 
• 19:00 twin dance performed by Serah Doku Meijboom and Maïté Egeolu

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