South African artist Igshaan Adams presents 'Unsettling Dust: The Body’s Archive' at the Guggenheim Bilbao, an immersive exhibition that merges weaving, choreography, sculpture, and social history. The show features monumental woven tapestries derived from collaborative dance performances between South African and Greek dancers in Athens, transforming the gallery into a living archive of movement and memory. On view from 5 May to 1 November 2026, it is part of the museum's in situ series.
The exhibition matters because it positions weaving as a communal act of healing and repair, using textile art to explore how histories of race, religion, sexuality, and displacement are inscribed on the body and built environment. Adams, raised in a community shaped by apartheid's spatial violence, offers a powerful model for translating collective movement into material form, expanding the boundaries of contemporary art and social history.