“Bending the Arrow of Time into a Circle” is a solo exhibition by the artist collective Black Quantum Futurism at Kunstverein Nürnberg — Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft. In their work, artists Rasheedah Phillips and Camae Ayewa combine theory, poetry, music, and visual art with social engagement. Using Afrofuturist approaches, they create safe spaces for dialogue and visions centered on community, sustainability, and resilience. Through critical engagement with colonialism and racism, they imagine alternative futures in which marginalized communities can autonomously shape and connect technological, cultural, and social processes. Black Quantum Futurism fundamentally challenges the western concept of linear time and its demands for efficiency and productivity. Drawing on quantum physics, they dissolve the sequential structure of past, present, and future in favor of the simultaneity of various cyclical and subjective temporalities. Accordingly, “Bending the Arrow of Time into a Circle” explores different connections between time and space. Using locallysourced mirrors, plants, radios, clocks, fountains, as well as new sound and video works by Black Quantum Futurism, four zones in the exhibition allow for diverse experiences of perceiving time and interaction.
Beyond the institutional space, the project extends into the surrounding urban space and enters into dialogue with the Kunstverein Nürnberg’s neighborhood. In proximity to the nearby Norikus housing complex, home to around 2,500 residents, an outdoor sculpture will be installed to create a new communal meeting point. The experiences, memories, and thoughts of the residents will be integrated alongside contributions from invited guests. Referencing Leon Howard Sullivan (1922–2001), a U.S. pastor and activist involved in the civil rights movement and founder of Progress Aerospace Enterprises in 1968—the first Blackowned aerospace agency—the work in Nürnberg is also associated with a prominent figure in the struggle for justice and visibility.
In addition to the exhibition, two musical installations will take place in the Kunstverein foyer on May 24 and 25, featuring Camae Ayewa a.k.a. Moor Mother and artists/musicians Farida Amadou, Jon-Carlos Evans, Dudù Kouate, Aquiles Navarro, Alya Al-Sultani, and Simon Sieger.
Since its founding in 2014, Black Quantum Futurism has presented exhibitions and community or music projects internationally, including at Bergen Kunsthall (Bergen, 2017), MoMA PS1 (New York City, 2017), the Serpentine Gallery (London, 2017), Manifesta 13 (Marseille, 2020), and documenta fifteen (Kassel, 2022). Currently, a year-long program by the collective is being shown at Performance Space in New York City. In 2024, Camae Ayewa published her “American Equations in Black Classical Music,” followed in 2025 by Rasheedah Phillips’s book “Dismantling the Master’s Clock.”
The exhibition and the musical installations “Bending the Arrow of Time into a Circle” are produced in collaboration with Musik Installationen Nürnberg.
Curators: Marie-Therese Bruglacher, Nele Kaczmarek
Assistant Curator: Leonie Schmiese
Art Education: Anna Hofmann
