Wangechi Mutu’s “Black Soil Poems” at Galleria Borghese: Where Ancient Marble Meets African Myth

Rome’s Galleria Borghese has long been a sanctuary for classical sculpture and Renaissance mastery. But in a historic first, the museum welcomes a living female artist into its storied halls — Wangechi Mutu, a Kenyan-American visionary whose exhibition Black Soil Poems redefines the relationship between the ancient and the contemporary.

This powerful exhibition blends myth, memory, and material in ways that feel both grounded and otherworldly. Rather than disrupt the museum’s baroque opulence, Mutu’s sculptures — many of which are suspended from the ceiling — gently inhabit the space. Her choice of materials such as bronze, soil, feathers, and wood reflects a return to organic, ancestral roots, creating an interplay between fragility and resilience.

One of the most compelling elements is how her art challenges the Eurocentric lens traditionally seen in spaces like the Galleria. Her figures, often hybrid creatures part-human, part-spirit, seem to whisper untold stories from African folklore and postcolonial memory. They don’t demand attention; they haunt it — reshaping how viewers navigate the space, emotionally and physically.

Outside, in the gardens and on the façade, her bronze sculptures stand sentinel. They echo classical forms like caryatids but carry a distinctly African voice — quiet yet monumental. Mutu’s reinterpretation of feminine forms in these works blurs the lines between beauty, strength, and sacredness.

What sets Black Soil Poems apart is its conceptual richness. The “soil” becomes more than a material — it is a metaphor for origin, memory, and rebirth. By bringing elements of African spirituality and natural cycles into a Roman temple of Western art, Mutu performs a silent but profound act of reclamation.

This exhibition isn’t just about art; it’s about space, time, and identity — who gets to occupy the marble corridors of history and how new stories are rooted in ancient soil. Wangechi Mutu doesn’t merely exhibit art — she plants it, waters it, and watches it grow in places long considered untouchable.