Wallen Mapondera : How Do You Even Sleep At Night?

Mitterrand is pleased to present How Do You Even Sleep At Night?, Wallen Mapondera’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, bringing together a new body of paintings that marks a new chapter in the artist’s practice.

Known for a body of work developed from ordinary and repurposed materials — cardboard, paper, textiles and packaging — which he cuts, assembles, weaves and transforms, Wallen Mapondera has long explored the social, economic and political realities of contemporary Zimbabwe. With this new series, the artist extends these concerns through painting, opening up a new territory within his practice.

The exhibition’s title, How Do You Even Sleep At Night?, poses a question that is at once simple and deeply moral: how does one live with the consequences of an action when it complies with the law, yet is experienced as profoundly unjust by those affected by it? This reflection is rooted in part in the realities of informal and cross-border trade in Zimbabwe, which has become an essential means of subsistence for many families. Mapondera draws on an experience that directly affected his own family: the recent seizure by the authorities of goods belonging to his sister, who runs a clothing business.

From this personal event, the artist broadens his reflection to consider mechanisms of power and the individuals responsible for implementing them. He examines the distance that can emerge between an administrative decision and its tangible consequences, as well as the responsibility of those who make, communicate or enforce such decisions.

Without seeking to provide definitive answers, How Do You Even Sleep At Night? explores the sometimes fragile boundary between legality and moral responsibility, between what is permitted and what is right. Through his recent turn to painting, Mapondera gives renewed form to these tensions while continuing his observation of the social realities that shape his environment.