The exhibition opens with three works by Mary Sibande (b. 1982). Born in Baberton, a small town in the northwest of South Africa, the artist has consistently challenged questions of status and identity in the midst of the evolving South African society. Her work stands today as a symbol of resistance against a globalized world of women’s circulation and return to domesticity. Considered one of the most important artists of her generation, Sibande was selected in 2011 to represent South Africa at the Venice Biennale with her show In DESIRE: Ideal Narratives in Contemporary South African Art. Upon entering the gallery space, the monumental sculpture A Reversed Retrogress, Scene 1 immerses the viewer in a reverie. Exhibited in 2017 at The British Museum in the exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation, this sculpture celebrates both the personal and intimate history of Sibande, as much as the universal beauty of the black woman’s body. Sophie – an imaginary character symbolizing strength and resistance – wears a headscarf and an apron representing servitude, which are set in tension with this voluptuous blue dress that refuses her maid status. Sophie faces her own contemporary double, a woman liberated and surrounded by strange creatures reminiscent of amorphous embryos about to be born. I’m a Lady, the second work presented by Mary Sibande is in direct parallel with this sculpture. With this title in the form of affirmation, it portrays Sophie as a noblewoman with calm, yet powerful features, mastering the elements with this hand placed on her dress imitating ocean waves. Contrasting these colors, The Red Shepherd presents an even more radical and contradictory image of Sophie. Both caught in this fire and air saturated with red, making explicit the systematic violence suffered by domestic women, Sophie appears as a shepherdess, borrowing from religious attributes.