King of Klowns

King of Klowns is a new film about Nástio Mosquito’s practice, directed by Spanish visual artist Vic Pereiró, and specially made for the overview exhibition “King of Klowns” at M HKA ( Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp ). The film embraces the many gestures of Mosquito’s trilogy of musical releases and performances, collectively titled Empowerment of a Generation. Manifested over the last ten years, the latter includes the music album S.E.F.A. (acronym for Se Eu Fosse Angolano: ‘If I was Angolan’) and the related performance of the same title; the album Gatuno Eimigrante & Pai De Família (Immigrant Thief and Family Man) and the related performance Respectable Thief, concluding most recently with the album 0. Mosquito has a particularly emotional relationship to music, and King of Klowns offers a self-deprecating look at what he has created.

E-flux: “King of Klowns (2024), an hour-long stream of images, is shown on flat screens arranged in a circle and surrounded by plastic sunbeds with headphones, like an ambient lounge in a sanatorium. Directed by regular collaborator Vic Pereiró, the video is a tongue-in-cheek portrait of the many facets of Mosquito, including his music and his performances, intertwining his activities with a maelstrom of found footage from around the world. “