About Generational Muscle Memory
In Generational Muscle Memory (2026), Iriée Zamblé explores how memories, experiences and cultural knowledge are passed down from generation to generation and become embedded in our bodies, our attitudes and our instincts. Drawing on family archives, photography, and painting and drawing techniques, she links personal histories with collective memories of migration and the colonial past, juxtaposing a portrait of her father, who migrated from the Ivory Coast to the Netherlands at the age of 27, with photographs of men at work on Gorée, a historic site associated with the slave trade. In relation to breathing, the work raises the question of who is given the space to breathe freely and whose breathing is restricted. Breathing thus also takes on a political significance, linked to fundamental conditions such as freedom and safety. By making the traces of the past visible, Zamblé connects the physical transmission of memories with the struggle for equality, freedom and the right to take up breathing space, both literally and figuratively.
The works of Iriée Zamblé in The Space Between Breaths:
Gorée (Generational Muscle Memory), 2026
Mixed media on glycée print
118,9 cm x 84,1 cm
Courtesy of the artist
What’s understood ain’t gotta be explained (Generational Muscle Memory), 2026
Mixed media on glycée print
59,4 cm x 84 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Find the arms that can hold you (Generational Muscle Memory), 2026
Mixed media on glycée print
59,4 cm x 84 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Syntax of roots (Generational Muscle Memory), 2026
Mixed media on glycée print
59,4 cm x 84 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Living archive (Generational Muscle Memory), 2026
Mixed media on glycée print
59,4 cm x 84 cm
Courtesy of the artist