NEWS
ALTER Exhibition from November 18 to 22, 2026
Opening Wednesday, November 18, from 6 p.m.
Espace Temple 139 rue du Temple Paris 03
Hang’Art Africa brings together two painters: Deadend Rasputin, whose very alias is a dual entity, straddling fiction and reality, explores the trials that shape our lives. He presents *Velvet Town*, a series of oil paintings born from a trip to New York in the winter of 2025; it serves as an introspection on wandering and solitude.
Then there is Mucyo, who paints “without paint”: using bleach, he burns the canvas to draw out light, revealing elements that, though originating from the outside, have become internal: heritage, ancestors, dreams, and a living memory in constant metamorphosis.
In resonance with this, SUNclub, the brand created by designer Nino Minzon, serves as a reminder that being oneself means becoming one’s own light: be your sun… be yourself.
Alter is the other.
Alter is an alternative.
Alter is the other self.
Alter is plural.
Being is not a fixed state; it is a perpetual evolution.
Alter, or the self in motion
Derived from the Latin *alter*—meaning “the other”—the term encompasses the concept of the *alter ego*: a double that is simultaneously like us and beyond our grasp. *Alter* stems from a simple yet dizzying intuition: we are never entirely ourselves. The very moment we believe we have captured or understood who we are, we have already become the “other” of the next instant. These constant transformations are the result of countless trials, encounters, exiles, losses, and an infinite sum of legacies—all of which contribute to the construction of our identities.
Being oneself is a transition, a continuous movement toward the “other”: the self of days past becomes the “other” of the present, while the self of tomorrow is already taking root. These reflections form the seed of a project conceived by Hang’Art Africa, which sought to bring together two painters: Deadend Rasputin and Mucyo.
The Thread of Light.
The work of these three artists converges on a single physical and optical element: light. Whether it embellishes or permeates the canvases of Deadend Rasputin, erupts from the bleach-treated surfaces of Mucyo, or embodies the very idea of the sun in the work of SUNclub, light functions as a medium in its own right. Its inherent immateriality and abstraction dissolve, becoming a revelation that transcends its own boundaries. Light renders things visible; it embodies the transition from one state to another.
Hang’Art Africa: The Soul of an Encounter
Hang’Art Africa is a nomadic artistic agency dedicated to contemporary art. We have no fixed space—only visions shaped by the encounters we experience along the way.
The exhibition *Alter* was born from this approach; it is the fruit of enduring loyalty and the friendships that have blossomed from it. In Deadend Rasputin and Mucyo, we recognized a rare authenticity—one that shines even more brightly than the sheer power and embodiment of their talent. Driven by this same standard of excellence, we were also drawn to Nino Minzon and his brand, SUNclub. All three are creators in motion—never static, but constantly propelled by external forces in which we, too, believe. It is through these perpetual movements—both physical and spiritual—that we come to discover ourselves, and to discover ourselves as someone *other*.
Deadend Rasputin: Crossing Through the Night
His alias is, in effect, an alter ego. Deadend—a comic-book anti-hero with an uncanny knack for luck—and Rasputin—a historical figure who has transcended reality to become something of a legend—coexist within a dual identity that drifts between fiction and fact. His work delves into the intimate, exploring themes of mental health, doubt, loss, and aimless wandering—all experiences that test us and, in turn, transform us.
The *Velvet Town* series of paintings emerged from a trip to New York in the winter of 2025—a journey conceived as an opportunity to get lost, to unlearn, and to embrace solitude to the point of losing one’s bearings. Comprising five oil-on-canvas works, the series depicts a nocturnal cityscape inhabited by solitary, almost spectral figures. While figurative, they are not realistic; they exist in a state of flux—part sketch, part sculpture, part illustration—set against architectural forms defined by lines and angles that never quite manage to absorb them. The color palette, deliberately limited to just three hues, evokes the night without ever rendering it cold. Painted against a window, the works captured the city’s light through the glass as they were being created. The artist extends this exploration through a lighting system integrated into the frame, allowing the light to break free from the two-dimensional plane of the canvas and assert itself within the surrounding space.
Mucyo: light through subtraction
Mucyo creates his work using a technique and language uniquely his own: the bleaching of textiles. Where painting adds layers, Mucyo strips them away. His creative process involves the use of bleach to burn the fabric and erode its pigment; it is from this chemical reaction—which results in an apparent loss—that faces, bodies, and light emerge. This act of subtraction evokes techniques found in printmaking, photography, and painting alike.
His work explores the self by examining what precedes, grounds, and inspires it: ancestors, culture, heritage, childhood, and dreams. In pieces such as *Héritage*, *Enfance*, *Poussières d’étoiles*, *Nebula*, or *Flamme*, figures emerge from dark, sepia-toned backgrounds—much like a memory revealing itself—punctuated by golden forms, celestial bodies, halos, or inherited symbols. The textile, which carries the gestures and narratives of the past, serves as both a medium and a site for dialogue between the traditional and the contemporary; it remains in a state of constant metamorphosis, entirely free from any form of stagnation.
SUNclub: becoming your own light
The exhibition invites you to discover SUNclub, a brand founded by Nino Minzon—a young designer who draws inspiration from a generation in search of itself, a generation that puts itself on display and asserts its identity through stylized faces, phone screens, and message bubbles featured on his T-shirts.
His guiding principle, “Be your sun,” resonates like a luminous echo of the concept of “Alter”: to be yourself is to become your own light. Be your sun.
Creative Talks Kigali Event
Edition 1 – September 10, 11 and 12, 2026
CREATING ART. STRUCTURING FUTURES.
For its very first edition, Creative Talks lands in Kigali; three days where art stops being a solitary act and becomes a conversation.
Here, no stage and no audience. Just artists facing other artists.
Each invited name, coming from Lagos, New York, Seoul, Nairobi, or beyond, meets a Rwandan artist, and together they build their session from the ground up. Two practices, two stories, one shared moment.
Fashion, painting, photography, dance, performance, digital.
Six worlds, three days, one belief: what we know grows stronger when we pass it on.
This is where it begins.
De Tebogo Raymon MAHLANGU
Tebogo Raymond Mahlangu is a graduate from Tshwane University of Technology,he studied Performing Arts Technology specializing in Prosthetic Make-Up and Costume Design. He grew up in Pretoria where he has lived his whole life. He works as a freelance wardrobe assistant, and he is now a full-time writer. He has written a musical play by the name of Kutu: The Story of the Khoi-Khoiand San which was staged at the South African State Theatre in 2016.
KOREEN ACCOUNTANTS
Pumla is a thirty-seven-year-old woman who works for Thando Tshabalala’s cleaning company. Thando Tshabalala is the daughter of Charmaine Tshabalala who is a member of parliament. One day Pumla and her colleagues were cleaning at Koreen Accountants when six men carrying guns invaded the building.
The incident left Pumla traumatized so that is when she changes her approach to life even marrying someone else after her divorce to Clement. Meanwhile the other two partners decide to fire Moses from the company after they found out he was being dishonest with his audits. One of the two partners that are left Tshepo decides to take an early retirement after realizing that there is more to life than having a thriving career. Pumla gets proposed to again by her crush who lives not so far from her house. The corrupt partner Moses who got fired from KoreenAccountants starts his own firm with his wife Brenda as a partner. He secures his first client and things start to move at his firm. The partner that left the firm Tshepo decides to focus on his social life after he retired, that is when he meets a girl. The girl’s name is Phindile, they go on an adventure that brings them close. That is when they agree to be officially in a romantic relationship whilst Phindile’s divorce is still pending.
The ex-husband Leroy after realising that Phindile has seemingly moved on decides to finalise their divorce.
Vusimuzi and Pumla are now at their new marital home with their combined five children ready to start their new life together. They experience problems but the biggest one of them all is that Vusimuzi wants children while he’s new wife doesn’t. Now they need to manage how this new family dynamic will operate. End of part one.
MUCYO is part of the
Ode To Diversity exhibition
OPENING THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2025 from 6 p.m.
From April 8 to 18, 2025 at galerie Kiff & Marais – 17 Rue des Gravilliers, 75003 Paris
Deadend is a part of the exposition INTERACTION at The Holy Art Gallery - London
Opening October 20th to 7:30 pm
Exhibition from October 20 to 30, 2023
ANTIHEROS Multidisciplinary exhibition by AOKIGAHARA
EST Gallery – from 04 to 08 January
Photographic exhibition MUZUNGU TRIBES
by Teddy Mazina
One of the Matter Art Project guest exhibition
From May 21 to June 22, 2022
In the OFF of Dak’Art Biennal 2022
MUCYO
To discover during the SHADOWING exhibition of the Biennale des Arts de Dakar 2022.
– Exhibition of paintings from May 19 to June 02, 2022
– Presentation of 2 works during the Youssoupha concert
– Live artistic performance during the Gala Noir Concept x
