Konstantina Birrung Ngura | Belonging to Country Appartenir à la terre
Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob · Paris· free
until Sep 19
The gallery Arts d'Australie • Stéphane Jacob is pleased to invite you to the third monographic exhibition « Konstantina | Birrung Ngura - Appartenir à la Terre » from June 04, 2026 to September 19, 2026.
The gallery Arts d'Australie • Stéphane Jacob is pleased to present Konstantina | Birrung Ngura – Belonging to Country, Appartenir à la terre, a monographic exhibition dedicated to the Aboriginal artist Konstantina, a Gadigal woman of the Eora nation. Through her work, Konstantina reveals the intimate and living relationship that her people maintain with the land, a territory that stretches from the current Sydney Opera House to South Head and Watsons Bay. Her works convey both ancestral memory and a contemporary reading of the landscape, highlighting the continuity and reinvention of ancestral knowledge.
FOREWORD TO THE EXHIBITION
Through her artistic practice, Konstantina explores the intimate and enduring bond between Aboriginal peoples and their territory, revealing the continuity, renewal and cultural resilience of ancestral knowledge.
Her contemporary visual language reinterprets the traditional signs and dot-painting of her ancestors, offering a modern narrative that helps to better understand that First Nations peoples are an integral part of Australia's social and environmental fabric. Guided by a deep commitment to language, culture and history, Konstantina restores narratives often obscured or disrupted by colonization, offering a living and poetic reading of Gadigal stories and establishing a dialogue between memory, tradition and the representation of the modern world.
Konstantina is currently collaborating with the British Museum on a research project dedicated to Gadigal objects held in its collections. This work will lead to an exhibition planned for 2027 in London, titled Gadigal Yilabara Wala - Gadigal Now and Then. This research also nourishes her practice and inspires certain series presented in the gallery's exhibition.
The title of the exhibition directly refers to the profound relationship that Aboriginal peoples maintain with their territory. In the Gadigal language, Ngura means the country, the land that nourishes and sustains life, and Birrung evokes the feeling of belonging and spiritual connection to place.
Together, these terms express the idea that the connection to country goes beyond mere geography: it is fundamental to identity, culture and collective memory. The exhibition thus invites the visitor to perceive the territory not only as a physical space, but as a living system of knowledge, stories and cultural practices passed down from generation to generation.
Konstantina | Birrung Ngura – Belonging to Country thus invites the visitor to understand the strength and depth of the Gadigal's bond with their territory, the continuity of ancestral knowledge and the vitality of contemporary Aboriginal cultural expression. Through these works, the artist celebrates memory, resilience and identity, and reminds us that the country, its histories and its stories are an integral part of Australia's life and social fabric.