As the child of Angolan and Cape Verdean parents, the painter Francisco Vidal has assembled his repertoire around the diasporic experience of mixed realities, fragmented identities, and cultural exchange. His iconic works consist of large-scale paintings, revealing a vibrant mix of influences that include Cubism, African wax-print methodologies, and 1980s hip-hop and graffiti culture, while figuratively referring to the histories and continuities of colonialism and those that have contested it. In these efforts, Vidal grounds his practice in the service of liberation, his methods often taken from street cultures of his respective homes in Luanda and Afro-communities of New York and Lisbon. The artworks sprawl across walls and floors, refusing to be contained within traditional exhibition architectures, and oftentimes are based on what the artist calls ‘utopian pedagogy’. For Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations, Vidal returns to his practice of art in public space, with a new work reminiscent of commemorative posters and political graffiti. The mural is a new commission depicting 48 people involved in the struggle for peace and freedom in Angola. The portraits stretch over time to include Queen Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba, famous for resisting the Portuguese invaders and leading Indigenous armies into battle at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Through this work, the notion of the Tirailleurs as freedom fighters is once again shifted, beyond the francophone West African terrain to connect these struggles to the Portuguese-speaking countries still fighting for a better version of freedom. 

Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Francisco Vidal and HKW, 2025

Work in the exhibition: didactic drawings for a future reading, thoughts about slavery and freedom (2025), 48 posters, wallpaper, each 62.5 × 50 cm. Courtesy of the specials13