Fifteen International Artists Speak Out Against Censorship in the Group Exhibition we refuse_d

Originally organised by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary, Antwerp is the exhibition’s first and only European stop.

Running parallel with we refuse_d is the exhibition COSMIC BODY — First Incision by Stef Van Looveren (open until May 17). Through a site-specific installation, Van Looveren engages with the architecture and history of the museum. Also on view until 24 May are the collection presentation Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen — 20 Years and More: Works from the Collection and the archive presentation Nueva Visión. Printmaking as an Artistic Practice, 1940–1976.

we refuse_d

Salon des Refusés 2.0

we refuse_d probes a societal climate in which censorship, public attacks and institutional isolation increasingly shape the lives of artists and academics. Since the onset of the genocide in Palestine, this pressure has only intensified. Critical voices are being suppressed, exhibitions cancelled and artworks withheld, consigned to archives rather than audiences. Until now.

For this reason, this exhibition brings together artworks that have been refused elsewhere and are now to be seen by the public. Alongside, there will also be new works featured reflecting on this situation. More than a protest against censorship, we refuse_d is a plea for more openness. In close collaboration with the artists, the curators chose an accessible approach where personal stories merge with questions of belonging, solidarity and the necessity to continue creating.

The title we refuse_d evokes the nineteenth-century Salon des Refusés, a space for artists rejected by official institutions, while also referencing Hannah Arendt's essay We Refugees (1943). She highlights how people in exile hold on to hope and demonstrate resilience despite loss and isolation. In this spirit, the exhibition positions itself as the contemporary salon: a space where refusal is transformed into presence and artistic agency.

we refuse_d is the first in a series of international collaborations embarked upon by M HKA this year. Its partnership with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art aligns with the museum’s Eurasian perspective and underscores M HKA’s commitment to supporting relevant international voices and practices little known in Belgium. Antwerp is the exhibition’s first and only European stop.

15 artists, multiple generations, one shared sense of urgency

The exhibition brings together an intergenerational group of fifteen artists working across diverse media, ranging from internationally renowned figures to emerging voices. Textile, installation, video, photography, sound, text, and archival materials intersect throughout the show, demonstrating how artistic practices continue to evolve even in turbulent times.

we refuse_d was curated by Vasıf Kortun, an influential Turkish curator with a prominent role in the international art world, and Nadia Radwan, a researcher whose academic expertise informs her curatorial practice. Together they developed we refuse_d as a discursive exhibition in close dialogue with the participating artists.

Artists featured include Walid Raad, Jumana Manna, Khalil Rabah and Taysir Batniji. Additionally, the exhibition presents work by Emily Jacir, Samia Halaby, DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Research), yasmine eid-sabbagh (with Tabara Korka Ndiaye and Ndeye Debo Seck), Nour Shantout, Majd Abdelhamid, Dima Srouji, Oraib Toukan, Suha Shoman, and Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara. Most have Palestinian backgrounds; and several work from contexts of exile or diaspora.

we refuse_d was realised by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, on the occasion of their 15th anniversary, and presented in collaboration with M HKA.

Five artists spotlighted

Walid Raad, one of the most influential artists of his generation (Documenta 11), presents a new site-specific installation, I Thought I’d Escape My Fate (Again), in collaboration with Belgian designer Pierre Huyghebaert (member of the collective Petticoat Government for the Belgian Pavilion at the 2024 Biennale). The work combines text and graphic elements to elucidate recent examples of censorship systemically embedded in the artistic sphere.

Jumana Manna, whose recent exhibition at the German Heidelberger Kunstverein was cancelled, presents work in which collective history, the body and political repression converge. Her installation Your Time Passes And Mine Has No Ends, handmade flags with quotes from Palestinian political prisoners, will be shown alongside her docufiction film Foragers on the practice of foraging for edible plants in Palestine/Israel.

Khalil Rabah presents recent and partly new work, exploring the motif of the olive tree as a symbol of rootedness, continuity and loss. Drawings and marble engravings in Evidence, for instance, refer to the systematic destruction of olive trees in Palestinian territories and raise questions about heritage, nature and political power.

Taysir Batniji, born in Gaza and now in exile in France, presents a series of works centered on house keys: fragile objects symbolizing loss, memory, and the longing for a home or even simply a house. His life-size glass keys carry personal stories of displacement and shared experiences. He also presents Homeless Colors, a series of drawings using found crayons, ballpoint pens, and markers that meditate on trauma and collective grief.

DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Research), the international artist-research collective, presents a site-specific installation revealing mechanisms of exclusion and censorship in urban and cultural spaces. Through signs, maps, and spatial interventions, DAAR examines how design and planning can enforce control, while demonstrating how communities and artists can question and reimagine these structures.

Also in M HKA

IN SITU
​Stef Van Looveren: COSMIC BODY — First Incision ​
​until May 17, 2026

Parallel to we refuse_d, M HKA presents COSMIC BODY — First Incision by Stef Van Looveren. Through a site-specific installation the artist responds to the museum’s architecture and history. Central to Van Looveren’s installation are three sound-producing sculptures evoking organs, eggs, seeds, and clocks. The project treats the museum space as a place simultaneously embodying temple, body and laboratory. Materials melt, merge and reflect, showing how change can be a ritual and physical experience. This exhibition is part of M HKA’s ongoing commitment to fostering artistic experimentation and new productions.

COLLECTION
​Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen — 20 Years and More: Works from the Collection
​until May 24, 2026

Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen have collaborated as an artist duo for over twenty years. Working across sculpture, painting, photography, and installation, they explore how space, reflection, and perception shape the act of looking. This collection presentation brings together early individual works and collaborations, alongside the new installation Landscape (Antwerp) (2026), in which monumental colour fields and reflective structures transform the circular gallery into a dynamic experience shaped by architecture, light, and the viewer.

ARCHIVES
​Nueva Visión. Print as Artistic Practice, 1940–1976
​until May 24, 2026

Designer Jelle Jespers examines graphic design and print in Argentina (1940–1976) as a space for experimenting with form, language, politics, and society. Exchanges with Antwerp played a prominent role: the abstract forms of Georges Vantongerloo inspired Tomás Maldonado, while poet Paul De Vree and artist-publisher Edgardo Antonio Vigo shaped the visual poetry movement. From the 1970s, Jorge Glusberg collaborated with Flor Bex and Antwerp’s ICC (later M HKA). Archival catalogues, magazines, and posters show how graphic design evolved into a professional and artistic discipline. Nueva Visión tells a story of cross-continental exchange, imagination, and visual innovation.

Press contact: