SUMMER 2025 AT M HKA
The summer exhibition The Geopolitics of Infrastructure brings together a generation of international artists who investigate the enchantment and power relations of infrastructure. Starting from the invisible fact that geopolitics also shapes artists' conditions of practice, the exhibition explores the potential of artistic imagination in conceptualising alternative models for infrastructure. The exhibition is further activated with a Research Summit, organised by M HKA and Jubilee, in collaboration with CKV and nadine.
There is more experimentation in Özgür Kar's IN SITU exhibition, an immersive installation that invites existential reflection on transience and isolation.
This year we also celebrate visionary artist and engineer of dreams Panamarenko who brought together art and science in a remarkable way. The intimate presentation Journey to the Stars zooms in on Panamarenko's fascination with the cosmos and the search for ways to navigate through the universe.
The Antwerp scene is further explored with an archive presentation around King Kong, a cultural centre where film, debate and activism came together in the late seventies and early eighties.
Finally, with The Situation Is Fluid, the M HKA presents a renewed, concentrated collection presentation that shows some thirty top works by Flemish artists, both artists who live and work here (past or present), and artists who have a relationship with Flanders. They are placed in dialogue with international artists from the Collection of the Flemish Community.
Expo
The Geopolitics of Infrastructure
Contemporary Perspectives
13.06–21.09.2025
A generation of artists is demonstrating a new trans-national consciousness in the context of multipolarity. Artists consider the political commitments, imagination and power relations of infrastructure. The exhibition The Geopolitics of Infrastructure presents research-based practices reflecting on how such structures function as organisational systems across boundaries, as part of the practice of statecraft. With an awareness that geopolitics also shapes the conditions of practice for artists, The Geopolitics of Infrastructure also considers the possibilities of artistic imagination in the conceptualisation of new and alternative models for infrastructure.
With works by Tekla Aslanishvili, Mirwan Andan & Iswanto Hartono, Winnie Claessens, Köken Ergun & Fetra Danu, Köken Ergun & Tashi Lama, Assem Hendawi, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Pejvak, Shahana Rajani, Sojung Jun, The Question of Funding, Jonas Staal and Zheng Mahler. Exhibition architecture by Studio PARA~
Related event
ARCHIPELAGO OF ARTISTIC PRACTICES
A Jubilee and M HKA Research Summit
In collaboration with CKV and nadine
Archipelago of Artistic Practices is a Research Summit organised by Jubilee and M HKA based on Eavatea, a digital infrastructure for mapping research-based and transdisciplinary practices. The programme takes place in conjunction with M HKA’s major exhibition The Geopolitics of Infrastructure and includes the participation of many of its exhibiting artist. Focusing on the premise of learning-by-doing, the Research Summit seeks to offer participants a convivial space – including talks, screenings, performances, walks and bike tours – for opening insights and opportunities into the possibilities of collaborative research, communing resources and cooperative distribution, for artistic practice.
Research Summit launch and thematic days:
12.06: opening of the exhibition with performances and participatory events
14.06: The geopolitics of infrastructure
15.06: Infrastructure of archives
20.06: Archipelago of artistic practices
21.06: Mapping and performing infrastructure
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IN SITU
Özgür Kar
Malaise
24.05–07.09.2025
Özgür Kar creates immersive installations that prompt existential reflections on transience, isolation, and the cyclical nature of human experience. His distinctive visual language combines minimalist animation with intricate soundscapes and dark humor. By transforming video into sculptural objects, Kar challenges traditional boundaries between moving image, performance, sculpture, and installation.
For Malaise, Kar will create a site-specific installation consisting of a large-scale animation and a sound piece. This work marks a significant turning point in his practice, as he explores the architectural aspects of the space, the concept of theatricality through the use of scenographic elements such as light and sound, and themes of belonging and isolation—where emotions of closeness and estrangement remain in constant tension.
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Permanent collection presentation
The Situation Is Fluid
25.01.2025–03.01.2027
The M HKA collection is ever-evolving, reflecting the dynamic times we live in. In 2025, M HKA will present a renewed, focused collection showcasing around thirty key works by Flemish artists, including those who have lived and worked here, past or present, alongside artists with ties to Flanders. They are presented in dialogue with international artists from the Collection of the Flemish Community. The collection presentation takes the postwar avant-garde in Antwerp as its starting point, using the past as a platform to explore the multipolar realities of both today and the future.
The freely accessible permanent collection presentation showcases works by Marina Abramović, Chantal Akerman, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Evgeny Antufiev, Marcel Broodthaers, Lili Dujourie, Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Andrea Fraser, Shilpa Gupta, Craigie Horsfield, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Nikita Kadan, Barbara Kruger, Nicola L., Léa Lublin, Taus Makhacheva, Gordon Matta-Clark, Otobong Nkanga, Cady Noland, Panamarenko, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Laure Prouvost, Ayman Ramadan, Chris Reinecke, Oksana Shachko, Walter Swennen, Luc Tuymans and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven.
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Collection presentation
Panamarenko
Journey to the Stars
25.01–07.09.2025
The intimate presentation Journey to the Stars delves into Panamarenko's fascination with the cosmos and his quest to navigate the universe. For the first time, major works such as Bing of the Ferro Lusto, Flying Cigar Called Flying Tiger, and De Grote Plumbiet are shown together, accompanied by prototypes, drawings, calculations, sketches, sources of inspiration, and photographs from the archive as well as his former home and studio on Biekorfstraat, revealing the artist's thought process and boundless imagination. Blending artistic insight with technological experimentation, and humour with seriousness, Panamarenko invites us into his poetic universe.
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Archive presentation
King Kong: between cinephilia and activism
24.05–07.09.2025
From 1974 to 1982, the King Kong cultural centre in Antwerp was a vibrant meeting place where film, debate and activism converged. Alongside a broad selection of film classics and recent arthouse cinema, King Kong also offered a platform for socially engaged documentaries, feminist films, queer cinema and the revolutionary ‘Third Cinema’. The programme was supported by the association De Andere Film (DAF), which screened films outside the commercial circuit, often accompanied by introductions and discussions that addressed their topical relevance and ideological undercurrents.
This archival presentation — a collaboration between M HKA and the University of Antwerp’s Master’s programme in Theatre and Film Studies — highlights the unique role King Kong played in Antwerp’s cultural landscape. As part of the ‘Research Seminar in Film History’, students reconstruct the history of King Kong’s film programming, drawing on DAF’s extensive archive, which was donated to M HKA in 2023.
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