What comes after damaged landscapes? Where do we build our futures on? And with whom? In her poem End and Beginning, the Polish Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska, describing a barren landscape in the aftermath of war, weaves a narrative of resilience, reflection, and hope. Reflecting on the struggles for renewal, healing and collective responsibility her words carry a diachronic significance. Although referring to a specific conflict, her verses hold a frightening and unfortunate universal validity making her call for communal action, empathy, and care more relevant than even. Inspired by Szymborska's reflection on the collapse of ideologies, the relentless passage of time and history, and the irreversible decay of the past along with everything that comes with it, iMAL wonders: How would...
What comes after damaged landscapes? Where do we build our futures on? And with whom? In her poem End and Beginning, the Polish Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska, describing a barren landscape in the aftermath of war, weaves a narrative of resilience, reflection, and hope. Reflecting on the struggles for renewal, healing and collective responsibility her words carry a diachronic significance. Although referring to a specific conflict, her verses hold a frightening and unfortunate universal validity making her call for communal action, empathy, and care more relevant than even. Inspired by Szymborska's reflection on the collapse of ideologies, the relentless passage of time and history, and the irreversible decay of the past along with everything that comes with it, iMAL wonders: How would a future built on empathy and collective care look like? Challenging long-held notions of human singularity, excessive progress, and growth Fin et début / Einde en begin redefines the notion of care as an ecological and relational structure; as a polyphonic assemblage of shared existence between human, nature and technology. Embarking on an exploratory journey into alternative systems of care between humans and non-human entities, this exhibition offers a place of transformative encounters fostering self-reflection and re-imagination of the infinite possibilities of our shared futures. Curated as an intricate narrative of care, the exhibition unfolds across three interconnected circles: Care for Humans, Care for Nature and Care for Technology. The exhibition presents 11 works produced within the European Media Arts Platform (EMAP) residency program and 4 recent productions by Belgium-based artists. Their encounter offers space for reflection and reconsideration of formative societal infrastructures such as labour, communal practices, energy consumption and highlights the vitality for inter-species knowledge exchange and the importance of empathy for humans and other-than-human entities through diverse lenses. By giving agency to and drawing connections between underrepresented voices and alternative perspectives—be they human, artificial, natural, or imaginative—the exhibition invites the public to take a step towards unexplored territories of our shared futures and reimagine resilient collective ecosystems rooted in multispecies cooperation. Here, "everything is intelligent and worthy of our care and conscious attention." (James Bridle, Ways of Being) The Poem : After every war someone has to clean up. Things won’t straighten themselves up, after all. Someone has to push the rubble to the side of the road, so the corpse-filled wagons can pass. Someone has to get mired in scum and ashes, sofa springs, splintered glass, and bloody rags. Someone has to drag in a girder to prop up a wall. Someone has to glaze a window, rehang a door. Photogenic it’s not, and takes years. All the cameras have left for another war. We’ll need the bridges back, and new railway stations. Sleeves will go ragged from rolling them up. Someone, broom in hand, still recalls the way it was. Someone else listens and nods with unsevered head. But already there are those nearby starting to mill about who will find it dull. From out of the bushes sometimes someone still unearths rusted-out arguments and carries them to the garbage pile. Those who knew what was going on here must make way for those who know little. And less than little. And finally as little as nothing. In the grass that has overgrown causes and effects, someone must be stretched out blade of grass in his mouth gazing at the clouds. THE END AND THE BEGINNING —Wisława Szymborska, translated by Joanna TrzeciakOpening Hours
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Saturday | 11:00 - 19:00 |
| Sunday | 11:00 - 19:00 |