Magical Realism follows The Absent Museum (2017) and Risquons-tout (2020) in a series of ambitious exhibitions at WIELS, inviting contemporary artists whose views challenge the norms of current aesthetics and discourse. Magical Realism reflects on an ecology that addresses both the aesthetic implications of our relationship with ‘nature’ at a tipping point; as well as the social, economic and scientific implications of exploring and shifting our conceptions of the planet.
The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the artistic and literary genre known as magical realism, which is characterised by its infusion of worlds of magic, dreams and myth into mundane narratives—creating stories that redefine the boundaries of reality. The exhibition looks at how the porosity between ‘magic’ and ‘reality’ may open up spaces for other horizons to emerge in response to proliferating monocultures, precarious lives, and climate transformation.
When the world of science and hard facts has been torn apart from the world of magic and intuition, how to reconcile this fracture, what traces does it leave and how do we repair it? The exhibition navigates these questions through works that shape worlds via painting, moving image, sound and installation. They engage with different spaces, from the cosmos and its galaxies to the scientist’s lab; matters such as bodies of water, bacterial skins or 3D prints; and geologic processes surfacing through the underground rumbling of the earth or the noise of a sinking city.
Participating artists: Bianca Baldi, Minia Biabiany, Gaëlle Choisne, Ade Darmawan, Edith Dekyndt, Suzanne Husky, Saodat Ismailova, Suzanne Jackson, Ann Veronica Janssens, Joan Jonas, Pauline Julier, Barbara & Michael Leisgen, Anne Marie Maes, Jumana Manna, Marisa Merz, Jota Mombaça, Nour Mobarak, mountaincutters, Otobong Nkanga, Kicsy Abreu Stable, Precious Okoyomon, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Annie Ratti, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Maarten Vanden Eynde & Musasa, Cecilia Vicuña, and Adrián Villar Rojas.
Curators: Sofia Dati, Helena Kritis, Dirk Snauwaert
The publication: features contributions by all artists as well as texts by Karen Barad, Federico Campagna & Febe Lamiroy, Chris Cyrille-Isaac, Sofia Dati, Vinciane Despret & Letícia Renault, Zayaan Khan, Shayma Nader, Susan Schuppli and Dirk Snauwaert.
OIKOS, a micro utopia (Anne Marie Maes, 2025)
The installation invites viewers into a life-sized greenhouse, its skeletal form immediately evoking a sense of home. Inside, a wall of microbial grown skins (Sensorial Skins) embodies the living transformation of matter. Guarding this structure are two large jaquard-woven reversible tapestries (Microbial Ancestors – green & orange), representing a topographical map of the rooftop garden where the microbial skins were cultivated. The woven works mirror the structure of the organic material within the house, suggesting a dialogue between past and present, textile and biology, growth and creation.
