main partner
10—13.12.26 Antwerp Expo
main partner
19.06 — 16.08.26
Kunsthal Extra City presents Biophony: Beats of Love, a guest exhibition by Antwerp Queer Arts Festival. Twelve artists connected to the festival bring their work together in an exhibition that emerges from encounter, collaboration and shared engagement.
Antwerp Queer Arts Festival is sustained by a group of volunteers, many of whom are artists. For Biophony: Beats of Love, twelve of them present work at Kunsthal Extra City.
The exhibition does not begin from a fixed theme or curatorial framework. It arises from artists coming together through shared experiences, interests and forms of engagement. As the initiators describe it: “We are here because we do things together, and find something good and beautiful in that.” Friendship, joy, support, wonder and collectivity form the basis of this presentation.
Participating artists: Delta Van Melle, Aida Krnic, Cyn Micheli, Phara De Jaegere, Exter, Vural Saglam, Fanny Wellens, Bobby Benzo Brown, Hunter Claes, Lize Maekelberg, Billie Q, Juliet Jespers
With Sammy Baloji
Curated by Samuel Saelemakers
17.04 — 16.08.26
In Copper thread, Rubber thread, Sugar thread, artist and filmmaker Sammy Baloji (1978, DR Congo) invites visitors to reconsider the history of colonial exploitation in Central Africa and the traces it continues to leave today. Through tapestries and sound installations, he brings together recent works in which material, image and voice are closely interwoven. Many of the works on view have never before been presented in Belgium.
The title refers to copper, rubber and sugar – raw materials that for centuries shaped colonial trade routes, power relations and inequalities. At the same time, the “thread” stands for connection. Thread carries stories, links different times, and makes visible how history is not fixed but continually rewoven. For Baloji, weaving is both a craft and a way of thinking: an invitation to look beyond linear histories.
Who was Rubens exactly? The artist and the man behind the brush. And why is he so well loved? Find out by visiting the Rubens Experience. Find out what he was really like thanks to life-like videos and interactive tools. Or look straight into his mind by observing his self-portrait.