Starting tomorrow, FOMU will present three new exhibitions – Antwerp Press Agency

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ANTWERP – Starting tomorrow, Friday March 29, FOMU will present three new exhibitions. Dirk Braeckman makes new work in dialogue with the FOMU collection. RE/SISTERS, a collaboration with the Barbican in London, is an ambitious group exhibition about ecology and gender. In ‘De Steentjesteller’ you will discover new work by Nick Geboers, realized with the FOMU grant. Together with the exhibitions, FOMU is launching a new corporate identity, developed by Antwerp branding agency Mutant.

Dirk Braeckman (BE, °1958) has been exploring the medium of photography with his subtle, dark images for more than 40 years. For the exhibition Real time he enters into dialogue with the FOMU collection. He makes a unique selection from the museum collection and appropriates these collection items to create new work: you experience them through his camera, eyes and hands. Braeckman is interested in photos with imperfections, empty interiors, banal objects, suggestive places or objects that leave much to the imagination. He chooses functional photos from the FOMU collection, which were made without artistic ambition but in which he does see visual qualities.

At the exhibition you can listen to an audio guide in which authors Alara Adilow, Yousra Benfquih, Peter Verhelst and Niña Weijers add their spoken word to the works. Following the exhibition, Dirk Braeckman and FOMU are publishing a unique edition. This edition is exclusively for sale in the FOMU shop. On Thursday, June 6, Dirk Braeckman will give an artist talk in FOMU. Info here https://fomu.be/kalender/artist-talk-dirk-braeckman The artist’s book ‘Dirk Braeckman – Echtzeit’ will be published by Stockmans publishers at the exhibition, with texts by Tamara Berghmans and Clément Chéroux. The book has 240 pages and contains 140 new photographic works and can be purchased in the FOMU shop for 50 euros. The exhibition runs until Sunday January 19, 2025.

RE/SISTERS investigates the deep connection between the intensive exploitation of the earth and the social exploitation of women and minorities. The exhibition has roots in ecofeminism, a movement that emerged in the 1970s and is alive and well today. RE/SISTERS brings audiences face to face with women and communities protesting. They are often at the forefront of defending and restoring the earth. They see their own oppression and the depletion of the planet as the result of the same social, economic and political forces.​

The exhibition brings together work by more than 40 female or gender non-conforming artists from around the world. Photos, videos and installations from 1969 to the present show how they view our world as allies, victims and leaders. And how they present themselves as co-resistors (resisters) who fight against systems of oppression.​

​The richly illustrated catalog of RE/SISTERS presents the entire exhibition in six thematic chapters. The catalog was published in collaboration with Prestel. Graphic design by The Bon Ton. The book can be purchased for 49 euros in the FOMU shop and here https://shop.fomu.be/collections/boeken/products/re-sisters-a-lens-on-gender-and-ecology ​The exhibition was realized in collaboration with the Barbican, London, curator Alona Pardo. You can view it until Monday, August 18.

For Nick Geboers, photography is both an instrument and a source of inspiration. By constantly looking at the world through a lens, framing has become second nature. Observations become sharper, details come into focus, abstract shapes appear. Nick Geboers’ images seem to exist outside of time. The exhibition ‘De Steentjesteller’ is a stream of images that creates space for associations and reflections on a world that feels both inaccessible and close.​ ​Nick Geboers (1987) lives and works in Balen. He trained in photography at the Luca School of Arts in Brussels and at the KASK in Antwerp, where he later worked as a researcher. (EM /Photos Dirk Braeckman, Ada M. Patterson, Judy Chicago, Nick Geboers)