Radically Naive / Naively Radical / Michèle Magema: Watermarks, silent traces / Periphery

On the weekend of Friday, May 7 to Sunday, May 9, Kunsthal Extra City will be unveiling three projects to mark the inauguration of its new location in the deconsecrated Dominican church and chapel, located on Antwerp’s Provinciestraat. 

The church offers the space for the large group exhibition Radically Naive / Naively Radical, curated by Kunsthal Extra City’s new artistic coordinator Joachim Naudts. In the chapel, guest curator Sorana Munsya invites multidisciplinary artist Michèle Magema for her first Belgian solo exhibition, Watermarks, silent traces. For the project Periphery, five artists and one artist duo have created new, semi-permanent work in the peripheral areas of the church and chapel.

Radically Naive / Naively Radical 
May 7–October 10, 2021
Radically Naive / Naively Radical captures the state of mind foisted on us by the present era. An era in which we seem to be drifting from tipping point to tipping point: 9/11 and the so-called War on Terror, the Arab Spring, the alt-right, #MeToo, the migration crisis, Trump, #BLM, the constant threat of climate change…is COVID-19 the final nail in the coffin? Do we now submit to the sea of polarisation? Or do we stand strong against the tide of cynicism?

In an open exhibition without any imposed thesis, Radically Naive / Naively Radical seeks to positively reevaluate the notion of naivety: doing over analysing, making over designing. It is a search for institutional meaning, for the (im)material character of art, for cultural uniqueness and artistic autonomy.

Participating artists: Thomas Bellinck, Ben Benaouisse, Seyni Awa Camara, Saddie Choua, Helga Davis & Anouk De Clercq, Vesna Faassen & Lukas Verdijk, Iman Issa, Léonard Pongo, Egon Van Herreweghe, Gert Verhoeven, Katarina Zdjelar

Curated by Joachim Naudts.

Michèle Magema: Watermarks, silent traces
May 7–July 11, 2021
For her first solo exhibition in Belgium, multidisciplinary artist Michèle Magema will present new work in Kunsthal Extra City’s chapel space. Magema takes inspiration from the personal stories of the Congolese diaspora in the 1980s and ’90s, examining the notion of collective intimacy. 

Curated by Sorana Munsya.

Periphery
May 7, 2021–May 8, 2022
Five artists and one artist duo will enter into dialogue with the symbolically charged architectural space and each install a semi-permanent work in the periphery of the church and chapel. They will hide themselves away in aisles, forgotten back rooms, and hidden interstitial spaces where their work can blossom in complete seclusion.

Participating artists: Meryem Bayram, CMMC, Maëlle Dufour, Mekhitar Garabedian, Geert Goiris, Imge Özbilge

Curated by Joachim Naudts.