What makes it possible for a work of art to live simultaneously in the aesthetic and social worlds? How can we encourage or enhance a “multi-temporality” and cross the line between “common objects” and “artistic objects” without succumbing to the privatization of culture as a form of property? Questions like these are the crux of the year-long program SYMPTOMS OF THE FUTURE. The first exhibition in this series BRICKS — BASKETS — POTS presents works by Bie Michels and Marjetica Potrč, exploring our deep connection to earth. A circular movement of soil and life is documented in the artists’ works.

Since 2016 Bie Michels explores the meaning of bricks throughout history. For this exhibition she develops a new work “Brick Dust” — a choreography for bricks performed during the exhibition and drawings on paper using the red dust that bricks shed. While the movement of bricks reconfigures the physical, heavy and earthly space, the drawing series “Mensenvogel” depicts flying people made out of brick dust — airy, weightless and suspended in emptiness.

Marjetica Potrč transforms her original drawing “Nomads Inhabit Islands, Settlers Build Walls” (2016), that brings together the desire for freedom and the desire for security into a large walldrawing. “The Basket Weaver Weaves Difference” and “The Pot Maker Shapes Unity”, two drawings and two objects inspired by indigenous practices, compare object-making with world-making.

SYMPTOMS OF THE FUTURE is supported by the Flemish Authorities and the City of Antwerp

Bie Michels, "La couleur de la brique", 2017. Courtesy of the artist
Marjetica Potrč, "Nomads Inhabit Islands, Settlers Build Walls", 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin/Stockholm/Mexico City

Artists: Bie Michels, Marjetica Potrč