Exhibition: The Welfare State
M HKA, Antwerpen
29 May 2015 - 27 September 2015
©Photo: M HKA
The exhibition The Welfare State did not look back wistfully on the welfare state in its traditional form, a utopian blueprint for an egalitarian (homogenous) community in post-war Western Europe. Nor did it invite artists to ‘illustrate’ political and social involvement. What it did do was raise a number of fundamental questions. What is the ‘imaginary’ aspect of the welfare state? Does it have a physical shape? Can it be ‘shown’?
The exhibition was socio-political, both explicitly and implicitly, and addressed topics that are relevant in a global context, such as the communication between citizens of different socio-economic levels (Stephen Willats), the social implications of artificial intelligence (Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven) the changing status of labour (Kajsa Dahlberg), the rise of the European far right (Arturas Raila), the situation of the refugees fleeing from the civil war in Syria (Róza El-Hassan), or the potential shift to a non-monetary economy (Francisco Camacho Herrera).
The Welfare State presented new and existing work by eight artists from different generations: Francisco Camacho Herrera (°1979, Colombia/the Netherlands), Josef Dabernig (°1956, Austria), Kajsa Dahlberg (°1973, Sweden), Róza El-Hassan (°1966, Hungary/Syria), Donna Kukama (°1981, South Africa), Artūras Raila (°1962, Lithuania), Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven (°1951, Belgium) and Stephen Willats (°1943, England). The exhibition also included visual and textual material from the four cultural archives of Flanders: Amsab and the Liberal Archives in Ghent, KADOC in Leuven and ADVN in Antwerp.
WorksShow artists
> Stephen Willats, Meta Filter , 1973-1975. Installation, painted wood, perspex, computer, slide projector and problem book.
> Stephen Willats, A State of Agreement, 1975. Photography, photographic prints, gouache, ink, letraset on card, 55 x 70 cm.
> Stephen Willats, The Reunion, 1976. Print, photographic prints, ink, letraset, text on card, 48.3 x 76.2 cm .
> Stephen Willats, I Don't Want to Be Like Anyone Else, 1977. Photography, photographic prints, ink, text on card, 6 x (76 x 109 cm) .
> Stephen Willats, Sorting out Other People's Lives , 1978. Mixed Media, photographic prints, ink, letraset, ink on card, gouache, 4 x (03 x 76 cm ).
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Why It's Better at Databank, 1979. Mixed Media, monoprint and acrylic on two layers of plexiglas with magnetic back, 44.5 x 40 x 0.4 cm.
> Stephen Willats, Contained Reality and Hidden Pressures, 1979. Mixed Media, photograpic prints, gouache, ink, letraset on paper, 4 panels, each 148.5 x 33.5 cm .
> Stephen Willats, Inside The Space We Have Been Given , 1979. Photography, photograpic prints, gouache, ink, letraset on paper, 4 panels, each 123.2 x 16.4 cm.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Atman/Wombman, 1988. Mixed Media, silkscreen paint and plastic foil on trovicel with iron hinges, 370 x 244 x 0.3 cm.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Welfare State: Unic Borgerhout, 1995. Mixed Media, acrylic and felt tip pen on pvc, 165.5 x 100 cm.
> Artūras Raila , Under the Flag , 1999-2015. Video, 2 channel digital video, color, sound, 00:20:00.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Prada, 2000. Mixed Media, digital print on pvc, 2 x (70 x 138 cm).
> Josef Dabernig, Hotel Roccalba, 2008. Video, black and white film, 00:10:00.
> Stephen Willats, The Secret of Life in the City , 2009. Mixed Media, dvd film, response sheet, photographic prints, photographic dye, acrylic paint, letraset text, ink on card , 3 panels, each 112 x 80 cm.
> Josef Dabernig, Excursus on fitness , 2010. Video, black and white film, 00:12:00.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Carrel 4 (Coromandel, Disturbed 1), 2013-2015. Installation, wooden cabinet on wheels: meranti plywood, digital print, casein paint, 202 x 240 x 62 cm.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Ward, disturbed. Ward, quiet, 2013-2015. Mixed Media, digital print and mixed media on plexiglass, mounted on wooden frame, 124.5 x 3000 cm.
> Stephen Willats, Oxford Community Data Stream , 2013. Mixed Media, 400 colour prints, 18 channels of video, variable .
> Kasja Dahlberg, Reach, Grasp, Move, Position, Apply Force, 2014-2015. Video, digital video, color, sound, 16:9, 00:45:00.
> De Welvaartsstaat (L'Internationale), 2015. Book, ink, paper, 19 x 12.6 cm, 139 p., language : Dutch, publisher : Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, ISBN : 9789072828538.
> The Welfare State (L'Internationale), 2015. Book, ink, paper, 19 x 12.6 cm, 139 p., language : English, publisher : Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, ISBN : 9789072828521.
> Róza El-Hassan, Breeze 9 (Natural Air Conditioning and Adobe Houses), 2015. Drawing.
> Donna Kukama, The Monument of Apologies, 2015. Video.
> Róza El-Hassan, Breeze 9 (Natural Air Conditioning and Adobe Houses), 2015. Installation, prototypes for temporary housing, made of sun-dried adobe bricks, variable dimensions.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Welfare State: Carrefour Market, 2015. Mixed Media, acrylic and felt tip pen on pvc, 165 x 100 cm.
> Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK, Carrel 5 (Coromandel, Disturbed 2), 2015. Installation, wooden cabinet on wheels: meranti plywood, casein paint and mixed media, 202 x 240 x 60 cm.
> Artūras Raila , Libretto for Maersk McKinney Moeller , 2015. Video, 8 animated films, digital black-and-white video, silent, in loop, 8 x (00:00:10).
> Francisco Camacho Herrera, fulltopia.com, 2015. Other, website.