What Cannot Be Held: Hedendaagse stemmen uit de Belgische kunst brings together works by artists from Mu.ZEE’s collection at the Brakke Grond. During the period when the museum is closed due to renovation, Dutch curators will offer a new look at the Ostend museum’s collection in collection presentations at the Brakke Grond over the next three years. The first edition will take place from Friday 17 May until Sunday 13 July.
For this first edition, curator and director of Museum Cobra, Suzanne Wallinga curated an exhibition in dialogue with curator Ilse Roosens of Mu.ZEE and artistic associate Sophie Dogterom of de Brakke Grond. With What Cannot Be Held, Suzanne Wallinga creates a group exhibition with artists whose work reflects on the precarious position of human beings in a world that is constantly in flux.
The exhibition reflects on themes such as the instability of social relations, the fragility of identity and the in-between space between past, present and imagination.While some artists take a formal, universal approach, others draw from personal narratives—their family histories, memories, and immediate surroundings. In a time of shifting societal structures and crumbling certainties, these works offer a powerful reflection on the human experience.
What is striking is how different generations of artists approach this theme. Whereas older artists explore the in-between space in a formal, more universal way, younger makers seek it precisely in the personal – their family history, memories and immediate environment. The artists invite to pause and reflect on vulnerability, the power of radical empathy, and the tension between connection and loss. They explore borderlands: between dream and reality, culture and nature, the visible and the intangible.
Featuring works by Danai Anesiadou, Anouk De Clercq, Lili Dujourie, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Valérie Mannaerts, Angyvir Padilla, Edith Dekyndt, Katja Mater, Tramaine de Senna, An van. Dienderen, and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven.
This exhibition runs from 17 May.
