INTERNATIONAL artists and futurists will take part in a radical new show held at M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp this spring. A Temporary Futures Institute presents an innovative approach to the study of futures, a discipline which explores concepts and strategies about the future. The exhibition considers how art and future studies relate to knowledge in which artificial intelligence, political activism and governance will play a key role. Organised by M HKA’s senior curator Anders Kreuger and Antwerp-based futurist Maya Van Leemput, the show is curated in response to research conducted by futurist James Dator and pioneer of the “four futures” model at the Manoa School of Futures Studies at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. Dator believed that, “Any useful statement about the future should appear to be ridiculous.”
Within future studies, initial ideas might seem initially far-fetched. They may challenge our behaviour as new technologies replace past knowledge and become the norm. In this exhibition, professional futurists from the fields of alternative, design, postnormal and technology futures are brought together with international artists from a diverse range of disciplines. Staged within a specially commissioned set designed by the Polynesian artist, Alexander Lee, futures scenarios are envisioned through unconnected themes which include continuation, collapse, discipline and transformation. Participating artists include Belgium painter Kasper Bosmans, sculptor Simryn Gill and film-maker Michel Auder.
Kasper Bosmans, Legend Future Studies, 2016, courtesy of the artist; Marc Foxx gallery,
Los Angeles and Gladstone Gallery, New York-Brussels
Running concurrently with A Temporary Futures Institute is DDT (Design, Develop, Transform), an international futures conference futures practitioners and academics partnered by the Association of Professional Futurists and the World Futures Studies Federation.
by Miranda Charalambous
A Temporary Futures Institute opens from April 27 to September 17, 2017. DDT (Design, Develop, Transform) opens from June 15 – June 17, 2017.
Both events are held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MHKA), Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Telephone: +32 (0)3 260 99 99
Email: info@muhka.be
Front page image: Kasper Bosmans, Legend Future Studies, 2016, courtesy of the artist; Marc Foxx gallery, Los Angeles and Gladstone Gallery, New York-Brussels