Dusty Die
October 10, 2025–February 22, 2026
Leuven B–3000
Belgium
Hours: Monday–Tuesday and Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Thursday 11am–10pm
What if the unknown is not a boundary, but a starting point? In her first solo exhibition in Belgium, Alicja Kwade (°1979) invites us to see the world—and our attempts to understand it—differently.
Alicja Kwade is internationally recognized for her sculptures and installations that challenge scientific and philosophical concepts. She translates ideas about time, chance, and gravity into works that undermine those very systems. Kwade tests our perception and dismantles its boundaries through mirroring, repetition and the deconstruction of everyday objects and natural materials. In so doing, she reveals the fault line between what we think we know and what eludes our understanding.
In her work, reality is turned upside down. Boulders appear weightless, mirrors offer glimpses of parallel realities, and time loses its direction. Using materials such as metal, glass, ancient rocks and petrified wood, she constructs environments that are at once familiar and alienating—spaces where fixed meanings dissolve and perception itself begins to shift.
For Kwade, science is not a conclusive system but a subjective construction—a temporary attempt to impose order on something that ultimately remains unknowable. Her work makes tangible the idea that it is precisely in not knowing that the imagination begins.
At M, the artist presents a selection of key works from her recent practice, complemented by new installations specially created for the museum.
Alicja Kwade’s exhibition is part of the 600th anniversary celebrations of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). At the same time, M Leuven is also presenting "The Pursuit of Knowledge", an exhibition focusing on the university’s study collections.
Another work by Kwade can be discovered further on in the city: KU Leuven invited the artist to create the permanent artwork Carriers, which is installed in the nearby Sint-Donatus Park. Carriers is part of the permanent art and science route “And So, Change Comes in Waves”, which has been running since May 16, 2025 and features sixteen new artworks and poems throughout Leuven.
