Our Future Is To Live With Bruises
May 25–July 13, 2025
Kasterlee 2460
Belgium
Participating artists: Amalia Ulman, Amar Kanwar, Andrea Büttner, Clara Spilliaert, Corita Kent, Eva & Franco Mattes, Jeremy Deller, Michel François, Otobong Nkanga, Pei-Hsuan Wang, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, Vaast Colson, Wim Cuyvers
Titled Our Future Is To Live With Bruises, the first edition of RHIZOMA brings together various artistic practices that speak of vulnerability, self-expression and resilience, in the face of deep time. The 14 participating artists reflect on how we relate to our individual needs and each other, shared values and cultural conventions, and the things, ideologies and (power) structures that surround us, as well as the transformative, healing potential of acknowledging what escapes us, sharing our grief and learning to live with our limitations.
RHIZOMA 2025 borrows its title from a phrase in the poem Diaoptasia—Our Future Will Be (2015) by multidisciplinary artist Otobong Nkanga, who is also present at the biennial with new work of her own. The poem plastically probes the fragility of our existence, while the promise of a certain, already known future—other than what we know now—or a solution—other than ourselves and what surrounds us—is absent.
Spread across five indoor and outdoor venues within walking distance of each other, Our Future Is To Live With Bruises connects multiple disciplines, ranging from video, installation and print to painting, words—and more. More than half of the works on display are brand-new creations, in combination with recent and historical works that have never been shown in Belgium before.
Artistic Director: Stijn Maes
Graphic design: Studio Remco van Bladel
For information on opening hours, public program and accompanying publications and editions, visit: Our Future Is To Live With Bruises | RHIZOMA
Panel discussion
On Sunday June 22, 2025 at 11:30am, RHIZOMA hosts the panel discussion The Future of Biennials is Hybrid, featuring the distinctive voices of Sammy Baloji (Lubumbashi Biennale), Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg (Sonsbeek) and Raimundas Malašauskas (Venice Biennale (Lithuanian and Cyprus Pavilions), Baltic Triennial, Liverpool Biennale, Mercosul Biennial). RSVP to attend the panel discussion.
Press contact
Club Paradis / Ellen Asaert
RHIZOMA 2025: Our Future Is To Live With Bruises is initiated and organised by MASEREEL—centre for contemporary art, with major support from the Flemish Community.
Generous support is provided by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belgium, the municipality of Kasterlee and Graphius. Additionally, we would like to thank our partners: Corita Art Center, Collège des Bernardins Paris, Heemerf de Waaiberg, Klaveren Drie, the Parish of Saint Willibrordus in Kasterlee and the Agency for Roads and Traffic.
