Shapeshifters

Artists: al-yené, Kader Attia, Sammy Baloji & Cécile Fromont, Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, Georges Senga, Anna Safiatou Touré, Mirelle van Tulder, Pei-Hsuan Wang and Leah Zhang

Scenography: Bureau LADA

Framer Framed is proud to present Shapeshifters: On Wounds, Wonders and Transformation, on view from October 15, 2025 to January 11, 2026. This group exhibition brings together works by al-yené, Kader Attia, Sammy Baloji & Cécile Fromont, Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, Georges Senga, Anna Safiatou Touré, Mirelle van Tulder, Pei-Hsuan Wang and Leah Zhang. Together, their practices examine how colonialism has shaped the ways museums, archives and other institutions of knowledge are perceived and understood, revealing the (im)material scars imposed by systemic violence. A number of new works commissioned by Framer Framed will be presented for the first time, including by Sammy Baloji & Cécile Fromont, Pei-Hsuan Wang and Georges Senga.

Shapeshifters invites visitors to refigure their relationship to these power structures by stepping into relations built on curiosity and empathy. The title draws from the writings of science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, for whom ‘shapeshifting’ refers not only to the ability to transform at will but to a survival strategy, an imaginative technology and a means of resisting colonial domination. In the same vein, the artists in Shapeshifters use their work as a device to unsettle fixed narratives, confront entrenched systems of power and open space for alternative ways of knowing, relating and being in the world.

Working across various research-driven practices—including film, sonic installation, sculpture, painting and other media—the participating artists trace how stories, identities and objects have been categorised, controlled or erased across different sociopolitical contexts. Just as importantly, their practices reclaim and reimagine these subjects, allowing them to resist and take on new forms.

At its core, Shapeshifters explores the possibilities for infrastructures of knowledge to evolve and move forward based on care and reciprocity. Questions of ownership, value, loss and repair run through the exhibition. The artworks encourage continuous transforming and challenge what is remembered, who is represented and how institutions might embrace a shapeshifting process: to reorganise space and time for connection, where spirituality and wisdom can grow.

The scenography of the exhibition designed by Bureau LADA layers visibility and opacity through textile walls that invite wandering. At its centre, an extended platform becomes a site for communal gathering, hosting public programmes throughout the course of the exhibition.

On October 31, the public programme “Counter-Institutional Data Activism”, presented in collaboration with scholar and artist Pansee Atta as a part of the research project Pressing Matter, rethinks data rights and freedoms against museums and industry. The invited speakers include Dr. Monica Hanna, Nora Al-Badri, Yaseen Aslam and Mariana Fernández Mora. On 1 November, artist Aram Lee and theorist-curator Lotte Arndt present a lecture-performance examining museum preservation practices and their entanglement with enduring colonial mindsets.

Presented alongside Shapeshifters, the book Emptying the Shelves by participating artist Mirelle van Tulder, co-published by Framer Framed and Roots to Fruits, speaks from a plurality of voices directly from objects relegated to museum shelves, glass cases and archives. The publication will be launched during the exhibition and will be available at the Framer Framed webshop.

For press enquiries, please contact: press@framerframed.nl

Shapeshifters: On Wounds, Wonders and Transformations is produced by Framer Framed in partnership with Wereldmuseum Amsterdam. The exhibition is developed from the framework of the NWO research project Pressing Matter: Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums, in which Framer Framed is a societal partner.

Additional support is generously provided by the Mondrian Initiative, the Mondriaan Fund, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Creative Industries Fund NL, TextielLab, Keramiekmuseum Princessehof, and Jan van Eyck Academie.

Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.