09.12.26 - 13.12.26

iMAL

Maarten Vanden Eynde, in collaboration with Fillot Ngoyi Makelele and Augy Ngoyi Twite, Malachite Mobiles, 2015 Photo © Philippe de Gobert

//Sabotage

Exhibition

Younes Baba Ali • Fayçal Baghriche • Gisela Carbajal Rodríguez and Felix Klee • Shannah Legrin • Adrian Melis • Amor Muñoz • Juan Obando & Yoshua Okón • Selma Selman • Maarten Vanden Eynde

At the turn of the 19th century, workers protested against unfair labour conditions by deliberately working badly, slowing down or degrading production, or putting machinery out of action. Today’s workers — whether they are warehouse staff or startup employees — deploy micro-resistance tactics to defy the algorithm-driven intensification of labour, exposing workplace abuses, outsmarting algorithms and organising collective pushback.

Likewise, contemporary artists embrace sabotage as a tool to dismantle oppressive systems. For them, it’s a form of creative resistance, bridging historical labour struggles with modern battles against exploitation, marginalisation and democratic backsliding.

The exhibition invites reflection on urgent questions: Where are today’s creative acts and technologies of unmaking” that disrupt the exploitative mechanisms of capitalism? How do artists mobilise inventiveness, storytelling and mischief to produce a ‘poetry of dysfunction’? And, finally, will the machines join the rebellion?


Time: from Wednesday to Sunday | 11:00 – 18:00
Price: Normal rate: 10€. For reduced rates, please consult iMAL website

Curation: Régine Debatty & the iMAL team
In collaboration with: Total Refusal

This exhibition is co-funded by the Vlaanderen verbeelding werkt through the Projectsubsidies kunsten. With the support of the King Baudouin Foundation.

DEMO, Juan Obando & Yoshua Okón © Julius Schlosburg MOCA Tucson
Loop Labor, Gisela Carbajal Rodríguez & Felix Klee
Motherboards, Selma Selman, courtesy of the artist and KRASS Festival © Marko Ilić
Pulizia, Younes Baba-Ali
Rhythmic Manufacture, Amor Muñoz © Charles Villyard Courtesy SF Moma
Snooze, Fayçal Baghriche © Fayçal Baghriche - ADAGP
Souvenir D'Usine; Echo Système, Shannah Legrin
Virtual Cleaning Service for Art Museums and Institutions, Adrian Melis