WORLD

Quoting from the invitation send to us by L’Internationale: "Kyiv Biennial 2025 situates itself amidst the lived reality of war crimes, illegal occupations, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the broader autocratic turn in global politics, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s brutal operation in Gaza, Iran’s totalitarian theocracy and Belarusian dictatorial rule. In reckoning with the injustices and atrocities committed by the imperialisms of today, Kyiv Biennial 2025 reflects with historical consciousness on failed solidarities and internationalisms. It does this across a zone that the curators describe as 'Middle-East-Europe', a term that encompasses Central Eastern Europe, the former Soviet East and the Middle East. Kyiv Biennial 2025 is being held in multiple locations across Europe again this year. Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) presents a stand-alone exhibition that also acts as an extension of the biennial's exhibition Near East, Far West being held at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN). The two parallel presentations at MSN and M HKA focus on past and present experiences of colonial violence, erasure and genocide in Middle-East-Europe: geographies that have witnessed compelling stories of emancipatory struggle that appear to be in retreat today, making their tracing and reconstitution in the face of renewed violence an urgent task. Official Opening: 9 October 2025"

Homelands and Hinterlands
| tag: Antwerp
 

The presentation at M HKA is more specifically focused on the notion of ‘erasure’, in the past but also very much in the present: the erasure of people through dehumanisation, killing and crimes against humanity — the erasure of memory — the erasure of the normality of everyday life — the desire to erase the long shadow of 20th century ideologies — the erasure of  images — the erasure of plurality in the political spectrum — or even the erasure of the information technologies that we have become dependent on. In the best-case scenario, we might hope that facing destruction will also motivate us to find an emancipatory way out of the current conjuncture of obliteration.

M HKA's exhibition title, Homelands and Hinterlands, refers to the post-colonial notion of ‘hinterland’, meaning the ‘lands behind’, applied to the areas surrounding former European colonies that are claimed by metropole powers. This conception involves recognising the economic, geographic, cultural and political significance of hinterlands in relation to the colonial centres that they resource.  

For several of the participating artists, the violence of war and oppression remains a defining context. By questioning the colonial relationship between fading European powers and their so-called peripheries outside the EU, Kyiv Biennial 2025 asserts that the fate of ‘Greater Europe’ is now being forged in its parallel relations with its eastern borderlands. The exhibition aims to interconnect these ‘peripheries’ of Europe and reopen the experiences of Middle-East-Europe grounded in its political complexities and historical entanglements.

Participating artists:
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Davyd Chychkan, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Mona Hatoum, Iman Issa, Mashid Mohadjerin, Ala Savashevich, Anna Zvyagintseva

Curators:
Vasyl Cherepanyn, Visual Culture Research Center / Kyiv Biennial
Nav Haq, Associate Director, M HKA

Artists whose works from M HKA collection are on loan to MSN Warsaw:
Koka Ramishvili, Saule Suleimenova


L’Internationale and the Kyiv Biennial


Kyiv Biennial is an international forum for art, knowledge and politics that integrates exhibitions and discussion platforms. It was launched, and is organized, by the Visual Culture Research Center from Kyiv. The biennial takes an interdisciplinary perspective at the intersection of the humanities, socially engaged art, and political activism, to reflect on the key problems of the contemporary world. This year’s edition is being held in several cities in Ukraine and across Europe (Warsaw, Antwerp, Dnipro, Kyiv and Linz), with the aim of creating a space for cooperation between Ukrainian and international artists, for critical reflection on pressing political issues, resistance through art, and ongoing wars.


2025.kyivbiennial.org

L’Internationale is a confederation of European museums, art institutions, research centres and think-tanks. Its name derives from “The Internationale”, the historic anthem of the workers’ movement, which calls for the creation of a just and democratic society. Drawing on local and translocal histories, L’Internationale creates a new model for art institutions with the aim of developing and implementing a more just, democratic and sustainable vision of the world. The confederation was formed at the initiative of Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana. The venture is founded on cooperation between the museums who are members of L’Internationale and other European cultural institutions. Together they form a network of institutions actively working for the development of local artistic scenes and facing up to the challenges of today’s world: the rise of militarisation and armed aggression, deepening climate change, and worsening polarisation of society.


internationaleonline.org

Press website:
https://muhka.prezly.com/homelands-and-hinterlands