Alicja Kwade

What if the unknown is not a boundary, but a starting point? In her first solo exhibition in Belgium, Alicja Kwade invites us to see the world – and our attempts to understand it – differently. She departs from scientific and philosophical and translates them into sculptures and installations that challenge gravity, time and matter.

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.

Alicja Kwade (°1979 in Katowice, Poland) lives and works in Berlin. She has exhibited widely at institutions including Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk, Whitechapel Gallery in London, MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge (VS), Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo and Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich.

Kwade received international recognition for her participation in the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Another temporary installation that received much attention is the one she made specially for the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2019.

Kwade’s works are part of numerous public collections, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mudam - Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg and mumok - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna.

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.

Curator: Eva Wittocx

Exhibition view 'Alicja Kwade. Dusty Die', M Leuven, 2025, photo : © Elias Derboven voor M Leuven

Exhibition dates

10 October 2025 to 22 February 2026

Tickets

From 10 October to 22 February we work with time slots.

Book your time slot online to secure your visit
Or buy your ticket at the reception desk

With one ticket, you can visit the entire museum.

Activities

You can find an overview of all activities related to the exhibition here.

Facilities

Folding chairs and wheelchairs (available free of charge at the reception desk)

Good to know

Some galleries are partially darkened
Some galleries contain installations that constantly produce sound
The route is wheelchair accessible but includes some narrow passages and obstacles

Plan your visit

600 years of KU Leuven

Alicja Kwade’s exhibition is part of KU Leuven’s 600th anniversary celebrations. In addition to Kwade’s work, 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 Sint-Donatus Park. Inspired by the anniversary theme, ‘The Poetics of Not Knowing’ – the idea that science is not only about knowledge but also about doubt, imagination, and the unknown – Kwade created an installation in which a boulder rests upon a circle of chairs. These chairs are replicas of seats from various university buildings and faculties. The work illustrates how knowledge does not stand alone but is supported by a diverse academic community: from students and researchers to professors and auxiliary staff.

‘Carriers’ is part of the art and science route ‘And So, Change Comes in Waves’, which has been running since 16 May 2025 and features sixteen new artworks and poems throughout Leuven.

Food for thought

On the occasion of Alicja Kwade’s solo exhibition, M is organizing three ‘Food for Thought’ events in collaboration with KU Leuven. Two scientists – from the fields of international law, cosmology, and the philosophy of science – will each reflect from their own perspective on fundamental questions central to Kwade’s work:

20.11 | Who owns space?
18.12 | What is the origin of time?

The lectures explore the tension between knowledge and imagination, between measurement and wonder. Scientific expertise will be brought into dialogue with artistic installations that challenge models, matter and perception.