default

M HKA reserves its fifth floor for surprising interventions and intimate pop-up presentations. INBOX is a place that inspires and surprises, one that offers us a glimpse into the world of passionate thinkers and doers. With INBOX, M HKA creates a physical space in which the museum addresses often-recurring questions.

In the periods between the various events, we present a selection of our collection works, with particular attention to video art.

INBOX can be visited for free.

Futurefarmers is an international collective of artists that has been intervening in the public space for more than twenty years, using poetic and visual actions to transport us from the everyday. Their current project, Seed Journey, is a seafaring voyage traveling from Oslo to Istanbul carrying ancient grains. Aboard a wooden rescue sailboat from 1895 – the RS 10 Christiania – a rotating crew of artists, anthropologists, farmers and bakers re-trace an ancient route. During the voyage they explore the human and non-human ways in which wheat was domesticated. Starting with the wild wheat, which slowly made its way through gifts, trade, winds, and sea currents, from the highly cultured Middle East to the barbarians of the north.

During their stay in Belgium, Futurefarmers met up with farmers in the Pajottenland region of Flanders to awaken a 500 year old grain, which they named the Bruegel Grain. Together with sound artist Hans Beckers a Seed Ceremony will take place at Heetveldemolen in Tollembeek. This will include a seed exchange, a feast and the production of a video documenting the Futurefarmers Canoe Oven carrying the Bruegel Grain through the waterways of the Pajottenland to Antwerp and finally to M HKA’s rooftop terrace, where it will be displayed. From there the grain will accompany the Seed Journey to Istanbul.

Presenting the Bruegel Grain at M HKA is fitting, as M HKA is housed in a former grain silo – a symbol of surplus, self-reliance and power – which has been transformed into a cultural institution. This new work, invites us to imagine the awakening of Bruegel after a 500 year sleep. During the preview there will be a screening of a rough-cut of the Futurefarmers’ video and discussions will take place between farmers, archaeologists and others who will reflect on the collective memory and awakening of the Bruegel Grain. 

Find out more about Futurefarmers on their website: www.futurefarmers.com

Programme:

April 1 – 2  Seed Ceremony + Kayak Journey

Saturday, April 1  

Heetveldemolen, Tollembeek (Galmaarden)
Pajottenland

15.00 - Seed Ceremony
16.00 - Letting the seeds into the water (kayaks + canoe-oven)
16.30 - Soup and bread party

Farmers, bakers and millers will gather at Heetveldemolen in Tollembeek and share their locally cultivated grains. During this session an old grain will be awakened. The Bruegel Grain is more than 500 years old and was found charred in the church of Sint-Martens-Lennik. On 1 April it will be re-activated in the hopes of finding out its secrets, so it may be cultivated once more. A canoe-oven will carry this Bruegel Grain through the watershed (Mark, Dender, Schelde) of the Pajottenland to Antwerp, where it will join up with the Futurefarmers’ Seed Journey.

Sunday, April 2

Bruegel Grain travels to the Christiania
Rough Route: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1HhNXvh1YWx15QH-Rn0uOzDlohNM&ll=50.98292252539985%2C4.1267180499999085&z=10

Thursday, April 6
Preview at M HKA: 19.00 – 21.00

19.15 - Discussion: Bruegel Awakens

Tijs Boelens, Farmer at De Groentelaar
Alwin Loeckx, Director at Regionaal Landschap Pajottenland Zennevallei
Bart Bot, Archaeologist at Monument Vandekerckhove
Amy Franceschini artist, Futurefarmers, Seed Journey

For more information and photos, please contact:
Bert De Vlegelaer
Press Officer
E bert.devlegelaer@muhka.be 
T +32 (0)3 260 99 91